Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy how do you know how much to accelerate

not radical subject acceleration but my son is ahead one year in math (but he did 3rd grade math in the 2nd grade classroom, plan is to go to 4th grade classroom for math while in the 3rd grade).

One thing I did was computerized worked on facts. He had free access to Timez Attack (by big brainz) and I paid for Aleks.com which he worked on 3rd grade curriculum in the main part of the site but he also did their Quick Tables (their program for teaching and assessing the four different tables). He has finished addition and multiplication and will finish division (half done with it) and subtraction over the summer.

Personally, I'd pull him out of math at school and homeschool him with a rigorous program--Singapore, EPGY, whatever.

I would love to homeschool him, but he is super social. He loves being with other kids. I'm just thinking now, though, that we can try homeschooling math this summer, see if he likes it and than maybe just homeschool math next year. Has anyone done that? How does that work...like when they do math at school, does he just sit out?

It doesn't sound like he's a good candidate for fourth grade math next year, unless he does a lot of work over the summer. Then again, it doesn't make sense to cram over the summer to make a stretch.

I think it could make sense to after- or homeschool him for math, perhaps starting with third grade curriculum compacting (i.e. pretesting and letting him skip sections where he demonstrates already-achieved mastery). If you do this, I'd ask permission to send written work to school for him to do during math period, so his time isn't wasted. DS7 has shown the ability to happily learn math many times faster than normal this way, with approximately a half hour of home instruction per week, the rest self-paced work during math period at school.

Does he show above-average aptitude in other areas?

???

Confused by this-- do you mean that only the top 5% of a class is considered to have "mastered" the curriculum?

Just in general?

Or did you mean that an average assessment of 95% in terms of the curriculum expectations is considered "mastery"?

I was always under the impression that those were very different constructs. Pedagogically, a teacher aims for 95% mastery over the course of instruction with a class of students. Mastery being defined differently for different purposes, but in my own classes, "mastery" was a passing overall grade at the end of the marking period. 70% or higher. Now, personally, I tend to think that this is stretching the truth a bit and that true mastery is more like 85-90% (B-A range and up) competence with the material being evaluated. But that's just me.

In any event, if a person has truly got "mastery" then there seems little point in having him/her be "instructed" further in that material.

I do agree with the idea to get away from EveryDay Math, if possible. It's nasty, that curriculum.

I'd start looking at just HOW easy the rest of school is, that he has this particular idea already.

This is NOT a good thing for kids to experience long-term. BTDT, got that tee shirt.

The best case scenario there is that your child believes that s/he "struggles with" and "has no aptitude for" his/her weakest academic area.

For example-- my DD is probably going to top 750 in writing on the SAT. She thinks that she is "below average" in her writing ability. Because it is the ONLY area where instructional level has met her in her proximal zone year after year. Everything else mostly is well beneath her actual readiness level, to the point that she doesn't need to really work to learn any of it. What little she doesn't already know, I mean.

So I'd be looking at more than math, if he's got that as a global expectation.

Everything but writing is super easy for him. Two psychologists that we have consulted with have suggested a double grade skip. We are opposed to that. He is young and just not ready. He is not miserable in school and we think it's ok to have some time to chill out. Math is the area that gets him nuts if he is not challenged. I guess I am revealing my preconceived idea that fourth grade math should be easy for him too! I would say that currently, he scores between 80-100 on the assessments that he does. (he had one 65). So my question is how much of a stretch is good? When I hear that he doesn't know the material and it takes him a few minutes to learn it, I think it's great. The teacher on the other hand thinks it's not a good fit.

I forgot to add, he is only going to fourth grade math once a week now. The rest of the week he is with first grade math and gets no other fourth grade math instruction. And yes, he does first grade hw and first grade tests.

95th percentile in the context of a nationally normed standardized test.

I am also looking at grade skipping my DS6 (currently year 1). He has been seeing a tutor for English and maths, as his teacher is only giving him maths extension. The assessments the tutor gave my son show he is two years ahead for English (year 3), and at least that for maths (50% mastery of year 4). He is excelling in both subjects with nearly 100% on all tests.

I would like to read more about your experiences of a two year grade skip. One thing I thought about with my son, is that a one year skip will provide a bit more learning wise, while keeping him at the top of the class. Also, his high school I plan to send him consolidates the three final years into two- giving another grade skip. He is very mature and has no 2e issues.