Yes, dropping math was a little nerve wracking for me at first. But it seems to have helped. And we still made progress even without "doing" math. Like your DS, my DS liked watching Vi Hart, reading math or using it in his own way on his own time and terms by himself. But before the break, DS wouldn't do multi-step problems. Not that he conceptually didn't get it-- he just felt that he ought to be able to do everything in one step in his brain. So a problem that had you sum some things first and then subtract from a total, would bring on big fits. Just taking a break let him develop some maturity and also play with math in his own way. I feel like we made more progress in those off months than in all our on months. There are still days were he struggles. But on those days, we only whip out the wb, and I let him feel the sense of just going through it on his own without struggle. On days where you can sense he has more patience and is calmer we tackle hard problems. The odd things about HG+ kids is that they often make these big leaps, but they do it on their own terms and time. I think that just giving him that breathing room to do stuff on his own time made him more willing to try things. Let me add that in taking math off, he actually did as much math as I would have required a day on his own terms and time. He just needed space to play with it. So he read math books, made all sorts of stuff up on paper with his pretend play and loved watching Vi's videos. The break just helped him reset. Before the break, just the mention of doing math would precipitate a meltdown. Now I occasionally get him doing math out of the curriculum without me even asking.
