Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Gifted children could learn math much earlier

@ puffin — Is the problem that he doesn't have access to good learning resources, or just that school takes up a lot of time unproductively?

It's interesting to watch my eight year old's approach to accumulating math. He's getting above level math problems, particulalry complex word problems, at school which is helping with his attention to detail and general problem solving acumen.

At home, purely self-directed, he watches a wide range of math videos from algebra to statistics to calculus. He has a couple of random algebra books and a geometry book he's reading, and he likes to do timed multiplication and such in various (various here to include excessive) iPad apps. It's interesting that he gets derivitives and integration, but hasn't picked up quadratic equations.

I think his approach points out that there is a conceptual layer different than processes and such. There should be a place in school for gifted kids to get a survey/tour of the range of mathematics.

@ Zen Scanner — It sounds like he's doing great! For calculus, he might like the Center of Math videos http://centerofmath.org/videos/index.html.

Thanks, I'll point him that way. One of his favorites was one from MIT in 1968. http://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-18...-calculus-fall-2010/course-introduction/ though I think he only went through the first few videos for now. The approach was so engaing, I ended up watching it with him.

I'm homeschooling a six yr old.  I bought the singapore textbooks set, not the workbook.  This year he went through a couple of them (I assigned 1-3 pgs. day).   I put in "the great courses, mastering the fundementals of math".  He understood the first 2 discs.  He has been introduced to a lot of elementary school math outside of the assigned singapore textbook pages, from the great courses and from youtube videos like "turtlehead multiplication."
I just got some advice on enrichment and acceleration by compacting.  Instead of making him do a couple of pages of the textbook each school day I will go over the next item.  If he understands it I won't assign anything from the textbook, but half of the ip, and all of the ip word problems.   I have read that AOPS uses a discovery method, so I'm asking to make sure previewing these lessons a little won't take anything away from that method for later.


I learned that enrichment is not just giving him any old thing on top of his textbook.  Enrichment needs to be problem solving.  I bought the Borac series.  He has Beast Academy 3.  I was letting him use BA as a treat, about once a month for school.  I was informed that enrichment should be the main course.  He should do as much Borac and BA as he wants as an assignment, and compact singapore using ip until it gets to a challenging level.

I just started browsing aops youtube videos to show him. He liked the counting one where a guy used a cube and tried to get to point from point a in seven moves and couldn't, only in six moves it was possible. I guess my question is, it won't hurt anything to show him these videos if he's not completely understanding them, right? Instead of following the logic presented by the math tree, he spent a long time trying to do the block in seven moves, even though the guy just showed him mathmatically why it couldn't be done.

@ La Texican —

I agree that enrichment should be a main course.

As long as he's not frustrated, it won't hurt him to show him videos that he's not able to fully understand. Ideally you could find materials that are just at the right level, but it can be very hard with a gifted child because of the asynchronous development: in general, parts will be too easy, and/or parts will be too hard.

You probably have additional relevant context, and it's likely that he didn't fully understand, but it's worth remarking that just because he was trying to do it in 7 moves doesn't mean that he didn't understand. In math sometimes you can follow a proof of something without developing a visceral sense that it's true. He may have been deepening his intuition.

I wish I'd read this a year ago LOL

This struck a chord with me. Personally the question about math acceleration boils down to what is the end state of the process? Getting through the calculus sequence more quickly than what is possible in school doesn't seem to be worth the effort unless at the end of the road, my son wants to go farther that that in math. But at 7, its really hard right now gauging intensity and interest. While he has an aptitude and we've been doing 15 minutes before school because I have the time and he he seems to enjoy the challenge I can't tell yet if we're in for the long haul or if I should let him fall back to his in school sequence which is already accelerated.

Ben

@ madeinuk — Yeah, I wish there was better dissemination of information. What would you have done differently had you read it a year ago?

@ Ben Ieis — I'm unclear on whether you mean (a) accelerating would be tiring/unpleasant or (b) there are other things that it's more important to learn.

On point (a), probably the most important thing right now is that he enjoy learning, and I wouldn't suggest accelerating him if he wouldn't enjoy it (though it can be hard to judge ahead of time).

On point (b), the fraction of gifted people who go into something that involves math is fairly large, so learning more math at a younger age often turns out to be useful. In many cases this is algorithms (in the context of computer programming), so learning programming and discrete math early is a contender for something more valuable than learning calculus early.

I wouldn't have stopped the out of school Maths after she tore through SM5 a year ago for a start. I had her doing Lure of the Labyrinth through the Autumn/Winter until she finished it plus Zaccaro and the challenging word problems so all was not completely lost. (I hope)