You might check out MEP (Mathematics Enhancement Programme). It’s totally free, available immediately (printable from online), & has at least grades K-6 if not more.

I did this at Christmas. DS actually commented that I might have purchased too many new games. What?! Guess who’s getting the last laugh now... 😉

Realized via the planning threads that I’d already purchased nearly all of our curricula for next year & had a good amount left over in our homeschooling fund, so I decided to stock up on art supplies! We now have printmaking supplies (ink, brayers, trays, carving board, print paper), a flower press, & jumbo bottles of tempera paint. Also got the next book in a series of reverso poems DS loves & a magnetic poetry set, because he really enjoyed playing with the one at the library.

Addition: Combining parts into a whole. Subtraction: Removing parts from the whole or comparing wholes. Multiplication: Combining equal groups of parts into a whole. Dividing: Removing equal groups of parts from a whole.

Picture Books: Sir Cumference (series), One Grain of Rice. Chapter books (perhaps as read aloud): The Lemonade War (series), The Calder Game (series). Games: Proof!, Kingdomino, Dos, 7Ate9, Equate

BeastAcademy is offering a free month of their online program right now. They even have a new “Puzzle Lab” open!

This is very much like DS7 at that age! He can now manage to be still enough to do a high-interest activity that requires being careful / gentle, like watercolor painting. He’s impatient to get going, chatters constantly, & is GONE the instant his work is completed — but I don’t have to worry about him dumping the paints or running circles around the table spilling things, or getting frustrated & throwing supplies. He can do maybe 15min of this 1:1. He even does okay in a homeschool library art class, though there he does buzz around the room & invade people’s space a bit. Thankfully the teacher ADORES him - she is really supportive & gentle! He’s also gotten a lot less active over the past year, which is fortunate because we moved & can’t have him in sports 4+ hours a week year-round here the way he was before. We still get hurt playing physically with him, because he doesn’t know his own strength & gets way too ramped up, but he loves tabletop games (even complicated, 14+ ones) so we spend a lot of time doing things like that to bond instead. In fact, if memory serves it was around age 4 that we really began to introduce him to tabletop gaming...

DS7 is signed up for a week of CubScout Day Camp in June, but that’s unlikely to happen. We’ll be continuing school for as long as we’re stuck in isolation mode. We’ll take a week off in June, & another week or two in August before beginning “next school year” if this drags all summer. I’m thinking a lighter schedule, a chance to use up some curricula we abandoned mid-year. Finish CAP Fable. Begin cursive copy work. Read. Paint. Draw. Sew. Play math games.

Yeah, I’m not really worried about it either way. He’s home, so I can meet him wherever he is & having the diagnosis will mean that the ADHD shouldn’t hold him back from performing to his ability (we can seek treatments & accommodations as necessary).

Yep! I’m not sure if mine is gifted or on the cusp. They gave him the WISC as part of the ADHD eval, which came back in the 120s, but of course he was/is unmedicated & judging by their description was basically bouncing off the walls for the entire assessment sooooo I’m not sure that’s entirely conclusive 🤷🏻‍♀️ Either way he’s a bright kid who NEEDS academic stimulation the same way he NEEDS physical stimulation.

Well, I’m definitely not “experienced” (my DS was just diagnosed ADHD last month) but at age 4 he was... relentless. SO energetic. He was in 3hrs if soccer a week (with park play before & after), rollerblading once a week, I think gymnastics weekly, too? We had a trampoline he used all the time. I had discovered that if I wore out his brain his mind slowed down a bit so we started “school” early! I’d have him run up / down flights of stairs to burn energy during lessons. The bigger issues were social. He was just so full-on, it was overwhelming *even to other kids his age*. Invading others’ personal space. Climbing EVERYTHING. Running everywhere, unable to walk. Having to hold our hands & jump in place to stand in line. He wasn’t all that impulsive yet - that has begun to rear its head more recently.

We’re doing decently. Taking life one day at a time, keeping to our regular schedule as much as possible. DS was officially assessed in early March & diagnosed ADHD-H/I. By the time we got his results back things were too hectic to meet with his pediatrician, so we haven’t begun to try out any therapies or medication yet. We did give her a head’s up at his well check that he was being assessed, so she knows we’ll need to get together to go over options when possible. We’ve homeschooled without intervention (or a diagnosis) this long, I can hang in there until this blows over...

I think what you are doing right now sounds great! DS spent about a year after learning letter formation on copy work alone - first single words, the one sentence at a time, then a couple, etc. along with narrating summaries to me. We didn’t begin dictation or writing anything totally independently (thought-to-page) until the following year.

My DS is 7 but is an early & enthusiastic writer kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum to Lori D’s kiddos. Nonetheless, the pattern of development seems very similar. Currently over the course of a week he: Completes two HWOT cursive lessons; a 2pg spread per lesson. Analyzes 2 sentences for grammar. I usually write these out, so he just labels parts of speech & such. Completes one AAS lesson across two days. 5 dictated sentences one day, 2-3 self-created sentences using spelling words the other day. Writes one short poem or story (2-4 sentences) & one simile using a newly-learned Latin stem. Works in a critical thinking workbook that sometimes includes writing single-sentence answers from a prompt. Narrates about a history or science topic we covered that week. We do these mostly orally, but I’m going to try to start having him write it out (with help outlining) once a month. We’ll begin formally working on paragraphs in the autumn. ———————————————————————— ETA: Last semester was totally different, as he was working on creative writing projects of his own choosing. He wrote a play script, then a short story for NaNoWriMo. For big projects like those he dictates while I scribe. I then write his story on the dry-erase board a few sentences at a time, & he copies his own story, a bit at a time, until the whole thing is on paper in his own hand. Those & spelling were the only writing we had time (or endurance!) for last semester!

Yup. I’m already dealing with this from DS7... I’d guess we have a long road of head-desking ahead of us. 🙃