Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy What to do with math-resistance

Some background:

DS11 has never been the one to want to do worksheets or any kind of after-schooling when he was younger. We didn't push. Although my eldest enjoyed doing extra things when he was the same age, I sensed that to push the younger one would possibly jeopardize his love of learning. He was *that* resistant.

He was identified as gifted in Kindy, has done very well in school, but sometime during second grade, he shut down in math. Still quite competent, just mostly hated the timed tests. I'm not sure the number of computations in a minute ever increased that whole year. He was resistant to memorizing multiplication. He *knows* them but not because he learned them by practicing over and over. He wouldn't have any part of that. His fifth grade teacher said he wasn't the fastest math student she had (in doing computation) but he wasn't the slowest, either, and he was always accurate.

In the explore test, as a fifth grader, he scored at or higher than 75% of eighth graders who took the test.

He gets concepts quickly.

He's skipping 6th and going into 7th grade and taking compacted 7th and 8th grade math. Sounds wonderful. But I'm trying to fill in a couple of holes, and he groans when I mention it, bring out the math books, etc. Says he hates to do problems. I have Challenge Math, Life of Fred series (which he enjoys reading...just not the computation) and several worksheets printed for practice. He really would rather not, thank you very much.

He did say he'd rather do word problems than "ordinary, boring computation."

How do I get this kid to love math? Is it laziness? He's not a lazy kid so I don't think that's it exactly. But I'm hard-pressed to know what it is.
He did say he didn't like the way his fifth grade teacher taught math and therefore he stopped liking it as much. But he won't elaborate, so it's not helpful information.

Any advice would be appreciated. Perhaps I should back off completely and trust that he'll figure out how to fill the holes in himself?

It sounds as though you could just back off... Just a thought, though: would he go for setting problems for you to do, and then marking them? (Or does that sort of game not fly, at his age?) It'd be interesting to get him to set work the way he doesn't like it set for him and then the way he does like it...

Would he like the book Number Devil: a mathematical adventure?

It might not fill any gaps but it might make math interesting to him.

Teach him how to use a speadsheet. All sorts of fun things to do calculation-wise where the spreadsheet is doing the boring part. Could set up his own formulas to solve a word problem and whatnot, and it is definitely a reusable skillset.

Okay-- well, application problems sound like a reasonable compromise. Can you combine that with a 'test-out' strategy-- that is, you identify areas where YOU think he needs some work on skills, and if he 'pretests' out at some agreed-upon accuracy, he doesn't need to do anything more, and if he doesn't, then you'll work on those more challenging "word" problems instead?

You can purchase workbooks of those problems alone, you know. Also, many math textbooks have them at the back of the regular problem sets.

My DD is like this, too. She'll far, FAR more willingly work 2 or 3 thirty minute problems than 25 drill-and-kill easy ones that should only take her 30 minutes total.

It's just that her brain doesn't 'turn on' for that little reward. I guess her brain considers it to be like warming up the Maserati for a run to the end of the driveway for the newspaper. Why bother, right?

Our DD9 loves math but hates 'drills' (i.e., anything she deems too repetitive) and HATED third grade when the teachers made her do 2-digit multiplication until she had *no errors* and then proceeded to 3-digit and 4-digit multiplication in turn.... I'm not sure why or even if they really thought adding digits was actually teaching new skills??? That took the whole year. That was also when we started to do EPGY at home, because DD was so frustrated wanting to learn something new. One thing we both like a lot about EPGY is that the program supposedly (and apparently) gives you new problems once you have answered enough of the questions correctly--and then cycles back later, to reinforce. Having sat through almost all of the sessions with her, I can say the amount of repetition is less than I experienced in math class--which may ultimately not be a good thing, but on the other hand DD really enjoys it generally. You might want to consider something like EPGY that switches things up a little more, versus some of the more traditional or drill-drill-drill plans. Good luck!

I don't think that you can get him to love math and pushing will probably make it worse. At the same time, he is advanced enough in math that he should not have any difficulties with skipping one year and compacting the next two years. There can't be that many holes as there isn't that much to 6th grade math and I think that compacting pre-algebra and algebra shouldn't be too onerous, particularly in a classroom setting.

I wouldn't worry too much about the speed as long as he is accurate. I never pushed math facts and somehow both DS and DD picked up enough from regular math usage in school although DD is slow and barely passes the speed tests. Incidentally, DD also does not like math and received the same Explore score in math (75% for 8th graders) last year as a 4th grader. In her case, she is ready for pre-algebra but she is against acceleration so will study 6th grade math as a 5th grader in the fall. My point is that your DS can't have that many holes either and should not have any problems with compacted 7th/8th grade math so better not to exacerbate his resistance to math.

Thank you so much, all of you. These are great suggestions. I'm so grateful for this site. I'm on my ipad now, so I'll be brief, but I'll respond more tomorrow...

KADmom, unless the school has specifically requested that you "fill in the holes" I wouldn't stress over them and I'd give him the summer off from math. If you find there are holes next year in school, work on them then - but I'm guessing they won't be an issue.

Re how to "get this kid to love math" - that's someth you can't really make happen - its something that's going to either happen within him at some pint in time or it might not ever happen - and really, that's ok if it doesn't, isn't it? I think math is so easily quantitative that it's easy for us as parents of high ability kids to expect our kids will e math superstars, but our kids are individuals and just being smart doesn't mean a child is going to love math. I suspect that you'll find as he moves on into e teen years and high school that he'll start naturally discovering the areas of academics he's passionate about - and even if he isn't all that into math at this level something later on in math might really excite him - or not, but eithe rway, it will be ok

Best wishes,

polarbear

Polar Bear,

What a wise, apt response. Thanks for the reminder. You're right. He's a beautiful writer, very talented in LA, and passionately interested in science as well. He also loves creating things, whether with pieces of wood or computer games. There's no need to insist on his passion in math.
I do want him to regain his confidence, because being "slow" in computation has diminished his view of his competence. That said, this may be the area in which he learns he has to work at something and that is a good thing.