The issues can happen sooner than you think. DS8 is on 2digit-x2digit multiplication. He can do it conceptually just fine but is now on the standard algorithm. Well, it was spread over 2 lessons. The first lesson we did the 2nd week of December. then there was a long Christmas break and we're just now getting back to it. I just went to the 2nd lesson but quickly realized DS needed to back up so we did. So then we did the 2nd lesson again. DS got very frustrated with it. He told me "This is hard. I'm so used to always knowing everything." This has really shaken him to his core ... so much so that he doesn't want to do math at all. Now he is by no stretch of the imagination a mathy kid (well, compared to this board - compared to ND peers, he is a mathy kid) but his happiness always revolves around how he feels about math which is one of the reasons he absolutely hated school. He's HS'd now. He is also in the winter doldrums which doesn't help at all. We'll do some fun math logic puzzles, algebra stuff which he enjoys to restore his faith in himself. I told him this is his learning opportunity to learn to stick with it when it gets hard. Granted, he's upset b/c I've had to explain this TWICE. We did 3-4 math lessons/day (we use Rightstart) since August trying to catch up to where he was and he was really enjoying math at that pace. I think we've been stuck in multiplication too long and it's time to move on. He loves fractions so that will perk him up. Also, b/c math is his strong area, we were doing it at night when he's less fresh etc so I'll be moving math back to the AM.
My point is this: not being challenged can have repercussions long before Middle school or highschool depending on the kid's personality.
Oh and another thing....missing windows....over a year ago, DS had figured out the multiplication algorithm on his own. I didn't follow up with it as we were having issues in school w/ him being advanced already ..... I never would have foreseen him having an issue w/ it later. I often think that the brain is ready to learn certain things and if they get their own their own, we need to help get them the rest of the way....strike while the fire is hot.
