LOL, CFK! No, I think my lazy approach sounds a lot like yours!
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Mia: Hi! You're not late, but I'm glad you're here!
Virtually any math problem takes him longer than it strictly should, and I don't think I'm just being a perfectionist there. It can literally take him an hour to do a handful of problems. he tries to do things in his head instead of writing them down, and that makes it worse.
The worst time for us was at the end of Singapore 2B, when we took our break from Singapore. But he was just doing all the same stuff he had been doing, only more so: 3-digit addition and subtraction with borrowing/carrying, basic multiplication, etc. Since 3-digit is not significantly different than 2-digit, it didn't seem like it should be that big a deal. He completely understood the concepts. He did not think it was hard to do. (Nor did he find it too easy, BTW.) It just took him FOREVER to finish.
He is slow at anything but geometry, essentially. Geometry is a breeze for him.
(To answer your question about what we're on now, it's the start of 3A, 4-digit addition and subtraction with borrowing/carrying and basic multiplication. Second verse, same as the the first...)
His interest in math has never been very high, which, frankly, is another thing that makes me wonder if there's more going on. I mean, if his PRI is so high--and everything I know about him supports that score as pretty much dead-on--then shouldn't he be more math-y? But aside from the obvious puzzles, mazes, patterns and the very basic geometry that Singapore offers, he's just not math-y. Or is early math just not likely to appeal to a kid with a high PRI because it IS so founded on math facts, rather than graphs and patterns and all those things that are his strengths?
We tried Funbrain.com, and that didn't go over much better than the other stuff we've done, I'm afraid. It was okay, but he didn't seem to get much out of it, nor did it seem to appeal to him at all. He did it because I asked him to do it, but he asked how soon he could be done with it. Not a raging success...
Maybe I just need to be more systematic about my approach? I fear I'm going at the math facts too piecemeal, and I really need to commit to an approach and stick with it if we want to see results. I'm just so wishy-washy about whether he's ready or not, or if there's some other problem, or, or, or...
P.S. You're welcome for the Last Letter Game!
And BTW, we use the Es, Ys and Ss strategically, to make it harder for the other player and a more challenging game. Bombard them with a string of silent Es and watch them squirm! We actually cackle about it when we "get" one another that way.
Moaning and groaning about how mean the child is for giving you yet *another* Y is good for a laugh from them, too!
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To all:
Please don't think I'm basing my concerns on one test. A couple of you have made it seem as if that's what you think I'm saying, and it's not accurate. Honest, I know better than that! I have a healthy skepticism about IQ tests in general. (Remember that I started the thread by asking if I should be doing something to boost his WM and PS abilities, which I wouldn't ask if I worshipped the almighty test as absolute!)
No, I'm basing my concerns on the past frustrations of 3 teachers, his father and--most importantly--my own frustrating experiences with teaching math to DS6. The scores just back up what I'm seeing and make me wonder if this might be more serious than I had previously thought. I am utterly ignorant about what even constitutes an LD, let alone how to recognize one. But this isn't about a discrepancy on one test.
I want to be sure I'm not treating the symptoms and missing the disease causing them, you know? Maybe the symptoms are all there is, but what I'm trying to decide is if there's something causing them that's more serious than a dawdling personality or a lack of math facts.
If there's nothing more going on, super! But if there is an underlying issue, how do I find it and what should I do about it?
