I am glad that I am not the only one that worries about this .
My DD8 took to arithmetic like a duck to water - I started talking about this with her during 1st grade when I realized that they were not doing anything other that recognizing shapes and simple addition/subtraction. A test given during Kindergarten that had all of the other parents complaining was a 'doddle' for my DD. I should have realized then that she was quite bright - but I stayed in denial.
Horrified that they wouldn't even approach multiplication/division until 3rd grade i started to cover this with her at home after school - we also used the 'First in Math' online program. At one point during the middle of 1st grade I got scared wondering whether or not I had been 'pushing' my DD instead of enabling her learning. Using the (paraphrasing here) grade level tests as a yardstick just to see if things were 'sticking'- she easily went half way into the 4th grade tests without even breaking into a sweat. I began to realize that this might not be 'normal'.
We switched to the Singapore Maths (Authored by 'Singapore Maths') and without even trying too hard she is about to finish the 5th grade books. She finds them easy but I insist that she does every exercise because I want things to get 'processed' so that they stick - just following the argument at the time isn't the same as truly internalizing, right?
Right now I am still on the horns of a dilemma - do I allow her to continue because she can or do I slow things down? Where is it all leading to at the current rate of progress? At this rate she will already be doing middle school maths before she has even finished 2nd grade. I worry that the school district will not be able to cope and also that the enrichment she gets at home will not be sustainable once the homework load ramps up in the higher grades.
Frankly, the only thing that keeps me going now is the alarming stuff that I have read about gifted girls - apparently their brains go into 'hibernation' once they hit twelve and the 'conformity circuits' take over for few years. I half think now that if I can get her done with high school maths by then she will be OK - when her brain wakes back up she will not be behind . Seriously, though, I wrestle with this every waking moment of every single day.
You are not alone!
Sorry for the rant but this thread really hit a nerve/hit the exact harmonic frequency of a set of neuroses that I obviously have about this...
Last edited by madeinuk; 04/05/13 04:11 AM.
