Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments help creating afterschooling curriculum for DS4

Would Horrible Science/Murderous Math be appropriate? He's maybe too young, right? I've seen them mentioned so many times here, but have stayed away because my kids are not into scary stuff. DS in particular is in a phase where he is very easily freaked out.

Has anyone tried those Magic Schoolbus kits? I was eyeing them. Wasn't sure if they would require too much parental fiddling. He is plowing through those chapter books right now.

Ultramarina- I have done a couple of the magic school bus kits with DS 5. It's pretty straightforward and comes with almost everything you need. However, I have done the experiments with him. He is able to understand them and answer the question, but needs some help with the actual manipulation. We have had fun doing them Ds loves it!

We have the magic school bus kits which didn't come in the bus - not sure if the change matters or not. And yes some parental involvement is necessary but not for all the experiments - like when DS went into a closet with several pieces of colored plastic and a flashlight to check out different light wavelengths. And some require much patience like watching mold develop on bread in test tubes. But DS didn't need me to record daily with his science notebook. He LOVED having his own lab notebook. We do all sciencey recordings in that book.

I have trouble with the age appropriate question - DS has such a huge vocab and reading level that he advanced pretty quickly - he started hs and mm in kindergarten. He now loves snarky British humor and there is no issue of too in depth in terms of reproduction or things like that. The issue is that it's about killer mold and plagues and other death things but in a humorous way - DS loves it and yet will not read Harry potter so I'm a little stumped about what is appropriate for others. At 4 is when he started with the brainwaves and I can't recommend those enough - they are silly yet chock full of science.

DeHe

For reading comprehension I would just look for free worksheets online. Here are a bunch of worksheets that have a passage on one page and multiple choice questions on the next. They are from a website called www.havefunteaching.com. FWIW, I just googled reading comprehension multiple choice.

First Grade (~25 worksheets)
Second Grade (~60 worksheets)
Third Grade (~60 worksheets)

Since you said he just wants to show mastery and get that feeling of accomplishment, I would give him one from each grade at first so as not to blow through them. Obviously, if the first grade is just painfully easy don't push it.

I have no experience with this stuff because my four-year-old is the exact opposite right now. She reads for pleasure if at all. This is too close to work for her. I once asked her if she had fun doing something like this. She looked at me like I had two heads and said, "It was work. Why would I have fun doing work for nothing?"

With math, I recommend just exploring the numbers. We have a large set of cuisenaire rods on our dining room table. (I just got them back out after forgetting to do so for about the last 6 months.) DD also loves skip counting, and I cannot think of anything wrong with sufficiently memorizing how to skip count 2s through 10s. Then, theoretically, we look at the patterns using cuisenaire rods. Recently, DD looked at the relationship between the 2s table and the 3s table. 2 is to 3 as 4 is to 6 as 6 is to 9 etc. DD does know what an addition problem looks like on paper (actually on a foggy car window) but I also want to keep math about number sense and patterns right now. We keep math in our head and in our hands and leave the paper. With double digit addition she looks for patterns. 10 plus 15 is just two tens plus five. 10 plus 10 is 20. 20 plus 5 is 25.

There is a math curriculum called Miquon that is supposed to go with cuisenaire rods. I have never seen it, so I cannot comment on the writing requirements, but I have read great things about the program in its development of number sense. I suppose if you had the rods you could give him a bunch of problems written out and ask him to replicate them along with the answers using the rods without writing anything down.

For writing, I throw my hands up. DD's school does not do any writing. Last week I decided to let her use an iPad app and it has helped with the lowercase letters. She came up with the idea of tracing the letter on the iPad and then practicing the letter on the magna doodle. So, that was a win. She seems to be delayed in hand strength and the VS perception needed to form the letters correctly. But, the app seems to be helping.

Those reading worksheets look perfect! Thank you.

He seems to have skip counting down already and can do a lot of simple-ish math in his head (things like 26 + 7 are no problem). I didn't teach it to him. I'm not sure how unusual this is. DD has taught him the concept of multiplication, and he seems to get it, but is only able to calculate so far. I just asked him some double-digit addition and he wasn't able to do that in his head. I don't know if he can really do it without a scribe, since his writing is iffy.

Hey these are great! Thanks.

I think that is really unusual.

Double digit addition: I think the way we will go about it is to steer her towards mental grouping. So with 17 + 26, I want DD to eventually see that there are 3 tens right off the bat then a 7 + 6. Then, I want her to see that 7 + 6 is 10 +3. So, hopefully, she will see that 17 + 26 is 3 tens (30) + 10 + 3, or just 40 + 3.

It is exactly what you do on paper, but I want DD to see it in her head first.

It is exciting because, like you, I have seen this big jump in mental math ability overnight. DD seems to have this advanced ability to see abstract things and keep the numbers all organized in her head. (She is the one that cannot do puzzles or play tic-tac-toe.) And, I think it gives us an opportunity to explore numbers before the school introduces algorithms.

So, even though she may have learned that 6 + 7 = 13 (because in her head this is plain as day for she has memorized that 6 + 6 + 12.) I really want to make sure she sees that 6 + 7 is the same as 6 + 4 + 3 (or 10 + 3). Because it is important to group ones into tens.

Obviously, this is something we do with the rods or in our heads lying in a dark room. I am not sure there is a curriculum that focuses on mental math long before learning to write the numbers and learning algorithms. If there is, I would want to take a look at it! Though, it does not sound like your DS would get much satisfaction out of it if he just wants to finish a worksheet. Personally, I agree that it would be better to stick with logic puzzles that deal with deductions, decoding patterns, relationships, and analogies for that. I am just not sure about the writing requirements.

I am with you, in that I feel like I do not want DD moving ahead in math--that is working through an actual curriculum. My feeling is that if we did that, I would have a lot of responsibility making sure she did not miss anything. And, I am just not that organized. And, she is just kind of all over the place. I really do follow her interests. And, even though I have good intentions of steering her toward things like grouping, she gets other ideas in her head, (like the recent obsession with skip counting and using multiples to solve addition problems.)

Your DS sounds awesome. I am really against it when it comes to my DD, but your DS seems a prime candidate for a grade skip!

His current obsession is Farkle (which he plays by himself if he can't get anyone to play with him; I'm really not sure if he's just doing the math for each individual turn, which I know he can do, or if he's trying to keep full score on paper...he does write things down but I don't know what). He also has been making up games with these: http://www.amazon.com/GeoCards-Worl...qid=1358993721&sr=8-1&keywords=geo+cards (Oh lord, please don't make me play them any more.)

He is actually a very good candidate for a skip EXCEPT that his writing is really not there. I think he's still a bit ahead, importantly, he dislikes it. His spelling also is nowhere near where his reading is--end of K level at best.

I found some 1st and 2nd grade math workbooks kicking around the house from DD so we did some of those; he liked it.

I talked to my mom the other night. I told her DS was unhappy at preschool and that we were feeling upset about it. She gave me the Serious Voice. "He's not just bright. He's extremely unusual. I don't know what you're going to do."

You have to know my mom to know that this is a big deal.

If you want a totally self-driven science thing, have a look at www.superchargedscience.com. It's a homeschool science curriculum, but its for kids to do on their own. They watch the video, print out their shopping list and then do the experiments on their own. If you sign up for the newsletter you get notified when there are free ones available too. My son loved making the hovercraft and doing other tricks and experiments around air pressure for example. And all without my interference. I love it for that purpose!

If you want task-driven maths that is fun and sets specific goals try www.dreambox.com

For writing etc practice I'd suggest getting one of any readily available workbooks from 1st grade up for writing, poetry, creative writing - he can do the writing in a fun and engaging way, while still doing his own desired tasks.