Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Math/reading for young VSL's

Thanks, Ladies. We were riding in the car today; and I tried the let's add game...you give me one and I'll give you one (I did realize that you were supposed to do it with paper; but I wanted to put in in his head for later). It did't last long; but I had an alterior motive. Next came, let's try counting by 5's - he got it, then 10's - he got it. He is so puzzling sometimes - but he had a playdate the other day and his firend mentioned that he could count by 5's and 10's; so maybe that triggered the interest???:) Or maybe he just needed time again. We'd tried them about 3 weeks ago to no avail. I am one to bring everday things into play all the time. I wasn't this way before, and didn't think I could do it (my mother-in-law is a pro at this); but lately I feel like I have been given the gift.:) We were on time4learning again today. He liked it again. I think that he likes that I sit with him and am available to him...even if it's just for emotional/cheering-him-on support. I am sure that he'll want to do it by himself at some point; but he needs to get the system/order of progression first. Thanks again!

I'm not sure how to teach addition or subtraction - it was just there with DS. But I saw him learn multiplication and division in a very visual way.

He started with Star Wars clones and arranged them in grids, all this in preparation for battles with DH. DH's was all over the place, but not so for my son. He was particular, and boy was he upset if one fell over while he was arranging! Anyway, that got too expensive so I persuaded him to try with those cheap battlepacks of soldiers. Worked like a dream! It's a very visual way of learning - he figured out how many soldiers he had depending on the length and width, and if one row or one section got wiped out, he'd figure out how many he'd had left. He also learnt to love certain numbers, 9 being one, because it was "so beautiful".

I'm not sure how to persuade a kid to arrange soldiers into grids the whole day though. In fact, DH was positive DS had Asperger traits at the time.

I was just looking back at this post of mine, and thought that I would update it with what it working amazingly for us. We are using RightStart Math. I say that it is school time and he says "let's do Math." Each lesson starts with a warm up/review (usually 3 things - quick questions for us, so far). Then the lesson incorporates three games into the learning of the material, while using the abacus, blocks, sheets to copy, or other manipulatives that are included in the set (we have the Basic Level B set). Two weeks ago, my DS learned the addition pairings that equal 10...7+3, 4+6...etc. With a cheat sheet that I wrote on paper (because I believe that Math should be written down;) we played the memory game where he had to find a 1 and a 9 as a pair; then we played Old Maid "do you have a 3 to go with my 7?", and one more. We used the cheat sheet a few times, and then I put it away to see if he knew it; and he did. We did it in the car out loud a few times as well. It is a really great program that I am entirely pleased with. We skipped a few lessons and started where we need to; but the games were fun. It comes with a few songs as well on a cd; but we don't use them. Having a copier is nice to have with this so you don't have to use the pages in the workbook, which is not used for every lesson, btw. Just a suggestion to those still looking for something fun and really works well for my very VSL DS5. Yah!

I actually tried Time4Learning for a few days and we both really disliked it, but to each his own. For us, it felt slow and repetitive and too "flashy" but we have never done structured learning, just learn on the fly so to speak. Let me know how it goes for you. Maybe I judged it too quickly.

in some ways I give you credit because you are doing so much to help your child get math. My DD leans towards language / imagination though she has always been good with numbers and spatial reasoning. I taught her skip counting, by just saying the numbers to her. I don't know how deeply she gets it,but that is as deep as I went. As for addition, I just asked, "if two dogs are at the park and two more come, how many are there?" but I am thinking this may mean she isn't as much a visual spatial learner because she has such a strong memory for spoken language and can visualize the two dogs in her head without seeing anything. Honestly, I don't know much about visual spatial learners but everything I just wrote sounds like the opposite since her auditory memory is really strong, but her visual memory is strong too--she learned sight words easily really young and can draw characters from memory--I really don't know what her learning style is.
For the most part, I just tell her things,we read books, or we see things and talk about them and that is it. I know it goes against all the recommendations of early learning that say use manipulatives. Maybe I will try them at some point. Maybe I am just lazy, but she is already ahead so I see no need to teach her anything specific.

Miquon Math http://www.keypress.com/x6252.xml

I agree with you TToes about the T4L being slow, at first; but now it is much quicker. I got impatient with the very slow directions with each step; but my son was slightly less impatient, and he liked it; so we stuck with it. I added other language arts writing and reading to it as well. But he likes reading from it; and he already has about 300 sight words (not due to it though). He picks up a few new words with every lesson. It teaches the rules though in a fun way - and he dislikes workbooks to learn from; so it works for us. Every kid is sooo different. Mine just likes a break from books, etc; so the computer is just a different tool.:) I heard that you can get it for $15/month if you pay for 6 months at a time too...haven't done it yet.

as you said, each kid is different. I really wanted it to work since we don't do workbooks either. We are really low tech here. We mostly just read books and talk about things as they occur in our world. I keep thinking maybe I should do more, but not sure what. I think a learning website could be cool, but the Time4Learning just didn't click for us. I canceled it two days into it so maybe I gave up too soon. If anyone knows of any other similar sites, I'd be interested in hearing about them. I think she would mostly enjoy learning science.

TToes, I was honestly going to give up on it as well; so I get it. I even called a friend who was using it and asked her (whose DS is PG) if it got faster and harder, and she said yes, and that parts of it even made her laugh. So we stuck with it. We use it for science as well. Then I add books to it from the library. I balance out the Language Arts portion with "My Father's World" Language Arts; but it is very Christian-based and I can see how this would not be a good fit for many. I was not looking for a Christian-based curriculum at all. I am a Christian but was a little weirded out by the cover initially, thinking that it may be too churchy (my DH gave me a funny look when I showed it to him;) - but I went to a homeschool expo, flipped through all the pages; and it fit in with where my son was, and what he could tolerate doing in a workbook - short and succinct. Anyway:), I have the ability to go through the writing book and match word rule parts to what we're working on in T4L for some writing and fun things. So it's fine for now. I am fortunate that my husband trusts me wholey in this.

Kriston recommended Plato for science a while back:
http://www.plato.com/Services-K12.aspx

And here are a few that I haven't looked into yet; but I save recommendations from this site for future reference.

http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Lesson_Plans/Science/index.shtml

Astronomy:
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/StarChild.html
http://www.kidsastronomy.com/solar_system.htm

Try putting online science curriculum in the search engine in this forum and see what you get. Best wishes and good luck!!!