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I'm working informally with my 6-year-old swho acquired the math bug earlier this year and is now doing late 2nd-3rd grade level material. Mostly we just chat about stuff, and he teaches and drills himself. I'd like to start him on some printed worksheets, though, to see how comfortable he would be working in a second-third grade class setting.

The two sources of worksheets I've browsed so far are the Singapore Math books, and materials printed off the Enchanted Learning site. I wondered if other parents have found sources of especially good elementary school curricular or enrichment materials in math.

Many thanks in advance for your thinking!

There are also online programs like EPGY and Aleks.

At my kids' school, 2nd and 3rd grade are mostly about kids learning addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. There are a lot of speed drill worksheets. What kind of school will your son be attending in the fall?

For worksheets, Singapore would be the one I'd recommend. I like the "Intensive Practice" workbook if you're only getting one. The problems are significantly more challenging. Also, remember that it's about 1 semester ahead of where American schools usually are, so 2A is really more like 2nd semester of 2nd grade, not 1st semester.

Some homeschoolers and afterschoolers like Saxon, but it has too much repetition for my taste for a GT kid. Still, it's the other biggie for worksheets.

Aleks and EPGY are online sources, but I think you can print things out, too. They are very well liked by GT families.

You can't beat Aleks and Singapore for the prices! I's say start there. Aleks has a free trial for a month, and Singapore offers free assessment tests.

Good luck, and welcome!

Thanks for these suggestions. I've heard of the EPGY site, but somehow thought it was for older kids.

Our son probably will either go into the public school or I will school him at home. We're in a rural area without too many flavors of (affordable) school.

Without acceleration, I think the public school is impossible, since D reads at 3rd-4th grade level and has taught himself through at least through second grade math in about the last five months. So he won't learn anything in first grade. His behavior is on the young side, though, and we know from talking with them this year that the school administration is very strongly opposed to accelaration.

Thank you again.

We had basically the same set of problems, and homeschooling solved it.

I'm not evangelical about it though, so if you want more info, let me know. I'll only say that I strongly recommend that you don't rule homeschooling out because of assumptions. Most of what most people think they know about homeschooling is wrong, frankly. Homeschooling is almost certainly easier and more "normal" than you think it is. And it can work amazingly well for an HG+ child.

Shutting up now...

Thank you again, Kriston! I think I'll get started with the Singapore series. Partly I want him just to develop the habit of working routinely with paper and pencil. As an autodidact, he strongly prefers his own, invented ways of doing things to the conventional ones. In math, this means he would rather do his math in clay, chalk, cut-out letters, anything but the school way.

I also want to begin documenting his ability level, and the Singapore books seem well-suited to that goal.

Cheers!

Fitzi,

Check out EAI Education http://www.eaieducation.com/math.html for math manipulatives.

I order from them to supply the math lab I am running at the kids' school.

Fitzi, has your son attended school yet or will this be his first year?

Cathy:

Awesome math site, thank you.

D had a pretty bad pre-school experience, and last year we put him in an unconventional Steiner-style kindergarten three days a week. Conventional school will probably put him through a period of culture shock.

We think he is ready attitudinally now, though, and are doing what we can to prepare him during the summer for the structure of school. I'm concerned that the difficulty will be compounded, and his attitude possibly reversed, if he isn't offered anything intellectually while he's there. I've come to the view during the past year that he needs intellectual challenge to feel well. I hope this doesn't sound terribly presumptuous.

Sorry for the long answer!

Dottie:

Thanks for your interest. D spent a little time at the school last winter, so we know something about the make-up. There is once- or twice- a week GT enrichment through pull out for a group of about four children at his grade level. The GT teacher said she'd never worked with anyone like him, though, because of his reading skills and speed of uptake (this was her informal assessment; I have no idea myself where he is on any of the standard scales). So I don't know if this would make an effective peer group - especially since they work together just half an hour or an hour a week.

We are trying to organize a rational advocacy position to take into discussion with the school in the fall. His behavioral weaknesses - as you point out - complicate the case. But I think his behavior will be better if his attention is engaged.

Congratulations on getting a good situation organized for your child. I am just beginning to appreciate how much work is involved in this task.