Happy new year everyone.

So now I believed that my DS3.5 is gifted in maths.
He is now very into multiplication and he figure out the times table of 13-29 by addition. I taught him how to calculate 23x4 (i taught him it is equal to 20x4 +3x4) and find that he can calculate 54x3 by himself now. Right after that he is trying to calculate two digits x two digits (e.g.13x14), he didn't figure it out yet, but i know he will keep going on for a period of time (and for as big as his head can handle). Therefore, I am thinking to enroll him for some more formal maths class, e.g. Abacus or EPGY, do any of you have experience on those classes?

For me, I value the maths concept and thinking more than the accuracy and speed of calculation (as everything will become x, y, z in the future and everyone use calculator in university and work), so i am not very into Abacus. However, i heard that it is really fun and it seems really suitable for my DS age to learn it, so i am considering enroll him to Abacus as well. Would any of you have experience? is it really fun? will it be too focus on speed and accuracy that made the kid doesn't think about the concept/meaning/reasoning of the math? or actually it helps them conceptualize the math?

or I should enroll my son for a EPGY class to help me explain some concept for him?

At home, we always apply maths in daily life and playing, i just want sth to help me to present the concept more clearly.

Thanks a lot!

I too was a big fan of EPGY, but it is now giftedandtalented.com. The curriculum is the same as EPGY developed by Stanford, and it's very solid. My only concern would be the pace. When it was EPGY, I could offer placement tests and adjust settings for users in my group so children could start where they were ready and move through the program more quickly and not be bored by needless repetition. It seems people who were users before the switch were able to keep those settings. However, I don't know if people who joined after the switch have access to a placement test, the ability to switch from reinforcement to gifted curriculum, or to manually adjust the number of review exercises. I would ask about what kind of control you have over adjusting the pace of the program for your DS. If they reply by saying that the program automatically adjusts to the learner's pace, don't buy it--that was always the case; EPGY was always adaptive. Even so, I had to make additional adjustments to the program for many students for whom the program (adaptive though it was) still wasn't fast enough.

Just from what I've seen on the web, they seem more commercial and sales oriented, so if I were you I'd want to hear from other parents before joining. You might ask on the this board to hear from other parents who joined after the switch to giftedandtalented.com to see what their experience has been like. As I said, the curriculum is very solid. As Portia mentioned, it's good for kids who don't need or want a game-like program or a program with lots fancy sound and graphics. I'd just want to find out more from people who joined after the switch before deciding.

You could also try Dreambox online. I think there is a free trial.

Having used everything mentioned on this thread so far, I can recommend all of them for your son You cannot go wrong with Abacus, Singapore Math, EPGY, Dreambox etc. But, I will also add some more resources for your son: Miquon math using Cuisenaire rods & MEP math reception. I believe that 3 is too young for Beast Academy - my child could not understand the language used (the wording of the cartoons) at 3, but was enjoying it by 5. (BTW, my child loved EPGY, but many find the user interface and the voiceover very boring. DreamBox is more colorful and child friendly).

Not a curriculum, but since someone mentioned Cuisinaire rods, I'd also like to mention Base Ten Blocks, which have become a "thing" in math manipulatives. They're crazy useful, AND, although you can buy really nice wooden ones, I got given a set of smaller-sized cheap-o foam ones that are the identical dimensions as Cuisinaire rods. Multiplied awesomeness. We keep our cusinaire rods and base ten blocks jumbled together in one box for maximum cross-over usefulness.

My DD9 and DD10 were enrolled in EPGY through the tutor-supported program before the switch to giftedandtalented.com. We took a break before the switch and came back under the new format in the independent study (IS) program. There is no testing required for the IS set of courses. They picked up right where the left off in their old courses.

You have to talk to the support personnel, but they have the ability to set the course at the regular setting (6 questions per topic) or gifted setting (4 questions per topic). There is also a parent account feature which is basically a dashboard access of your kids classes in one place. In the parent account you also have the ability to increase or decrease your kid's level by 0.5.

We found EPGY very unsuitable for a five year old, I wouldn't expect it would be great for an even younger child.

ITA with the fun manipulative suggestions. In addition Grid perplexors might be fun, and the Flashkids ...for the gifted child workbooks in B&N are fun even to a relatively high level. I have not tried Beast Academy, but I've heard good things. Life of Fred books might be a fun read aloud.

In general I would expect that if your child is like mine you'll be doing a crash course in pedagogy to try and make things age appropriate.

Wow, thank you so much for so many good advice, i will spend some time to look into details one by one and ask you for more advice later on ^-^

My son doesn't like cartoon or something with sounds, he enjoyed watching those very boring presentation of numbers when he was 1, that's why i am considering EPGY.

I have tried dreambox for him when he just turn 3, he doesn't like it, i think one problem is he cannot understand the story/game yet (as we are not english speaker) and his reaction time is not fast enough for him to go to the next level, so the game let him to do the number rods and the rods repetitively, only go to some very simple addition at that time.

Actually i will not start him right now, most likely when he turns 4, but would like to do some research first ^^

Thanks again ^-^

Portia,
Is ZoomTools a game? or the tools for zooming?
He tested in superior range for his visual spatial index score. However, i find that he only like to play with 2D structure, not 3D, he did build some 3D structures by magnetic tiles, but sill prefer use it to build 2D (maze or game board) more.

Thanks Portia, It looks fun, I am actually also searching sth similar for him to build some chemical structure, as he is so into periodic table right now.

My mother (who's a biochemist) just sent this to my kids for Christmas:

http://www.amazon.com/Molymod-Organ...industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1420812860&sr=1-1

It's not that expensive, and it comes with a number of diagrams for making common organic molecules. It does have some smaller pieces, but they don't seem that difficult to assemble, once you get used to them. If you check for other Molymod products on Amazon, you'll see that they have kits for inorganic chemicals as well.

My little chemist requested a play date with Theo Gray , so your son may be interested in any book by him as well as the TV special "Hunting the Elements", Basher chemistry and element books, and an app called Alchemy or Alchemic.

Molymod required a little too much hand strength for my DS, but we've had luck with play dough, straws, pipe cleaners, marbles - my floor is littered with models!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/hunting-elements.html

Thanks, aeh, that's on our DD10's birthday list now.

Wow, aeh, thanks a lot!!! The Molymod looks good~!
I am also thinking of finding some app too, thanks EmeraldCity~

Btw, I have luck that one of my japanese friend teach Abacus, and today we went to her home to try if my DS3 like Abacus. My son sit on the table and once my friend show her the equations for calculation, my son took the paper and keep calculation, totally ignore the Abacus =_=, may be he is not yet reach the age for paying attention to instruction. I will wait and see if he want to learn Aabacus when he get older and may try those computer based maths game for him when he is 4.
Thanks everyone for so many good suggestions ^^

aeh after reading your post I dug out my old molecule kit and built my daughter a few molecules, and let her play with it. She built some pseudo-molecules. Cool fun.

Update: I am thinking to search for the math course for my son when he turns 4, but finally I start now as he start intentionally do the math wrong (e.g. he writes 5+4=8 and then laugh), I don want to stop him from doing funny stuff but also don want to encourage him to keep doing sth wrong and make fun (i will be in trouble in the future when asking him to do his homework) so I have finally tried Khan, I like it very much as it allow you to choose diff topic to work on and it is free! However, it is not that friendly to use in tablet, the font is too small for my son. I stop using it and sure will come back again when my son get older.
So I have bought the EPGY maths course as well. Agree that it is not that flexible to choose what to work on and quite boring. My son still likes to use it (as his passion is numbers!) and I start him from half of grade 1 (as i can only set for every 0.5) and now he finished the first grade content and just start grade 2. It is really structural that's what I really like, but the inflexibility really make it hard to use to. My son is a bit boring as the additions and subtraction is too easy for him, however, as the course always introduce sth new in between, and sth challenging, so I don want him to skip the entire grade, he has to go on and do sth that he know very well already to move on. I hope he is patient enough to finish the 2nd grade in this subscription period, most likely i will not continuous, and we will do some hand on math activities at home instead (to strengthen what he learnt in this course.). After he learnt the money system, we do pretend play with buying and selling with real coins all day long and it is fun ^^ (it is the only pretend play game he likes to play with)
Thank you so much for all of your advice ^^