Hi All,

I'm completely new to the gifted parenting and advocacy adventure, so please go easy on me. I have so much to learn.

I'm looking for help on navigating asynchronous development. At least I think that's what we have going on. Right now I am helping DS4 with early math varying from PK-1st grade level depending on his interest. The trouble is that his attention span and 4-year-old body drive him to wiggle, fidget, bounce, and zoom around. He gets frustrated when I suggest we play and get wiggles out because he wants to sit down and do math! We are in the same boat for reading, though sometimes he gets these moments of 'calm' and can suddenly read. Today he wanted to spend well over two hours on solving math problems, but his body had a hard time committing to the endeavor. I insist we take "body breaks" for keeping happy and healthy bodies. Sometimes he is willing, other times not so willing.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Anyone else in the same boat with a youngster who can't sit still but wants to?

My five year old is like that. We do mental math while we take walks.

I still enjoy sitting on those wobbly stools.

My DD6 loves her music lessons. She insists on going even if she has the flu (we told her no) or a strained ankle and had to be carried into the car and her teacher's studio. So, it's definitely not the case of her being forced to take lessons but she still is all over the place, jumping, running, and spinning. She is not like this at all at school (thank goodness) so it's quite situational for her.

She is doing amazingly well with her instruments so I think her teachers and we have come to some acceptance that she prefers to be moving during lessons. I am still hopeful that she will mature out of this because it drives me crazy.

We have an indoor/exercise trampoline that gets a lot of bursts of use throughout the day.

One movement option is to write answers (numbers or words) far apart with sidewalk chalk and run to the correct answer,

Ocelot took my answer! Side walk chalk and big dry erase board.

Also author Peggy Kaye has a series of books called Games for Math, Games for Reading, etc.

You may not find every game useful as written (they are k-3rd grade level) but I found by reading them I could adapt them to a topic we were studying. It also made me realize that you could turn anything into a game with a little thought. Soon my son was making up games and game boards too.

Oooh these are excellent ideas! Thank you.