Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Math questions: support/ enrichment

One thing I did at a certain stage was to sit with my DS and do the typing for him in these speed-based games. My fingers hovering over the numeric keypad (trying not to hover too obviously over the right answer, I remember!) and him shouting out the answer, with me keying it in immediately he did so. Helped a lot at a certain stage.

Yes, I have done this as well. You may also be able to change the settings so it gives them like 10 sec. per question.

I would not wait until your DS has mastered math facts before moving on. DS8 still does not have his times tables memorized, but we decided to move on and work on them over time.

You might also look at the Singapore Math Challenge Word Problems books. The actual arithmetic is straightforward, but the methods needed for solving the problems requires some thought.

For LoF, we started with Apples and tore through them quickly. Yes, all of the early books were too easy, but DS liked the story, and he learned stuff (e.g. sets) that was not covered in public school. We're on hiatus after Fractions, but we've got the books through Algebra. DS likes to read the physics, biology, and econ books on his own.

We also didn't force memorisation of facts before moving on. I feel like memorisation and rapid fire recall is a separate skill which is more age-based, and forcing it would have taken all the fun out of it. So for four years one of my kids progressed through math knowing how to multiply and divide but not knowing the times tables, then BAM, third grade hit and it was all memorising Pi and memorising this and that and everything else. Sure, my five year olds can do third grade math, but they're not third graders.

We used one of those grids for help, especially with division. Have you tried Kahn academy? It's pretty fun and they can follow their interest.

Thanks for the thoughts! I guess I am free to carry on as he is interested.

Read Chapter1 LOF yesterday, to both boys. It seems like that may work.

Knittingmom- I will check that book out.

Tallulah- I think I needed to hear that comment about age vs ability. I think I keep worrying that I'm going to not give him the right foundation which could negatively affect him later. I probably should just have more fun with it and follow his lead.

I think the point you made about the brain being ready for different aspects of mathematics at different ages is very important. It seems that a parent or teacher could waste months pushing the wrong topic, that could be covered in weeks later, simultaneously making math more of a chore than it should be.

To a large extent, the process of solving a new type of challenging math problem involves using a lot of math that a student already understands. For example, using a lot of arithmetic to solve simple algebra problems. If a child is unmotivated to practice arithmetic on its own, but is motivated to use arithmetic to solve algebra problems, it seems to me they are better off doing algebra.



My daughter is using the multiplication and division boards in her Montessori pre-school. I think they are a wonderful manipulative for tactile and visual learners. I'm formulating a plan to have her calculate some squares and square roots on it, too (which I doubt the teacher will present on her own.)

Wasn't there a thread on here recently about how strange it is that we treat math differently than reading? It was a great observation that we will let kids read or hear a wide range of stories without worrying so much that they get more out of one story than another, but with math we say, "you can't look at this until you learn that other thing." Khan academy and Math Mammoth have some great YouTube videos. And there's a video called "turtlehead multiplication".
One thing I learned was that "being ready to learn something" does not mean the same thing as "can do it by themselves already". It doesn't even always mean getting it right the first try. That should be obvious, but I only realized it when somebody said it. Now my kid learns what's called "separate strands" of math. That is, in one strand, he just wrapped up borrowing and carrying (and sometimes still counts on his fingers), another strand he's starting to study algebra, another strand he's doing Beast Academy, which teaches advanced concepts but is really about mastering the multiplication tables, another strand is elementary school problem solving, which is different than learning math and doing what you already know, it's about learning how to deal with problems you haven't been taught. I just really like what they said in that other thread that we limit exposure to math in a way we would never limit reading. We read widely and we can treat math the same way. Some blogs that support that idea are bedtime math, kitchen table math, and buddy math. We have a lot of separate math strands going, but we don't study math all day, just like we read a variety of stuff, but we don't spend all day reading either. Just sharing because it's one way my understanding has grown as a mom. Oh, there's so many things I'm learning about being a mom.

"Separate strands of math" - I love it! We are definitely doing this with DS8 (and now I have a name for it! Yay!) He loves watching Vi Hart and Numberphile videos, reading Pappas and Martin Gardner books, and learning about much more advanced mathematical concepts. All while working through early geometry, fractions, etc.

These "strands" should be placed in the following context:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_order
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasi_order

" for certain pairs of elements in the set, one of the elements precedes the other."
Yeah this and this
" In words, when a ≤ b, one may say that b covers a or that b precedes a, or that b reduces to a."
If that's what you mean, if not you lost me.