Dreambox Math Pace

[eloquacious]

My son (4.5) is finishing up the Dreambox math K curriculum...for the second time. I have already called them once and had them reset it, because I felt that it had accelerated him too quickly based on some pretests. This time around, it took longer to get to the more challenging 1st grade material, but still only three weeks or so. He likes to play every day, and once he starts a "story," he wants to complete it as quickly as possible. I am concerned that he will soon hit a wall that will be too challenging, and also (given his age) I think I'd prefer him to just be able to practice things, even if he knows how to do them well. It won't harm him later on to REALLY have the many ways of making 10 down, but it might if he gets rushed into more abstract math. More likely, he'll just want to stop playing.

 

Has anyone figured out a way to slow down the progression? Partly I think it's because he's listed as being in 1st grade, so maybe the program is trying to get him "caught up." (I believe I had to choose that as part of the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op deal.) If I have to, I'll get them to reset it to the very beginning again, but I wish there were a "hang out at this level and just keep rotating tasks" option.

 

;)

 

Or am I just slowing him down? Should I let him rock on until he hits whatever wall comes along that's too hard to scale?

[jenbrdsly]

We usually sign up for Dreambox for a month, every few months or so. When we do, I let my DS7 play it as much as he wants with (almost no restrictions). He usually plays it heavily for the first week, lightly for the second, and then not at all for weeks 3 and 4.

 

The progression has changed a bit over the years because they added a bunch of new content. It does seem that there is embedded review and spiraling content, so I wouldn't worry about your child "missing" something.

 

Now if you were a homeschooling family using Dreambox as your primary math program, that would be different. But you are just talking about preK right? When my son was 4 he was doing Horizons first grade math (which is not a program I would recommend by the way.) So if your son is doing Dreambox 1st grade, that makes total sense to me.

[jenbrdsly]

Did my last post come out in really small font or is it just like that on my screen?

[La Texican]

It looks normal but I'm browsing on a phone so it might be different on a laptop.

[AngieC]

I did pretty much the same as jenbrdsly - I would sign up until my son was tired of playing (which was basically when the work got hard) and then we would take a break for a couple of months and wait for his maturity to catch up. When we reregistered, he would again advance until he hit a wall and we would stop again. Watching him play, it was very obvious to me when he wasn't able to understand concepts or higher thinking skills so it made stopping easy (plus, he would lose interest in playing, so why pay for it if he wasn't going to use it.)

[eloquacious]

I did pretty much the same as jenbrdsly - I would sign up until my son was tired of playing (which was basically when the work got hard) and then we would take a break for a couple of months and wait for his maturity to catch up. When we reregistered, he would again advance until he hit a wall and we would stop again. Watching him play, it was very obvious to me when he wasn't able to understand concepts or higher thinking skills so it made stopping easy (plus, he would lose interest in playing, so why pay for it if he wasn't going to use it.)

 

 

 

This is more or less what I've seen happen during our (thus far) half year using it... but I suspect that if the algorithm were changed it might be preventable. If there were an option on the parent dashboard to "include more review" or "practice key concepts," that would rule. I don't like the idea of completely resetting him to the beginning, but I would like there to be some more emphasis on those basic building blocks like building tens or twenties and subitizing numbers, rather than the 1st grade stuff he's on now.

[jenbrdsly]

This is more or less what I've seen happen during our (thus far) half year using it... but I suspect that if the algorithm were changed it might be preventable. If there were an option on the parent dashboard to "include more review" or "practice key concepts," that would rule. I don't like the idea of completely resetting him to the beginning, but I would like there to be some more emphasis on those basic building blocks like building tens or twenties and subitizing numbers, rather than the 1st grade stuff he's on now.

 

There's going to be some spiraling and embedded review as he moves up, so I wouldn't worry too much.