Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Underachievement versus too challenging

Mostly trial and error. He was hard to place for math because I had never really given him much at home, so he wasn't as advanced in math as he was in everything else.

When we started homeschooling, I gave him the Singapore Math placement tests to see what level to start him at. (I had heard good things about the program for GT kids, and I wanted something that didn't require the computer.) Well, he was teaching himself how to do the problems from the tests! First time he'd ever seen the material, I'm sure of it! So did that count as having gotten the questions right? Very confusing!

I more or less threw a dart at a level and chose one. He whipped through a couple of years of Singapore in a couple/3 months. Then we hit the times table wall. He knew how to multiply, understood the concepts very thoroughly, but he was not ready to memorize the times tables at age 6. It was very low-concept, high arithmetic. He was not liking math at all. So we skipped anything that required more than casual use of multiplication. But even Singapore--as good as it is--does a huge chunk of 2-digit multiplication in one book, then 3-digit in the next, then 4-digit in the next. Ugh! By the 4-digit book, we were skipping most of the book, and it didn't seem worth it anymore. He didn't love math, and the work just wasn't hitting him where he lived, you know?

So I decided to go "off road." I found a great (library) book by Lynette Long called "Painless Geometry" that offers simplified but not "dumbed down" high school geometry, and we used it to finish out the last 2 or 3 months of last year.

He LOVED it! It appealed to his visual and highly logical nature. It required high-concept thinking but little arithmetic. It was challenging. It was something new every day.

Bliss! He blossomed!

This year, I wanted to work on the times tables, but timed tests didn't work, so we did a lot of strategy math games with dice and cards and finding patterns in the times table. It started sticking. To reinforce the multiplication and continue the geometry we did the previous year, we started working with shapes and fractions. Pattern blocks were a big hit for this. When he breezed through that, we started doing fractions on paper, which upped the multiplication requirements.

He's currently in a math class for 9-12yos and is one of the top performers. And happily, he just totally loves math. Even when plenty of arithmetic is required.

The moral of this (long) story: I found that if I crank the conceptual challenge level up high enough and keep his strengths in mind as I do so, he's motivated to do the arithmetic. He's learned his times tables by osmosis, he loves math, and he's doing pre-algebra with ease all of a sudden.

Math is more than arithmetic. When I focused on finding conceptual challenges for him and let the arithmetic take care of itself for a while, he learned it.

Did any of that answer your question, IronMom?

Thanks for the info Incogneato. I will definitely try Aleks next. I know my son likes the word problems in Singapore. He says they make him think. Not necessarily new concepts from what he was doing elsewhere but he has to decide whether to add/subtract/multiply/divide and also which numbers to use. I think they refer to it as "Real math". Is Aleks like that as well?

I found Aleks to be *straight math*, no problem solving at levels 3-5. She was tired of the format, so never looked at anything past five, however, I'm sure she would revisit Aleks in the future.

Have you looked at Zaccaro's books, great for kids that love problem solving:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Challenge-Math/Edward-Zaccaro/e/9780967991559

My DD9 seems just the opposite of your son, currently doesn't like to think! Kidding aside she just really likes patterns/numbers and is really interested in learning new math concepts, she always wants to forge ahead.

It seems like a lot of real mathy kids love the problem solving, though.

I LOVED logic and word problems. The rest just stumped me. Go figure. Give me 3+5=? and I would probably get it wrong, but put it in a logic problem or word problem and I'd get it right. My DS6 seems to be following in my footsteps. He also likes to be really lazy with his other subjects (handwriting/journaling). Thanks for the links...

Thanks Kristin and everyone for the information. We still haven't really made much headway with the Math. On the one hand -I can see an extended need for maniuplatives and addition and subtraction. Then there just doesn't seem to be an easy way to start multiplication and division with simply dividing beans or something in to groups. This week, I tired Bath animals - and DS6 did great - but the problem is - he is now old enough to notice when I am sneaking math into fun time and getting resistant!

Enchanted learning.com seems to have some good pages for continuing to back up fraction work ...does anyone have any more free links with work pages on fractions?

I guess I just need to accept that he may be reading chapter books designed for age 12 - but he may be typically 6 years old when it comes to Math concepts.

Nothing wrong with that.

Though I think I should note that many kids have intellectual "growth spurts," where they make huge leaps in one area all of a sudden. This happened with both of my boys in math at different times. DS4 was counting at Christmas, but nothing more advanced. Then WHAM! By the end of January, he's suddenly rivaling DS7 in arithmetic! He does things in his head that amaze me! And it was just all there one day. Like he just got it all of a sudden. Growth spurt!

DS7 had a similar "growth spurt" in math this year, though not quite as huge and astonishing. But he was just ripe for math, and he has enjoyed learning it. I don't think his reading has advanced a whole lot this year, but his math leapt ahead!

Don't write off the math. Keep using it where it fits in playtime. Avoid the worksheets if he's not into them. No reason to push him.

For multiplication, blocks are good. Make arrays (squares and rectangles) and race him to know how many blocks are there the fastest. Talk about how he has to count the blocks, while you can use math to find the answer. He'll want to learn how to do what you're doing.

Cookies and pizzas are good ways to do division. "If I have 24 cookies and 2 boys, how many cookies will each boy get?" "If our pizza has 8 slices, how many slices will each member of our family get."

That sort of thing.

Two days ago, I could tell that my daugther was upset. She finally broke down and told me that "she was the only one who does not understand slope". Of course, this is a Middle school comment. She is a young sixth grader and I know for a fact this is not true. We went over it and she got it.

What I did not tell her was that this is good for her to hit something she does not understand immediately sometimes. Math is going to get harder. If she does not learn that she may need to practice, she will become discouraged in the really higher math she will need.

Besides, prealgebra is really difficult because the students learn a lot of concepts that they use later. Sometimes, the point is not obvious at first. That can be really frustrating.

She has been fairly far ahead at this new school (3 years) and this is a roadblock.