Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Independent maths in a classroom setting

I'm eyeing the AOPS classes interestedly for later, since as you say it would be good to put him in an environment where age isn't obvious! Right now, although they have just introduced some new times that come in our evening (unlike most of them, which are in US evening and our middle of the night!), it wouldn't work logistically - that's supper and bed time. (He might also have trouble keeping up, as his typing isn't there yet, but we're working on that.)

AFAIK there is nothing like that during UK daytime.

Yes, so new stuff at school and you did more challenging problem solving at home, makes sense. Mine is like that too, weird, isn't it? Thanks.

Our experience is very like CFK's. Good intentions, failure of teachers to monitor or keep up with DS's progress, resulting in a near-complete lack of instruction. DS got less than a third of a year of math across a year of school, and nothing that was appropriately challenging.

In our state, this situation is actually illegal; all kids who are enrolled are required to have math instruction every day. Because of this we were able to set up a better situation for next year.

A kid this age, it seems to me, needs a teacher's attention and instruction to learn this material; they don't yet have the self-discipline to guide their own learning, even if they're motivated. I haven't found the computer programs to be a good substitute.

DeeDee

I think kids vary a lot, especially these kids: but I doubt mine has the self-discipline to work at hard things in a sustatined way without some teacher input. Ah well. His teachers last year and the year before were both, in their different ways, excellent for him, so I shall just have to hope that this year's teacher is too. I'll certainly be updating on how this year goes, and hope you will too!

We ran into the same issue of good intentions. DS8 used EPGY online in class last year, the problem was that it was used rarely. If given the chance of working on something else withe the class DS8 would do the class project. At times he would be on-line less then once a week. When I would address it, things would pick up, but go back to very little work rather quickly. I am hopeful for next year but not sure of what to do. More then likly they will place him in 5th garde math. I have actually held back this summer, almost no math. he is at 5.85 on EPGY. We could complete 5th on EPGY and ask for just EPGY 6th, the school would allow it, but agian would they follow through. I could also ask that he go to Middle school for 6th but they may fight that one, it would take some effort, timming and transportation (We are willing to provide). I guess we will just see and adjust, the good thing is that they are trying to work with him. I can't understand why so many schools fight finding the right fit for the student.

Hi,

Is there any possibility of your hiring a tutor to come into the school 2-3 hours a week to work with your DS? On other days he would do "homework" assigned by the tutor during math time in his classroom. Perhaps the school (or a nearby middle school or high school) knows of a retired teacher or a substitute teacher who might be interested? My father, for example, a retired professor, volunteered last year a couple hours a week as a tutor -- so even if money is too tight to pay someone it's not out of the question someone could be found, if the school were willing.

Polly

Kids do surprise. I would have said the same about my son (he is older than your son though, at 7yo). He goes to school 3 days a week (he has private math and science instruction and lots of OT on the other 2 days). He brings in his Math Olympiad book (we have tonnes of local books supporting this, with explanation bubbles) on one of the 2 days when he has a teacher's aide assigned in school. On the other day, he does HeyMath (he brings in his own netbook). He receives no help from the teacher when he stumbles. When he does (and so far it's rare), he brings it home so we can work on it together. She generates quizzes from the system (not sure how often) to keep tab of what he's learnt. Does he feel isolated from his classmates during the lesson? Actually he loves it, because he can see what they're doing and he shudders at the thought! Maybe this is what's lending him some discipline .

This arrangement has worked out surprisingly well. The school condones this, but a lot of credit rests with his school teacher, ie, it may not be the same in the following school year. The level of work given by his teacher kept getting revised upwards throughout the year (it's been 7.5 mths since Jan) as she got to know him better. It's with his non-accelerated and writing-related work that he has problems with.

I'll bear it in mind, but I *think* that if the school agreed that there was a need for this, they'd prefer to have one of their maths teachers provide this input, rather than having someone come in from outside; which may happen, in fact, as they do have the people who could do it.

Lol, yes, my DS doesn't like the idea of doing "ordinary maths", either! How do you find HeyMath btw? That isn't a programme I know much about.

I just asked my son - if his typing were better, I'd ask him to reply . I'm meshing his and my comments together:

He says HeyMath is a lot easier than the Math Olympiad books. That's true because Olympiad-style math always carries a puzzle-like twist that he likes. The syllabus is a parallel of Singapore Math, but the questions are also simpler than some of the Singapore Math-style books I've seen. What's great is that the explanations are very clear and precise, which is a bonus when there's no teacher at the side. My son says they do have very cool games as well (his seating partner must be green with envy!)

The programme doesn't track progress like Aleks, so I'm glad he has a teacher/ teacher's aide to keep tab of what he has to do next. He definitely prefers HeyMath to Aleks because it has a much livelier presentation (not cutesie but very similar to the default Singapore curriculum, My Pals Are Here). They do have quizzes and the results (although I'm not 100% sure about this part) can be accessed by the teacher.