I asked him if he wants me to teach him more things, and he said yes. I had him do some counting by 4s and 6s and talked about how that relates to mutiplication. He was easily able to count by 6s up past 60. I hadn't realized how good his mental math is getting. I do feel concerned about getting him even further ahead, though. I confess, I have intentionally avoided teaching my DD math so she has something to learn at school.
One of the reasons I am getting worried about kindergarten is the disparity between what DD can do in her head and what she can do on paper. It just seems wrong to ask a child who knows her sums up to twenty as well as any adult to do a workbook full of counting and tracing numbers with an entire page devoted to illustrating how 2+1=3. But, that is kindergarten, right? And, that is where she is at except for the mental math.
Reading doesn't seem to bother me as much. I feel like reading is already well established so I doubt that can get mucked up too much. She can always read a book. And, she will learn to spell as she learns to write.
I don't think we can avoid letting them run away with math. I think once these kids learn what numbers really are there is no holding them back. Yeah, there are the symbols they will need to be taught, but they already have the number sense down pat. DD is doing things I don't even quite understand.
For example, I think she is getting close to discovering prime numbers and factoring because she keeps breaking down larger numbers into smaller numbers. 8 is two 4s or four 2s. 6 is two 3s or three 2s. 9 is three 3s. 10 is two 5s or five 2s etc. And, she does math like this. 6+3 is three 3s. All she wants to do is double, triple, and quadruple numbers. 6+7=13 because 6+6 is 12. Then she adds that 6 is really two 3s so 6+7 is really just four 3s plus 1.
But, yeah, they do not even talk about numbers outside the calendar at preschool. It does not seem to bother her. Part of me thinks she will still do best in an academic-lite environment next year as well, which is an option for us. We could also hold her back another year (her birthday is right at the cutoff and she is very socially immature and has poor fine motor skills.) Sounds crazy, I know. She is just so immature. I would rather her play and socialize for another year than be drilled on sight words and simple sums.
