Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Any suggestions for math?

Cym-

My ds did EPGY grade 3/4 at age six, after completing Singapore 3. It was a good program, but very buggy, and the interface was old and not at all flashy. I don't know if it has been updated in the last few years. Cost may be an issue with both CTY and EPGY, neither one comes cheap!

hth-

We've been using Time4Learning for my DS5. It costs $20 a month, is online and he can work at his own pace. He is currently finishing up 2nd grade math and although most of the concepts are review he is able to just take the tests on the stuff and knows and it marks the lessons as mastered. For the same price you also get a language arts curriculum as well as a brief social studies and science curriculum. We only use the math right now for enrichment. The lessons are animated and very easy to follow.

I am sure when DS gets older we will need something else but for now Time4Learning is just enough enrichment at a very affordable price.

What are his interests? Maybe you could incorporate math lessons into other lessons that pique his interests. How about having him help you cook, but you need his help to double or halve recipes? Or do some studies on ancient Rome and learn Roman numerals and play around with how a young Roman scholar would have calculated numbers?

DS6 is all about Transformers. He's curious about everything and enjoys engineering, history, science, any fiction and foreign languages, but he's one of those obsessive kids for whom all else pales beside his one true love, and his whole world revolves around that obsession. In his short life, he's gone through obsessions with cars, construction vehicles, and then NASCAR, spending over a year obsessing about each in turn. Now it's Transformers. He draws them, writes and illustrates lengthy books detailing their battles, invents new ones with crazy names, plays with the figures, builds his own out of other toys and tangram pieces, dreams about them...

I must admit that I'm at a loss about how to incorporate Transformers smoothly into math class. We have every Transformer book checked out of the library for his reading time and he draws them for his art classes. Short of doing a segment on robotics (which I don't think I'm equipped to do!), I don't know how we can do much with Transformers in math.

Any thoughts or ideas? I'm WIDE open to suggestions!

P.S. We already did a segment on Roman numerals before we got our first Singapore books. We also talked about Greek letters and how they're used in math (Pi, Sigma, etc.) because of his foreign language interest. Good thought, though! Thanks! Please keep them coming!

Any thoughts on whether EPGY or Aleks is better? I know Aleks is a LOT cheaper, so I'm certainly leaning that direction. What do you think, Lorel? Have you used Aleks, too, or just EPGY and CTY?

As promised, I'm also pretesting with the Singapore placement tests. He's partway through the 3A test today, and having no trouble with anything but the long division (as I expected, since he's had zero exposure to that). Everything else so far has been just a slightly longer version of what he's already done, and it has been easy.

Any other thoughts on letting him use a calculator for the multiplication? I'm very interested in your opinions!

I'd use Transformers to practice measuring and ratios. How do they compare to his proportions? Foot to leg, hand to arm, head to foot to hand. Y'know like if Barbie were a real woman, she have size 2 shoes and size DD....?

If he was going to build a life size transformer or draw on on paper, how big would it's arms be, how broad of chest.

Then there is the buying and selling. If there are antique transformers on EBAY, how many years would he have to save them to sell at a big profit, what rate of increase? When were Transformers first popular? How many generations of T's have there been? How many different products have been sold?

((gasp))
Grin,
Grinity

I like it. We haven't done ratios.

However, I think Barbie would have more like double QQs, wouldn't she?

Hi Kriston,

I looked into EPGY quite extensively. I didn't find them flexible at "accelerating" within their program. For example, since DD7 is in 2nd grade they wanted her to start there and did not seem flexible to start her at third or above. They told me their course was already accelerated and she should be fine in her grade. I looked at their demo and wasn't impressed that she would be challenged there.
Aleks seems a little more intuitive to me. You can start your child at any level you want. They do an auto assessment and derive a "pie" of subjects for your child. He/she can choose which subject they want to work on at anytime. They are auto assessed every 7 work hours or something like that, however, you may move your child ahead at any time for any reason. It may not be a fit for your situation, but if you want to look into it, you have nothing to lose by the free trial. You don't have to give credit card info or anything, you just log in to the free trial and they give you a temp. password.

I'm all for these awesome and creative ideas to work math into everyday situations, I'm just not the math person and feel I would be missing things. After looking at the Aleks program, I saw things in level 3 I hadn't thought of going over with her and they definately aren't doing those things at school.
My husband is the finance MBA, but he's been working so much, he doesn't have the time to meet her interest level, so we are giving Aleks a try.

Good luck with whatever you do!

Incog

Thanks, 'Neato. I'm SERIOUSLY considering Aleks. DH and I discussed it at lunch, and he's on board. I just have to decide what I think will work best for us at this juncture. My concern with Aleks is that DS is still going to be expected to know the times tables. I don't want to run into this same problem with Aleks that we had with Singapore, since aside from this little roadblock of our own making, we've been happy with Singapore.

Anyway, I appreciate the feedback a whole gob!

Hey, 'Neato, what do you think about letting DS6 use the calculator sometimes for multiplication so that we can charge onward? Does that seem like a good idea or a bad idea to you?

I, too, worry about missing things if we jump around. But, then again, DS6 has covered nearly 2 years of math in one semester, so it's not like he's behind. That thought reassures me when I get nervous about going "off-road" with him.

After all, those gaps are where the learning happens, right?

I think you go with what's right for DS right now. If he was in school, he wouldn't be expected to memorize the tables at this age right? I say let him go with the calculator and circle back to memorizing the tables later. Maybe this memorization is a developmental thing, he may not be ready for it. I do think they should be memorizing it later, because multiplication applies to so much higher level math.
When I was a kid we had a family friend who had one of those cheezy casio calculator watches. But he was a C.P.A. with his own business and very talented at math. I asked him why he needed a calculator if he was such a math genius( I was a very charming child ) He was so nice about it though, he told me most math professionals wouldn't consistently do math calculations in their head, because accuracy was too important.
Who knows, had he not said that maybe I never would have considered a career in investments because at that age I had "math anxiety."

Incog