Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Math acceleration -- age & abstract thinking

This is just my two cents:

For algebra, DC15 took it early and still struggles with some of the abstract thinking. DC20 asked me a lot of questions about that earlier (not his area of strength or interest) and sort of figured it out. I think it really depends on the child.

As for "helping," my father helped me learn a lot of math before I started school ("Daddy, how to I calculate what shake is most likely in Yahtzee?" "If dice had 8 sides, would it be 1/8?"), and I loved math and anticipated the day that I would start school. However, my teachers believed in optimum times to learn things, and I soon started to hate mathematics. I didn't start to enjoy it again until I worked with it on my own after undergraduate studies. I don't think that being early would have been damaging or too difficult; however, learning it too late led me to believe that it wasn't interesting and that I wasn't too good at it...

When DS7 asks for help, I give it to him. I do this because I know my son and know that he has put in the time and effort himself prior to asking. He doesn't like to ask for help, he believes that he should be able to do everything himself.
He is 6 years ahead to grade level in math and I can't even fathom being in his shoes.

So maybe it depends on the child...........

I would answer my son if he asked for help or if he asked a question. �Sheesh, i cant imagine (most) anyone wouldn't. �I would take the time to show him something he wanted to learn (at the moment it's erector sets). �But in preschool level homeschool I feel quite free to put up one of the workbooks until I see him apply a skill related to the problem before we go on in that book instead of just telling him what the book says and moving on quickly. �Since there's no reason to at this time. �

The last time he didn't know the answer and I put the book up it was over bar graphs. �I could have told him "count this and mark this many boxes". �And he could have finished a worksheet and learned bar charts. �Instead I put it up until I thought he could understand better. �After a while we had a reason to mark off a box on the calendar every day for three weeks. �After he saw that one box meant one day I felt comfortable pulling out the book and telling him how to count the stuff and do a bar chart. �I also feel free to explain and teach him stuff. �I really don't have any restrictive philosophy on this. �
I apologize if there was any confusion as to what I meant. �Speaking of confusion. �That was dh's point, that the Piaget's thing was a trick question to ds the way I worded it. �Ds does know more, less, bigger, smaller. �Well, the set did have more space. �Maybe I should ask him which group has more pieces. �That's the thing. �The early Singapore math is big on sets. �So if it says at the bottom of the page this would help I choose to pause there until he gets it. �

Oops and all that mess about cringing over how some people "help" our kids was simply commiseration. Here even strangers in the grocery store feel free, almost privileged and obligated to talk to you if you're walking around with a baby. Which is lovely. But it's a catholic town so sometimes they feel obligated during the conversation to stop and recite a blessing to your baby. Which offends me enough to sympathize with Lucouno feeling quite despondent deeply inside over something so trivial and silly.

Likewise! And while the offensive-to-me comments tended to die down once DD was old enough to understand them, they didn't go away completely. A cashier once told DD-then-6 that she ought to be on "Jon and Kate Plus Eight," for instance.

La Texican, we use Singapore math and skip from chapter to chapter depending on interest. We may not have touched n the arithmetic in a book, but have completed all the geometry and measuring in that book and the next one as well. They also have great activity ideas in the home educator guides.

I'm going to argue with your husband. Both containers and the fluid in them are at room temperature, and we're measuring volume only. He didn't read the question right.

That's a different question. (and an earlier developmental stage according to Piaget)

The way I worded the question (using 2x2 duplo blocks) was "see, this block covers one square of the paper."
I then laid out four blocks tight together.
"this is one way to arrange them"
move the blocks apart
"this is another way. Which arrangement covers more of the paper?"

ETA: oh man, I just reread your post, sorry, I was thinking you were talking about conservation of area, not conservation of number. I also didn't realize he was three. I think he's not ready for math yet.

Yeah that's why we move slowly at a pace he can understand each lesson and not just tell me what I said. � We're working on regular kindy maths too. �He knows which coin is which, not their amounts though. �He can read the hour on an analog clock. �He did tons of pre-k maths already.
Well thanks for helping me with the math, I didn't realize I was looking at it wrong. �I'll look at the page again and show him that. �Somebody don't pay good attention to details (embarrased cheesy smile). I just saw that if you have this many and you arrange them in this pattern or that pattern you still have this many. And. If you have this many and you squish them close togeather or you scatter them far apart, you still have this many. I thought both sentences were the same concept.
I think the hubby was trying to prove to me that the question changes depending on what you're doing with it once you get it off of paper and start using it in the real world. �He was trying to say I should not hold back ds because he didn't answer the question one way when ds' answer could have been correct in a different situation. � And then tried to show me a situation where that answer would be right. �And my answer was like yours that's not the question he was asked to answer.�

should we send your husband and mine off to math geek island together?

I just saw that if you have this many and you arrange them in this pattern or that pattern you still have this many. �And. �If you have this many and you squish them close togeather or you scatter them far apart, you still have this many. �I thought both sentences were the same concept.

Oooh, thanks for the wording! My 7yo does not have conservation of area.