How far is too far? Or, is it just a problem I'm creating in my head?

[CF6]

Our 10 year-old is devouring his math books. He blew through Singapore 4, 5, and 6A and BA 3 and 4 in one year while only working on math a few days a week. This is a child who the public school labeled as "needing special education." My husband thought maybe he needed to slow down and review or maybe I was being too easy on him, so we bought a computer math curriculum and he finished grades 4 and 5 in a couple of months. He just started Singapore 6B on Monday and has worked through nearly half the book. We're waiting for BA 5 to arrive, but when it does I'm thinking it will take him through maybe December. After that he'll start AoPS Pre-Algebra, but is there ever a point where you have them slow down? Or, do you just let them fly through everything? I've received some flack for trying to slow him down a bit, but I really want to make sure he has an in-depth understanding of the material he's learning. Not just a superficial understanding... I guess, in a way, I've found myself equating him moving so fast through each level to mean that he's not internalizing what he's learning. 

 

 

Thoughts? Encouragement? How did/would you handle this?

 

 

Edited September 13, 2017 by CF6

[Mommyof1]

I think testing him to find out where he is at would be good. Then you would know if you really need to slow or not.

[CF6]

Can you recommend a test? 

[Guest]

Sounds like you are doing a great job of giving him broad exposure to quality material for each level. Do you use the IP books from Singapore? Those have some more challenging problems he might like.

 

I'm a fan of letting kids go at their own pace -- he will slow down when he needs to.

Edited September 13, 2017 by amsunshine

[Guest]

Can you recommend a test?

AoPS has diagnostic tests on their website.

[4Kiddos]

My 9 year old is like this- he ran through everything so fast. When we reached AOPS Pre-A he slowed down which was nice. However, right now he is about 3/4 of the way through Pre-A and is really starting to pick up steam again.

 

When he was screaming through everything, I just tried to provide good quality materials and then made sure that he understood what was going on periodically. We would talk about whatever he was doing periodically and, if he understood it, I let him go at his own pace. I tried to provide all kinds of materials for him- workbooks/math curriculum, bios of math people, books about specific math topics, etc.

[bmninada]

When my son was in 3rd. grade met the parents of his friend who stated their son gobbles up maths and is currently doing at a level = 5th. grade. My son also says - he's smart. The school at EOY conducted testing for gifted and talented and his son did not get thru. I remember there was a big push from the said child's parents consequent to which education board was involved who conducted a re-test. This time it became apparent the child knows but the knowledge is superficial. In other words the child knows a lot but why part can't figure out.

 

In no way, shape or form : I am saying your son is such a case. All I am trying to say here is before you take ANY decision: slow/fast/etc. talk to your school and start to challenge them. They have considerable funds to take a test to determine giftedness vs. "special needs". Sometimes the schools are so bad they don't want to be burdened with a gifted child and tend to label them otherwise ; effectively deferring them as something middle school can deal with.

 

Finally - as you seem to be stuck with the school, I'd recommend not doing any individual tests, etc. They are generally un-accepted by school. You should, for now, follow the school's guidance on THEIR tests but make sure the test is not something school conjured but is a test nationally recognized.

Edited September 13, 2017 by bmninada

[mathnerd]

Go at his pace, when things get hard enough for him, he will automatically slow down. That is the approach I take with my son. I am familiar with the curriculum that you listed. The jump from one level to another is not huge and it is possible for a child to finish them quickly if he is very familiar with the underlying concepts. 

 

I've found myself equating him moving so fast through each level to mean that he's not internalizing what he's learning. 

 

 

That said, I also would like to suggest that you check if he is getting the concepts right or if he is rushing through the curriculum thinking that he understands. Singapore Math sells supplementary books - Challenging Word Problems, Extra Practice, Intensive Practice, Tests etc. I assigned problems from those to assess whether there were gaps in the learning or if we could move on to the next level.

 

http://www.singaporemath.com/Primary_Math_Supplement_s/57.htm

 

If he does well with those assessments, then, move on to AOPS as per your original plan.

 

Are you supplementing with competition math problems? They are fun and a great way to think in ways that go beyond textbook curriculum.

http://store.moems.org/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=OLYMPIADBOOKS

 

Edited September 13, 2017 by mathnerd

[Dmmetler]

I used the DOMA (now the ADAM) to see where DD was when she wanted to jump ahead to algebra.

[Rush]

I take all supplements for DS: Zaccaro, Borac, Moscow Puzzles, etc, and he is automatically slows down.

Otherwise I agree with the testing, besides it's not to early for Pre-algebra. Mine is 9 and we want to begin sometimes after Christmas.

[CF6]

When my son was in 3rd. grade met the parents of his friend who stated their son gobbles up maths and is currently doing at a level = 5th. grade. My son also says - he's smart. The school at EOY conducted testing for gifted and talented and his son did not get thru. I remember there was a big push from the said child's parents consequent to which education board was involved who conducted a re-test. This time it became apparent the child knows but the knowledge is superficial. In other words the child knows a lot but why part can't figure out.

 

In no way, shape or form : I am saying your son is such a case. All I am trying to say here is before you take ANY decision: slow/fast/etc. talk to your school and start to challenge them. They have considerable funds to take a test to determine giftedness vs. "special needs". Sometimes the schools are so bad they don't want to be burdened with a gifted child and tend to label them otherwise ; effectively deferring them as something middle school can deal with.

 

Finally - as you seem to be stuck with the school, I'd recommend not doing any individual tests, etc. They are generally un-accepted by school. You should, for now, follow the school's guidance on THEIR tests but make sure the test is not something school conjured but is a test nationally recognized.

He was going to be placed in special education for kindergarten, but we ended up moving to Italy. We enrolled him in the local Italian school and because of his birthday he was placed in 1st grade. He really excelled. We moved back to Texas and started homeschooling him. That was at the beginning of his 4th grade year. Now, he's entering 5th grade and we are getting ready to move to another foreign country. So, I'm trying to get things figured out so that I have a game plan when we arrive in November.

[CF6]

Years ago when his older brother wanted more math we purchased Zaccaro, Singapore supplements, and a few logic puzzle books. I totally forgot about those. In fact, I think they are still packed away somewhere upstairs. Thank you all for the suggestions and encouragement. I'll be sure to look into ADAM.

[TerriM]

Sounds like he loves math.  Why slow him down?   Just keep on feeding him. :)

[EKS]

Many times they will slow themselves down once they get into high school math.  Both of my kids went from going double pace in elementary school to doing about one year of math per year starting with Algebra I.  Being ahead also allowed for some hiccups, like when my older son and I had to restart geometry three times before finding a text that would work, or my younger son needing extensive review of Algebra I due to a truly awful school experience (the teacher was fired it was so bad).

 

If your child ends up going to school, it can get difficult to accommodate advancement of more than about two years (some schools less, some more).  My younger son was placed in honors precalculus in 9th grade and is doing BC Calc this year in 10th.  That leaves AP Statistics and AP Comp Sci for math credits in 11th and 12th.  (I have heard that some schools actually offer math above BC Calc, but ours isn't one of them.) 

[SoCal_Bear]

You might want to delve in some of Michael Serra's books or even Jacob's Mathematics: A Human Endeavor to go in different directions. There's an Upper Elementary Challenge book that was recently published by Zaccaro which is right in between his two original books. Jousting Armadillos is also an option for pre-algebra as well that wasn't available until a few years ago. I just also got the Hard Math for Elementary which has some pretty interesting topics in there.

[Arcadia]

Now, he's entering 5th grade and we are getting ready to move to another foreign country. So, I'm trying to get things figured out so that I have a game plan when we arrive in November.

MEP maths is free online up to end of high school http://www.cimt.org.uk/projects/mep/index.htm

 

My DS12 is sedentary like my husband and he slows down only when he wants to slow down. He finished SM6 when he was eight and we moved on to AoPS prealgebra. The Beast Academy books were not published then. We just take each day as it comes for him. My DS11 loves to play and move and would opt for whatever pace would maximize play time. So we as parents need to set the minimum for him or nothing literally gets done.

[4KookieKids]

I agree with everyone and would let him go. When my oldest was 5, I remember teaching him to multiply in Singapore, and he spent an hour doing the next 20 lessons. I found him in bed the next morning with a times table. So I bought a 97cent calculator and showed him its "magic." lol. Did he need to practice some "math facts" after that? Of course. Did he understand, abstractly, the idea of multiplication? Absolutely.

FWIW, I doubt that he could get a superficial understanding of anything he takes from AoPS. If he ends up doing that work (and doing it well), I think it would be safe to say he has a deep understanding of the content, and you don't need to worry about letting him fly through the material.

Edited September 14, 2017 by 4kookiekids

[Kerileanne99]

I used the DOMA (now the ADAM) to see where DD was when she wanted to jump ahead to algebra.

I had Alex take the ADAM too, and love how useful it is for pinpointing any gaps or weakness in specific topics...the only problem I had was the fact that if you miss a certain number of questions in a topic, the tests stops and assumes that is the ceiling. It does not allow you to test knowledge in other topics that are 'above' that path. It assumes a strictly traditional, linear progression of math study, correlating to schools. I discovered this in conversations with the customer rep afterwards.

My kiddo missed a fairly easy question (saying oops!), then accidentally clicked another. The test ended.

We had to purchase a second test, which she went through to the point we were pretty much expecting.

It was still Extremely useful information, and well worth the inexpensive test:) It just has that limitation for asynchronous learners.

[Guest]

We did the SAT10 Math with the school district; the ex-G&T teachers gave me resources and we did selected Singapore IP and PODs on our own.

 

The flying is because the placement is incorrect.  We just picked each arithmetic strand, then did the Singapore chapter reviews until we found questions or unaddressed topics. One thing you can do is pull out the Singapore CWPs - can he do them without being shown or reviewed? You want to make sure he has developed a good knowledge of the commutative, associative, and distributive laws as well as nailed all the fraction details.

 

Keep in mind a 10 year old in my state is a sixth grader if he turns 11 between Labor Day and New Year's Day; pre-Algebra is appropriate as they don't need K-5 to master arithmetic at the Singapore Math level of problem solving.  We did use programming as enrichment  while the kiddo was in 4th, then math club problem sets for 6th. Music and art instruction is alo fun supplement to 2D geometry. 

 

 

[SKL]

My daughter did this for a while when she was younger.  No harm done, but the enthusiasm didn't last forever.  She still has to do math every day.  :)

 

I agree with testing for strong and weak areas, and choosing "school" lessons accordingly.  He can still do whatever he wants for fun.

[Guest]

I forgot to mention that AoPS has so many different courses to supplement the traditional sequence of math courses, so if you stick with them, your kiddo will have plenty to do through HS.

 

Similar to other posters, we just let our girls progress at their own pace, and they both started PreCalculus Honors in 9th.  My older dd is doing dual enrollment Stats this year, and will do Calc I and II the following years.  (I know, weird progression, but their small school alternates between Stats and Calc I each year).  Younger dd will do Calc I and II in 10th/11th and then Stats in 12th.  I have heard of some kids doing Calc III, Linear Algebra, etc. through dual enrollment in HS.  There are lots of possibilities.  These kiddos will not run out of math!  

[SanDiegoMom]

If you don't want to wait, Alcumus is free online to play around with, and Aops has videos that start with Pre-Algebra as well.  They are very well done. 

 

Second the IP books -- my son used those exclusively, and I found that we liked them for different reasons that BA.  They are much more concrete for visual learners I feel -- my daughter is thriving with them where she struggled sometimes with the abstractness of BA.  I feel they provide a good balance to each other. 

[CF6]

Thank you all SO much for the suggestions. I received a lot of flack for slowing him down, on another forum and was nervous about posting on here. I'm going to research all of the suggestions you all mentioned and have him take a placement test so that I can formulate a game plan for him.

 

Thanks again! It's greatly appreciated!  

[TerriM]

One thing to keep in mind is that if you're homeschooling, you can always go back and review something if you discover he's missing a skill.

 

The other thing to keep in mind is that speed is in the mind of the beholder.  If you're used to what kids are doing under common core, you think it's fast, but if you were hanging around a certain set of kids, you might think it was actually slow.

 

At this point, I've gotten used to the idea of kids doing Calculus BC in 5th-9th grade.  It's all perspective.....

[smily]

My 10 year old is nearing the end of Singapore Primary Mathematics too.

 

If your child can do those challenging word problems at the end of 6B then I would say he likely does understand the math fully.

 

I am planning to use Mathematics: A Human Endeavor by Harold Jacobs before moving on. But I don't think there is anything wrong with just moving on. Certainly something interesting and somewhat challenging is appropriate, so your plan sounds good to me!

[Crimson Wife]

 is there ever a point where you have them slow down? Or, do you just let them fly through everything?

 

Maybe, but it all depends on the child. My oldest hit a wall with algebra 1 and it was a big reason why she repeated 6th grade (she has an October birthday). I didn't realize until towards the end of Singapore DM 8A that she hadn't actually learned any of the algebra in DM 7A-8A. I had allowed her to complete the problem sets with an open book so I hadn't realized that she didn't actually understand what she was doing. When she had to attempt algebra from memory and relying on her conceptual understanding, she couldn't do anything beyond a very basic 1 variable linear equation.

 

I wound up starting her over in Lial's Beginning Algebra. That went much better. She ended up skipping 8th grade and starting dual enrollment at the community college at 13-turning-14 taking a sequence that combines Algebra 2 and college-level statistics and spreads them out over 2 semesters. In retrospect, I didn't actually need to have her repeat 6th but at the time it helped to take the pressure off of her.

 

My DS actually didn't care much for AOPS Pre-Algebra. I switched him after a couple of chapters to Elements of Mathematics and that he absolutely LOVES.