Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Afterschooling?

Hi,

My DS6 (next week) skipped K this year and is doing great in 1st. He loves it and it is the right place for him in general. He's reading at a 2nd grade level and is progressing quickly but is ability grouped for reading and spelling and, besides, is able to read at his level at home. So, I'm not concerned about that. With math, however, he's at the top of his class. When I go in to the class once a week I work with the top kids in his class on math enrichment/acceleration activities, but all the rest of the time he is just doing the basic math curriculum, which he already knows. He can add and subtract 4+-digit numbers with regrouping, counts money with no problems, tells time to the minute, does basic multiplication and division, and just thinks about math all the time. Math concepts just seem to come naturally to him.

So, finally, my question: Would it be okay to have him work in a math workbook that is at his level on the days that he doesn't have math homework for school, or even on the days that it takes him literally one minute to finish the homework? Or should I just leave it alone so that he doesn't get further and further ahead of his class? He really does love math and thinks the workbooks are fun and he only takes about 10 minutes to do a page. BTW: He doesn't usually think to ask to do a workbook page but is always enthusiastic when I suggest it. If he doesn't want to do it, he doesn't do it.

I just know that math is really a set of skills that has to be taught, and he's ready for more advanced work. Does anyone have any thoughts?

1. if he really likes it, let him do it. regardless of whether or not he gets more ahead of his class. (just my opinion) Question: were you planning on letting the teacher know?
2.what other kinds of math activities does he like in additiont to woksheets?
3. I am curious. why do you think he doesn't think to ask about the workbooks?

I'm going to dido what CFK said, I had the same thing going on with DD6 last year, one of the ways I handled it was by purchasing books with different levels of math, I set the books around the house and she took care of the rest.

I think he picked up the math he knows from being around his older brother and sister and just really thinking about things he sees in life. He really seems to just have a good number sense and can work the numbers in his head. So far, he's learned things like carrying and borrowing from asking me when he's thinking about something and me giving him my best answer. When he asked me how to tell time, I explained it to him and he seemed to get it, but then I also pulled up an online worksheet so he could practice, and once he'd done one worksheet he totally got it. He will sometimes ask me for more of these. Many nights for at least the last year he'll get up from bed and say things like, "Is 9 X 9 81?" or "I know what 12 divided into 4 groups is!" Mostly we just talk about things he's thinking about.

His teacher knows that he has been asking to play Times Attack since he sees his sister playing it. She also knows that he is at the top of the class and encourages us to do computer games and other things that interest him, like Study Island. He's not a fan of Study Island at this point, so he doesn't do it.

He gets tons of free time and I certainly would never introduce him to something he hasn't asked me about. I guess I was just wondering if, since he isn't learning anything math-wise at school, if workbooks were a good way for me to actually have him progress in math since he does like them. I do like the idea you suggested of just leaving them out and if he wants to do them he can do them.

I guess, rereading what I wrote, I forgot to say that one of the things I'm concerned about with his school homework taking virtually no time and him not learning anything in math at school is that I wonder if he isn't getting the chance to be challenged at all in math. Most of us say that we want our kids to learn new things and to be challenged in school, so if he isn't getting that in school, is it okay to have him do structured activities after school for the ten minutes it would take the other kids in his class to do their homework? When, if ever, is afterschooling appropriate?

Thanks for all your thoughts.

We "unschool" all the time. Our DS6's interest in particularly in math and what he does at home (for fun) is far beyond what they do at school. Math comes naturally to our DS too. We let his interests drive what he wants to learn. Truth be told, summers are more productive that the school year

When our DS was in 1st we eventually worked out an agreement with the teacher that DS would do homework (for math) that we assigned him. We just went to a local learning/educational center and got a 3rd and 4th grade math workbook. We'd give him a sheet or two from the workbook instead of assigned homework. We're still working on addressing this year BTW. I think the one difference is that our son is very slllllooooowwww with everything he does. Even the easy stuff. The drawback is that no one is really teaching him anything. He was reading the instructions from the worksheet and just doing them. I'd rather he actually be taught.

Some things I recommend:

* http://www.khanacademy.org/ excellent short math videos
* TimezAttack an excellent, fun math multiplication game
* Murderous Maths books from Ray @ http://www.horriblebooks.com/ total homerun for the mathy kid that can read.

When, if ever, would afterschooling not be appropriate

JB

To add on to what JB said, I like the Khan Academy videos - though the kids seem most interested in them when it's not their first introduction to the topic - and we have some Singapore Math workbooks. I'm starting to think we need the Singapore textbooks as well, we need some actual teaching that they're not getting (they hate for me to teach them anything. what does mom know...)

The least math-y of my three oldest kids, ds6, recently read "Life of Fred - Fractions." I don't think he actually learned any math (he refused to even try the problems at the end of the chapters, even with my help) but he loved the book so much that he walked around with it for days, and he has asked for more from the series. I'm trying to pry it away from him so his more mathy siblings can read it; hopefully they'll learn something.

As for how else to approach afterschooling, I don't really know. I may be talking to their teachers sometime soon but I haven't figured out what I'm going to say.