Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Starting to worry - perspective please

I know for my DS6, six was the age of boredom. At four, being at kindy was all play (although they were great, and could see he was way ahead so they got him to write up signs and read to the class, etc), so my son was looking forward to starting Reception (the equivalent to US' kindy). It was hardly challenging, but my son enjoyed the social aspect. Now, at six and in year 1, he is getting very bored. He is doing year two maths, but it's not enough. I'm glad that, where his teacher was once against a grade skip, she now supports it.

So he will be doing year 3 next year. Thank goodness! I know that my son would REALLY hate school if he didn't skip. My son used to say on the start of the weekend, "I wish it was Monday so I can go to school"; now he looks forward to the weekend so we can do our own learning.

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...

Madeinuk did you and your DD like First In Math online program? Is it one you would recommend?

I am no 'child development' expert or trained educator so take whatever I say with a grain of salt but I think that it is a useful tool. You can gauge progress and the 'stickers' give a young child a sense of achievement. There are lots of 'games' in addition to 'real problems' and overall I think I would recommend it. Variety is important so we mix First in Math with the Singapore Math.

Basic skills like learning how to use a drawing compass, draw a straight line with a ruler (holding the ruler still is not instinctive it seems) and using a protractor really need to be done 'hands on' and this isn't possible with a computer based tool alone.

Your mileage may vary...

Madeinuk, you should be able to start going wider now she has the basics. Have a look at Edward Zaccaro's challenge math and the Singapore math challenging word problems. Art of problem solving is good, too.

I think it's more that school is new and exciting for a while and once the novelty wears off and you drop all the free play they do in K you're stuck in this room being asked to add 9 and 3. And that has to be boring.

Thanks, currently my DS (who is not homeschooled) does IXL.com which he really likes but he is really hungry to do math and learn more math (and math is really not my thing LOL, I can't really teach or explain the stuff he is moving into on ixl )... I don't think he would like a Kumon place and I am looking for things he can do over the summer to feed his desire to learn math...

Thanks!

I saw the 'challenging word problems' on another thread last night and have ordered them...

I will have to look at the Zaccaro stuff now too!