The other day watching my seven year old have a conversation about atoms, the atomic bomb, and World War I with a retired man in a wheel chair at the mall. What about socialization?

My first and second grader are reading pretty much anything they pick up. I wasn't sure how much to focus on phonics given they are reading . My approach was to keep them reading and work on other skills, but not sure if Phonics still is needed (maybe for the spelling side?) I am using MCP Plaid Phonics and Spelling workout, but not sure if this enough. Prior to using this I had ordered Abeka and felt this was too much.

We are currently using Saxon Math 1 and 3. It seems to be paced slow, especially for my son who has a natural aptitude for math. I like the idea of some spiral, to keep up with skills. But I also like the idea of mastery since my son needs to be able to be advanced through a curriculum at his pace and doesn't always need the repetition to master. Anyone found a good combination of this in a program? Saxon feels impossible to advance him in, as I go through the lessons it feels like I would be cutting a portion out to focus on one small aspect that is lightly covered..(not sure that makes sense I am having a hard time explaining why it doesn't seem to work). Someone recommended Christian Lite, another Singapore, and another MM. I know what I am looking for, something that gives enough repetition and drill if needed, but also allows you to advance if appropriate, or is a more advanced paced curriculum. Any advice????

Thank you, I can always make it available for him if he is ready, although I am thinking it may be to hard for him. The other issue is that he just came out of the school system, so he is used to floating by with little effort and getting a 100%. So sometimes it is just a motivational or perfectionist thing, that with a challenge comes more work and errors. I don't want to overdue it of course, but I would like to see him being challenged. He had asked for it all year last year in school (even writing it on the top of his work), but then he stopped and was content to coast along easily after the harder work came with 10 rules to complete before he was allowed to work in the "challenge" folder. :? rr.

He doesn't seem to forget, he seems to go into the lessons getting the concept before the lesson. He has been doing math in his head since he was young, I remember at the age of 4 and I was giving him stars worth 25 cents, he would know how many more he needed to get to 20 dollars, ect. I did not do any instruction with him in math at the time, he just seemed to naturally know how to use mathematical concepts. But, like in the case of regrouping, he needed formal instruction of the concept and how to apply it because doing long math problems in his head was not ideal. So this is where I don't want to skip too much and leave gaps, and give him enough practice and repetition to solidify it. So difficult to know how to approach this! Looked into Jacobs but it seems to start at grade 9?

Thanks! That Beast Academy sounds right up my Son's alley! He is a 7 and I have him in Saxon 3 at the moment. Also Singapore sounds good. The thing I like about Saxon, is some of the drill work and timed tests, it seems that doing this with ease will free them up to move more smoothly as problems get harder. But my son actually started off doing the timed tests with ease anyway, he usually gets past the goal of a certain amount of problems in x amount of time, and does the whole thing. But he enjoys the timed tests.

The Saxon people told me not to skip either, and we haven't been yet. The issue Saxon seems to introduce something lightly and do much repetition lesson after lesson just on the surface and it seems unchallenging, especially as he often goes into the lesson understanding the concept already, and can skip count with ease so the constant practice just seems tiring. He does it because he enjoys math, but it is not challenging him and he has mentioned it is too easy. I think he would benefit from a program that takes a concept and applies it more complexly before moving on, and then revisits it. And at the same time, does some drill on math facts and multiplication tables just to be sure this work can be done with ease as problems get more complex. Saxon seems to do the drill and repetition a lot, but does not seem to make the concept more complex so they can learn how to apply it more difficultly. From what it sounds like Singapore may do this? Does anyone know if it also does focus on some drill and memorization for ease of answering problems ? What about Math Mammoth? It seems like MM does mastery and uses memorization also....but I can't really tell....so confused!

Do you recommend the teacher's guide with Singapore? There seems to be no unit tests that I can find in Saxon. I just don't know how to approach math with him or where to place him, since he can do a lot of it naturally but still needs tools to handle more complicated problems. Once he gets a concept, he can apply it to more complicated scenarios quickly. But again, I am unsure if the spiral approach to Saxon builds some future foundation and so there is a benefit to having him continue to do the work. Saxon was high recommended to me, but I am just not seeing it right now.

We are using Saxon with our son who gets math naturally and masters new concepts quickly. We are using Saxon but the repetition and seemingly slow pace seems to not be working for him, it almost feels like it is holding him back. I am wondering if there is some future benefit of the repetition and drills that make it worthwhile? I also am not sure what approach would work for him, since it seems like it may be a general problem that he is introduced to a new topic and is able to master it sooner then the curriculum moves on from it (and this seems even harder to get around with Saxon, when I try to go ahead I cannot really find a good start point). He loves word problems also, but Saxon right now is only putting them in the context of the calendar which he will do, but really does not enjoy. Any advice?