Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Update on DS and looking for some recommendations.

Hi again A little background to remind everyone who we are. I am the Mom of 3 kiddos. We are concerned about our 1st grade son that will probably need to be grade skipped. We decided to research and look at out options for the moment because DS seems to be happy with his 1st grade peers and class even though he isn't academically challenged.

We just had parent/teacher conferences and I am cautiously optimistic. I don't know if you recall, but I did schedule a meeting with her shortly after school started to talk about DS's academic proficiency then came home with mixed feelings and thinking she didn't understand. At the conference she talked about how well behaved he is (anyone else feel this is a double edged sword?), how he is really coming into his own among peers and how exceptional he is academically. All the same stuff we already discussed but at least she is trying to differentiate a little. She provided a 2nd grade reading workbook that works on comprehension but this is in addition to his other home work. I am hoping if I take it slow and ask he can work on this work instead of the too easy handouts. I can see how it is fun at the moment but will become tiresome to him. I will just have to wait and see. She is also letting him choose harder chapter books to read not at his reading level but better than it was. So at least between the 2 of us, we are addressing his reading proficiency better.

She isn't offering any real progress in math so I was hoping you could recommend some resources I could look into that could be supplemented at home. I don't really want more worksheets as much but more so along the lines of games and manipulatives. Being able to delve deeper into math concepts isn't my strong suit. I am more of a struggle to see A+B=C person.

All and all it is going slow and I don't feel I have hit a brick wall yet but there is the huge red flag of her going on maternity leave at winter break for 2 months. I asked about the long term sub and voiced out concerns that our son will fall through the cracks so to speak. She did say she understood and that she will leave detailed instructions for the sub but so far the district hasn't found a long term sub for her class.

Well that is our update. Because he is happy we haven't asked for a formal evaluation yet. I am very nervous about the near future with the sub situation and hopefully I will know what to do when we cross that bridge. Thank you for all your support and guidance this far it has really helped.

What type of thing is you 1st grader interested in for math, xoxosmom? Does he have a passion or interest in some particular area of math? That might help jog my fuzzy brain for ideas or suggestions? My first thought was the School House Rock video called Numbers Rock, although your DS might be above that by now. I swear that is how my DS taught himself multiplication. You can memorize the multiplication tables super fast due to their catchy songs! I don't know if you are old enough to remember those commercials between Saturday morning cartoons or not... But I used to watch the cartoons just to see the commercials. I loved Science Rock and History Rock too, and can still sing the Preamble to the Constitution some thirty years later. It was carved in my brain like the lyrics to Gilligan's Island.

Other than that, the only math type game that we used were the Jumpstart computer games that we checked out free from the library. Other library games for math included Carmen Sandiego Math Detective and there were a few Star Wars math games, such as Jabba's Game Galaxy. You might be more interested in serious educational avenues instead of cheesy fluff, but sometimes cheesy fluff is what is needed after sitting in school all day. We just aimed for the educational cheesy fluff!

I'm sure that others can chime in for more serious options...

xoxo -
sounds like the teacher has come a long way - but given how slow things are in school-land, what's the downside of formally requesting a formal evauluation?
Grinity

We love pattern blocks. It's like a big bucket full of tangram pieces, basically. All different shapes and colors, and they're great manipulatives for working on fractions, arithmetic up to and including division, geometry, symmetry, squares & cubes, triangular numbers, area & perimeter... Plus they make darn good Transformers if you're feeling artsy. (Okay, they make flowers and houses and patterns, too. Yes, okay...) But seriously, my DS7 and DS4 can play with them virtually all day without a break. They love them!

Tangrams are also great fun, but are slightly less open-ended.

A big old pile of symmetrical wooden blocks can be good for working on squares, cubes and triangular numbers, as well as number patterns and forecasting based on patterns. (If a cube with a side of 2 has 8 blocks in it, and a cube with a side of 3 has 27 blocks in it, how many total blocks would a cube with a side of 30 blocks contain?)

Doing work with different number systems is fun and can be done with or without manipulatives. Base 2 and base 12 are fun ones. You might also look at stuff like Roman numerals or other ancient and less commonly known systems like the ancient Sumerian system.

Baking is a great math journey. All the fractions! How many cups in a quart? How much does a cup of flour weigh? How many liters in a gallon? So many things to look at there!

Dice! You can make up any number of games if you have a handful of dice! We rolled 6 dice and DS7 had to come up with equations. Pretty much any combination he could come up with was allowed, so a 1 and a 6 could be used as 7 (1+6), 1/6, 6/1, 5 (6-1), -5 (1-6), etc. That allowed a lot of combinations. If you can get 10-, 12-, or 20-sided dice, even better!

I'll keep thinking--we've got lots!

P.S. I strongly recommend shopping the sale sections of online educational stores like Didax.com. You can get some real steals on stuff, and I'm personally much more willing to take a risk and try something new if it costs me less than $3! If it's a bust, well, it was a gamble, but not a big loss.

Thanks for the recs kcab, ebeth and kriston.

I just finished typing up the request for a formal evalutation letter, Grinity. Thanks for asking what the hold up is. I think I am partly in denial and I was very unsure of how to proceed.