Radically accelerated math

[Sarah0000]

I finally took the time to sit down and assign topics in Prodigy for my 4.5 year old to try to find where his level should be as I noticed the Grade 1 stuff was entirely too easy. He's now comfortably in Grade 3 and I'm assigning select topics from Grade 4 (and 2 for clocks).

 

But is there a resource that would be interesting to a four year old that would require problem solving or be a little challenging for him? When I set him new topics from Grade 4 in Prodigy his eyes lit up. We've been bouncing around with many different math resources, but I can see now that he needs something more, conceptually at least. He needs more interesting math things available to him, that he can peruse on his own or that I can help him with. I feel confident that I'm meeting his level for facts memorization and the routine practice of basic skills at least.

 

Is this where people try BA? I had thought of waiting until BA 2 came out...

[desertflower]

I don't know the answer to your question, but I think your child is ready for BA 3. At this rate, I wouldn't wait for BA 2 to come out.

 

My ds loves balance benders. That is something that he could probably peruse on his own. Pretty much 2 shape equations and one has to circle 3 statements that is always true.

 

Hth.

[Grover]

my son loved hands on equations at that age.  We also went through Miquon at an accelerated pace and then Life of Fred.

[quark]

I've heard wonderful things about Miquon!!

 

I would also try MEP. I only heard about MEP after DS turned 5 but that might be another place to start. My DS hated following MEP as scripted in the teacher's lessons so we instead opted to only use the worksheets (starting from Year 1) and I would refer to the teacher's section (without him seeing me do that) to introduce anything else I thought he should know. The MEP worksheets are so gentle, just 5 questions a day IIRC but quite challenging at times because we often overthought things even at the simple level. We never finished any levels though. I was just compacting and compacting until about Year 5-6 for the next few years and after that we jumped straight into algebra 1 just after he turned 8.

 

While DS used MEP, he also did a bunch of other things, a little Singapore, a little Life of Fred (only Fractions, Decimals, Percents as other books were not available yet) and a lot of whiteboard math where I posed a challenge question, he'd solve it and then teach it back to me (or give me one of his own questions to solve). We used many of the resources listed in my siggy (you can see how he has advanced in that post) and DS more or less radically accelerated himself because he knew/ understood so many things from just reading/ experimenting widely. We didn't wait for readiness. E.g. if he said he was curious about trigonometry (as a 5-6yo), we just strewed all the books, letting him pick them up as he became interested.

 

There is a wonderful series of out of print books called Young Math that we liked very much during the preschool-K ages. It introduced a lot of concepts in a very kid friendly way, not dumbed down at all. Not sure if you can find them in the library. They can get pricey on Amazon.

 

This is another book I liked: Good Questions for Math Teaching.

Edited May 11, 2016 by quark

[Sarah0000]

We've been bouncing around with Singapore, Miquon, Mep, LoF and living math books primarily and bits from NCERT, CSMP, RS Activities for the Al Abacus. It looks like I've been pulling from the wrong levels probably.

 

We had just started whiteboard challenge questions too and DS loves that! I'll take a look at the additional resources too.

[rwilk]

We've done a lot of different things---mostly we are sort of held back by DD's fine motor delays and difficulty writing. So we go through some vaguely age appropriate books and work books because they let her practice writing her numbers.

 

But for actual mathy things, DD has loved math mysteries---we found a book from the library but I can't remember the name off hand.  I sort of remember them being like this: http://teacher.scholastic.com/maven/

 

Bedtime Math has also been good for DD. There are 3 (or 4) different levels a day, and you can figure out which level is best each day.  DD likes to hear all the questions, so we start at the easiest and work our way up each day. It seems similar in theory to LOF.  There's a short story, and the math connects with how it would be used with the story.  We failed in trying LOF---DD just focused on the parts of the story that she found upsetting (A 5 year old can't take care of himself, mom.  I'm worried about him.  What if he's sick?  What if he needs to get a doctor and doesn't know how to get there?  What if he can't reach to open the door and there's a fire?)

[Jackie]

Bedtime Math has been a hit here, too. And I've been surprised how well Hands On Equations has generalized for her. We tried and tried in RightStart to get some concepts for mental math down that she just didn't grasp, and now can do easily from the visual representation in HOE.

 

Given how your son is zooming ahead, I'm guessing he's actually learning the concepts pretty well or he wouldn't be able to translate them to new types of problems so easily. Sounds like what you're doing is working.

[EndOfOrdinary]

At that age Ds was just burning through anything in front of him, so I do not have curriculum. That is not very helpful, I realize. I will say, finding stuff that is challenging is probably the most important. Setting the stage for "easy" is really a tough habit to break. If Prodigy has him in Grades 3/4, then having 80 percent from that bracket and 20 percent special challenge problems from grade 5/6 would be a good idea. Establish that he does not have to get them right. They are challenge problems, but more a "let's see if you can do these?!" Fun exciting style.

 

Do not wait for BA 2 at this point. He will more than likely be long passed it. If BA 3 is too frustrating, put it away for a bit and then bring it back out later. The luxury of the accelleration is that you have LOTS of time. PreA took forever here. Algebra zipped along with a minor glitch here or there. It balances out. Abandon the idea of grade levels and just let him go.

[Sarah0000]

I'm afraid I've reached the extent of what I can comfortably teach naturally without some kind of guide. Would the Singapore HIGs be a good idea now? I feel good about division, fractions, and 5/6th grade geometry. I'd like something to show me how to approach decimals, percents, factoring, etc. Or whatever should be next. Would HOE be good for that too, or is HOE better for after playing around with a concept first?

[Jackie]

HOE is about balancing equations to find the value of X. It's fun, simple, conceptual algebra that can easily be started by a kid who can add and subtract. It won't teach anything about the decimals, fractions, and percentage, though.

 

Beast Academy might be what you are looking for. The workbook work is fairly minimal, with none of the busywork or repetition I'm used to in other programs. And the guides are engaging.

Edited May 12, 2016 by Jackie

[Kerileanne99]

I'm afraid I've reached the extent of what I can comfortably teach naturally without some kind of guide. Would the Singapore HIGs be a good idea now? I feel good about division, fractions, and 5/6th grade geometry. I'd like something to show me how to approach decimals, percents, factoring, etc. Or whatever should be next. Would HOE be good for that too, or is HOE better for after playing around with a concept first?

I love HOE...it is a perfect supplement for teaching young kids algebraic thinking...

 

But I have a very accelerated math kiddo. We have intentionally utilized a system of various math 'threads' to balance the need for 'more, more, new', the practice/Memorization of facts, and the incremental problem-solving needs.

We break our math into parts. She has daily math review, which takes just a few minutes. Mental math, just a few minutes. Beast academy, which can take an hour, but we rotate this with Singapore and Singapore CWP. I leave up challenge problems on the whiteboard...but what has been the most effective for fractions, decimals, and percents are the Key to series. I highly recommend them, especially for youngsters who need a lovely, incremental approach that is not dumbed down. I started with the first two Key to Fractions books (which gets you to multiplying/dividing fractions) and then ran the 1st decimals and 1st Percents book alongside. It really was perfect. It really hit the sweet spot because it was challenging, with practice problems I could tailor to her needs. And cheap!

We also did Life of Fred fractions, and Decimals Percents. But she already had it down, so finished them in a couple of weeks.

[quark]

^^ Yup we did the same!

 

The Key To books are super gentle and we added LoF Fractions, Decimals, Percents for the fun factor. He did some practice with Math Mammoth as well but preferred Key To and LoF (but lost interest in LoF after F, D and P so we didn't use LoF at the upper levels).

[Sarah0000]

Ok, so I'm zooming him through the rest of Singapore 2 and 3 doing most everything mentally, and I've moved him up to grade 3 in Prodigy as default but assigning quite a bit from grades 4 and 5 in geometry and fractions. I plan to purchase BA next month which hopefully will also satisfy his need for puzzles. We will continue with LoF too, and I think we'll do the HOE app to start.

 

Question: Its probably better to wait on operations with percents, decimals, and fractions until multiplication and division facts are mastered, right? Should I hold off on the Key to books until then?

 

So, do folks not really use Singapore for kids who are so accelerated? And, what about Geometry stuff? Is it covered in BA? DS is amazing at Geometry and will gladly do arithmetic in the context of geometry more than in other ways.

[Dmmetler]

DD did SM (from 3A on, the New Primary Maths syllabus from Singapore, not a US version) through 5b with IP and CWP before moving to AOPS, with LOF fractions and decimals %. We use LOF the summer before a new AOPS book because DD likes it. Plus HOE and lots of living math books and other stuff.

 

If BA had been out, it would have been a great fit, but SM worked.

[Rush]

Mine are doing MEP from age of 4-5y and from the first page to the last, without skipping + lots of supplement including mental maths, fiction maths-y books, playing cards, board games, etc . At around 8-9y we are planning to move them, eldest for now at least, into AOPS Pre-Alg Online programme

[Sarah0000]

One more question...

 

When did you guys move to having actual assignments or requiring workbook problems on a regular basis, in a linear progression? I just don't see my DS sitting for "doing the next thing" any time soon. I'm impressed that PPs 4/5 year old does Mep straight through like that!

[amsunshine]

So, do folks not really use Singapore for kids who are so accelerated? And, what about Geometry stuff? Is it covered in BA? DS is amazing at Geometry and will gladly do arithmetic in the context of geometry more than in other ways.

We used Singapore k-6b and then moved to Singapore discovering maths for the first 3 levels and then moved to Saxon advanced maths. BA didn't exist when my dds were little and by the time the first level came out, they were well beyond it.