How do you approach math with 1st grader who already multiplies?

[melmichigan]

I thought my oldest was my biggest challenge, now my DS is in the mix. He would be considered first grade this year and already has mastered addition and subtraction and is now working with multiplication by choice. Most of it is self taught to the point I don't know what to do with him curriculum wise. Do I start testing him out of portions of the books? Just let him pace through the books as long as he isn't frustrated? He has free reign to all educational materials and has just run with that to the point you have to tell him to take a break.

[boscopup]

Use a mastery-based curriculum to accelerate, at least for a bit. DS1 taught himself multiplication in K, though he didn't know how to add/subtract with regrouping until I taught him. We used MM to accelerate, and I'm very glad I went with that, because it was cheap and effective! He is now in 2nd grade, doing 4th grade Singapore (we went through long division in MM4B, then switched over to Singapore 4A, since he likes the presentation better).

 

In MM, we did the sections/chapters he needed, and skipped the ones he didn't. I gave chapter tests if I thought he knew all the material in the chapter. That always showed that I was correct in my decision to skip it.

 

Once we got to 3rd-4th grade math, we started to slow down a bit. We're still speeding a long sort of, but not 4 grades in one year type speeding. :tongue_smilie:We just found where he was ready to be, filling in the holes along the way.

[acurtis75]

I agree with pp. MM is probably the most affordable option for acceleration. I use mathusee. We pass it on to relatives after we're done so I don't mind going through multiple levels in a year. We watch the DVD, work a few problems and if she seems to get it I just let her take the test. We've been moving at a slower pace the last month or so because of travel and visiting relatives but if we hadn't slowed down we probably would have completed a year's worth of lessons in 2 or 3 months.

[MamaSprout]

We are also using MM to accelerate... it's great for filling holes. There are tests for each chapter we use as a pre-test. We also supplement with CWP.

 

ella

[8filltheheart]

Probably not the approach you want to take, but I simply continued to use Horizons and ds simply flew through the books. He skipped the 2nd grade book b/c he taught himself multiplication at 6, but he completed the 3rd-6th grade books in about 2 1/2 yrs.

[Iucounu]

You can use any acceleration method you'd use for any other student, including curriculum compacting, continuous progress or self-paced instruction, etc. I agree that SM works well for this purpose.

Edited December 14, 2011 by Iucounu

[Lasthenia]

You can use any acceleration method you'd use for any other student, including curriculum compacting, continuous progress or self-paced instruction, etc. I agree that SM works well for this purpose.

 

Pretty much agree with this.

[ekfk]

I use Singapore Math, which actually introduces Multiplication and Division in 1st grade. Since he's obviously good at math, you could probably use the workbook on it's own.

[Rosie]

We use Miquon and Singapore, partly to slow her down and partly to give her an extremely well-rounded base of understanding. You might want to think about going through the Miquon books and just skipping the pages that are too easy. The first book starts in with multiplication. It is very different than any other program I've seen and builds solid "number sense." Miquon is more intuitive and out-of-the-box, and Singapore is more straightforward and traditional.

 

I don't think it's a problem to skip sections with a child who "gets it" - that's what we do when she gets frustrated because something is too easy or when I just know that she already has it down. Using two curricula with different focuses and teaching styles has been very helpful here. I feel like my children have an EXTREMELY solid math foundation.

[LittleIzumi]

We use Miquon and Singapore, partly to slow her down and partly to give her an extremely well-rounded base of understanding. You might want to think about going through the Miquon books and just skipping the pages that are too easy. The first book starts in with multiplication. It is very different than any other program I've seen and builds solid "number sense." Miquon is more intuitive and out-of-the-box, and Singapore is more straightforward and traditional.

 

I don't think it's a problem to skip sections with a child who "gets it" - that's what we do when she gets frustrated because something is too easy or when I just know that she already has it down. Using two curricula with different focuses and teaching styles has been very helpful here. I feel like my children have an EXTREMELY solid math foundation.

 

:iagree::iagree:

[courtney.byrum]

We used Singapore with my DS in K when he was multiplying and dividing already. When we started k12 they tested him into 3rd grade math and about halfway through that he started to take longer to do the lessons. It worked out well to let him assess out of lessons as needed and even now at the end of 4th start of 5th grade math he still does so on occasion when it's something he's taught himself how to do already.

 

My daughter is just starting mutitplication in 2nd grade math (she's in 1st) but since her brother already taught her how to multiply we're moving fairly quickly through this unit but will slow down again when it's something new to her.

 

As long as they are wanting to learn I let them go at their own pace - when we start getting resistance we go slower so they don't end up hating it -- mostly the long problem solving units - he finds them easy they are just so long he gets bored!