Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Math acceleration

Does he make a lot of mistakes doing the problems mentally?
Be careful, because all this "show your work" may not be working with gifted kids, because problems are way too easy for them. In my experience, they feel the need to write down their calculations only when they absolutely have to, when the problem is interesting but hard to figure out mentally.
As for the SM... I don't wish to disappoint you, but it will probably get worse. In my area only private schools implement the so-called SM - namely, the program, which is called "Math in Focus - Singapore approach". This is just a weaker and diluted version of a real SM, but approach must be the same - a lot of meaningless homework, a lot of writing, drawing, and a little of understanding. The main idea of this program (at least, in our local implementation) is "do not think, just do 10 pages of homework exactly the same way your teacher told you in class"
A couple of my students were struggling tremendously last year with this program mainly because of a huge amount of homework. 4th grader, for example, had 10(!) pages of homework (which requires a lot of drawing) every evening, and by the end of it he was like a zombie, unable to think and unable to explain what his homework was about.
To make a long story short, I wouldn't recommend another skip namely because of a huge workload demanding a lot of writing and drawing. However, my advice is based solely on my experience with local schools, in your area the program (or rather its implementation) may differ.

Thanks for the input everyone. ash- here's my thought (which probably isn't the "right" way). I think the only math homework of high value to my DS are the applied problems- particularly the challenge word problems.

He picks up calculations so easily and fluently, that I could probably teach him the remaining elementary school level calculations in about an hour per week.

The applied work is what he needs more of- puzzles, word problems, analytical problems, etc. He needs to develop strategies to solve these problems such as developing a matrix, lists, etc.

Porosenok96- let's hope that our math program isn't predicated on enormous amounts of busy work. Otherwise, I will be back asking for strategies on homeschooling!

Porosnok96- I didn't answer your question. He makes a lot of mistakes on challenge word problems. Most of the errors are due to careless reading - when I make him go back and re-read the question out loud, he usually picks up his error.
There are a few that need at least a few written notes- there's just a lot of information to keep mentally (he doesn't write anything down). There is usually one (the last one) that benefits from some form of a list or table to solve.

Porosenok,

That is a shame that schools in your area are implementing SM this way. If you look at the teacher's guide for the original SM and its pre-HMH revisions, this is not how it's designed to be used. (Granted MIF is an Americanized version, so probably complete with all the mindless busywork that is so beloved by USA curriculum designers.) A day's work should consist of a number of hands-on exploratory problem-solving activities, a number of in-class worked problems, then about 2-5 pages of widely-spaced problems for homework (often about 10 problems per lesson), with plenty of space to write in-between them. The tests, admittedly, are pretty intense, and start right up from first grade. Of course, I used it for homeschooling, so I was free to omit anything that I felt was unnecessary or unhealthy for my children.

Off topic, but this is exactly like my DD10. She learns anything calculation-related in an instant, and does it flawlessly (it's not just mechanistic--she will easily understand what the process is as well), but word problems involving any type of logic and "how do I arrange this to solve it" are much harder for her. I've not been sure what to make of this as a skillset. I don't know if the issue is carelessness, lack of practice, or something else. She swings a little towards the ASD spectrum and I've wondered if it's related.

My DS8 is very high in math skills and much lower on verbal/social skills, and is sometimes thrown off by word problems. I believe it is purely a comprehension issue, i.e. not really math related. Sometimes it is life experience related, e.g. he doesn't understand what "Bob owes Fred $5" means.

Yes, I would expect this pattern in a child with lower verbal skills, but DD is a very "even" child, with strong skills in both math and verbal areas. Last year she got exactly the same raw score on both sections of the state standardized test, for instance. However, I personally notice that she sometimes has trouble with drawing inferences, at least compared to where you would think she would be. She also is kind of low on common sense at times.

Warning, Pet Peeve ahead:
All this bleating about differentiation meeting the cognitive needs of every child, but as soon as a child is accelerated, all this reverence for differentiation goes out the window. I was going to post a similar rant in the other recent "torn about homework load" thread - what is so hard about differentiating for executive function in the higher grade instead? It must be so much easier than differentiating for content, all the suggestions aeh made about reducing the quantity of the homework load so much more manageable than having to differentiate for higher quality and more challenging content...but it feels that teachers revert, probably in many cases without being really aware of it, to a primitive mode of "serves you right, it's you who thought was so smart that you needed to skip.."

Did you talk to the teachers to see if they expect the homework to take this long? If not then talk to them about the issues your child is struggling with. They might be able to help you out. Also sometimes it might take a month for the child to get into a manageable routine after the acceleration. So give him some time and if it does not change then talk to the teacher.

ultramarina, I guess I was meaning "much lower on verbal/social skills" (at least the social part) as being vaguely kind of similar to "swings a little towards the ASD spectrum".