My DS9 in 3rd grade will skip ahead in to 5th grade math. Does anyone know it if there is anything unique in 3rd and 4th Grade that he would only learn in those years? Some one told me that Roman Numerials are one of those unique examples.

Is there a spell check somewhere here?

Hmmm... not sure if anything is "unique" or not, but my daughter skipped year 3 and is currently in year 4. In terms of maths, I would say the biggest "step up" (and it's not overly large) is in:

* mental maths and computing speed
* division
* geometry (using a compass, more indepth exposure to more complex shapes and angles)

That's about it jojo

Our son will be starting 4th in a few weeks, but will be doing 5th gr math. Just to add some continuity, I've had him working through the 4th grade curriculum in ALEKS just to make sure there weren't any surprises around the corner.

As we've looked at much of it together, there's a fair amount of stuff that is not covered in 3rd (at least not here in CA), so I'd say the time investment in ALEKS was worth it.

While he wouldn't have struggled without it, he'll definitely have an easier time with the 4th curriculum under his belt.

And, unless your child has the multiplication/division facts down cold, the "QuickTables" in ALEKS is a must as well. The 5th grade curric is expecting a greater degree of automaticity in Mult/Div that comes with the add'l year of practice and the "QuickTables" program does an awesome job of zeroing in on any problem areas.

In our school, 4th grade math introduces students to long division as the main "new" skill. I requested my daughters, who are going into 4th, be able to skip straight to 5th grade math because as I have worked in both rooms, I see that the only difference is the speed of the introduction and development of the skills.

How much time did your son put into the 4th grade Aleks? Did he work on it all summer? This sounds like a wonderful option. Wonder if I should have him start with the 3rd Grade or 4th Grade Aleks. What are your thoughts? Would their customer service be good for advisment? We are running out of time school starts on Aug. 24th, The beggining of the year is a lot of review. The students are expected to practice their facts so maybe he can do it on Alek.

Or if it's just timestable review that you want, why not try the games on www.multiplication.com? It's free and my kids love the new ant game. It's just another way of getting them to practice timestables without overt drilling...

He started back on July 8th, so today marked four full weeks.

Looking back at the "Attendance Report" ALEKS provides, he spent about 30 minutes/day, 5 days/week, and has covered about 4 or 5 items each time. ALEKS automatically requires review on items covered the previous day, so he does that plus the new topics.

He's got about a dozen topics left to review, which will add about 3 days (90 minutes) to his total time.

ALEKS also automatically requires an assessment after a given amount of time (or given number of topics), and I give him a pass on any new topics for those days.

Although his initial assessment showed approx 60% mastery, very few of the items were new to him -- they were just presented differently than the school OR (more often) he was heck-bent on doing stuff in his head and made careless errors as a result.

He's figured out that the best way to cut down on his time is to actually think about his answers & get 'em right the first time. This way he doesn't have to revisit stuff he already knows. (If he misses as item on the assessment, ALEKS will add that topic back to his "Pie" to force a review.)

If he had taken his time on the initial assessment, he would likely have cut the total of work in half -- lesson learned for him for certain.

Overall, this has been a great tool for review & filling any holes... plus has kept him thinking math in prep for this year.

You can see the entire course content with sample problems for each level at their website, which should help in this decision for you.

No joke - what the heck happened to the day after Labor Day for starting back? On the flip side for us though, I can't wait for school to resume.

Trying to be Mr. Nice Guy, I timed it so that he wouldn't have to do anything in June, but that he'd also have a week off before school started. The timing has worked out great... although it wouldn't have been the end of the world if he weren't through with it.

I would NOT have used this to "teach" him the whole 4th Grade curric, though -- my intention all along was for this to be simply a review.

I gotta reiterate my view of the QuickTables... they did a superb job in helping him to increase his speed & accuracy... which plain & simple makes everything else he does even easier.

One advantage I found in ALEKS over some of the on-line math games is that it keeps track of the student's progress and doesn't drill them on things he has already mastered. This cuts the time considerably. ALEKS does provide some basic "games" that the child can access after a parent-determined length of time. A reward of sorts provided the "games" are interesting to the child.

While not a proponent of Drill & Kill in general, I do favor the method for mastering math facts. As the math is quickly becoming more complicated, not getting bogged down by simple errors is a HUGE help.

And, no... I have no connection with ALEKS whatsoever.

The starting dates of school districts is a huge fight between football and businesses that make most of their money during the summer. Texas declared that school would start later based on beach revenues and all the business at the coast. It was a huge fight.

HS sports have a huge hand in setting the calendar.

Thank you for the info my son will try the trial.