Math Acceleration and Math Maturity - different things?

[CardinalAlt]

If there's a thread I missed on basically the same thing, please let me know!

 

DD, almost 7, is just finishing the 4th Miquon book, and we've just started with BA 3A. She's not a math prodigy, but she's mathy :). I started out the year scribing for her, and now more often with Miquon can do every other problem on a page with her, then leave her to complete the rest on her own, with me close by for a little support if needed. I know she gets the concepts, but she'll definitely make sloppy errors, so I'm constantly encouraging her to slow down, read more carefully, etc. Sometimes she has tolerance and patience for challenge, sometimes less... I've thought of this as pretty age appropriate. (Or normal asynchronicity? Not sure how to phrase it.)

 

Two things have me wondering if I'm doing too much for her, if I should slow down to a level she can do more independently. I don't really think so in my gut, but I'd love feedback...

 

First, BA - she's enjoying it, but it's like being back to square one with handholding to get through the practice book because she's just not mature enough to really slow down and think through the problems. When I help her slow down, she enjoys it though.

 

Second, her year end Scantron test with the charter we homeschool through. She tested high back in the fall, the adaptive test remembered that score and started her way high for this spring test. But we haven't covered decimals, she forgot to line up her columns correctly for the large 3 and 4 digit addition problems, yada yada. Basically the same score in spring as 7 months prior. I think it was a combination of the test and her maturity, I know she's made progress and retained a lot... But it was discouraging to see anyway.

[Runningmom80]

BA was hard for us for the same reason.  DS isn't "mathy" but he is accelerated.  He didn't enjoy the discovery menthod, but I think it boiled down to maturity.  You can always put it away for awhile if it's too time consuming.  maybe try MEP since it's free.

 

As far as testing goes, my DS has had some surprising results as well, and I mean suprising in "How did this comprehension score GO DOWN in 2 years?" :laugh:   I know full well he comprehends more!  They have off days, so I wouldn't put too much stock in one test.  It's when you see a pattern emerge that the test become significant in any way. (Consistent low scores relating to processing speed for example.)

[raptor_dad]

Two things have me wondering if I'm doing too much for her, if I should slow down to a level she can do more independently. I don't really think so in my gut, but I'd love feedback...

...

First, BA - she's enjoying it, but it's like being back to square one with handholding to get through the practice book because she's just not mature enough to really slow down and think through the problems. When I help her slow down, she enjoys it though.

 

I would trust your gut. It sounds like you are doing a great job. You could try doing 2 strands of math at the same time. She could finish up Miquon Yellow and Purple more independently while you work on the challenges with BA. This would allow her to have meaningful success and be challenged with you scaffolding as needed in BA. Moving towards complete independence is a slow process... you seem to have the balance about right to me.

 

As far as school bubble tests go... I would ignore it. Yes testing well is a valuable skill but I don't think that test gives you any useful info. Young kids will miss a series of problems in the same way when merely an arched eyebrow would make them slow down and self-correct. You already know she needs to slow down and work on checking her own work and strategies. Keep trying to help her with these issues of executive function while allowing her math to move along.

[kiana]

Yeah, there's a big difference between acceleration and maturity. I have seen students who were very accelerated computation-wise but whose maturity lagged behind. This type of student frequently really "gets" the algebraic computations but struggles with the proofs in geometry because they require a bit higher level of reasoning.

 

I have also seen students (in my university classes) who were not accelerated and mathematically very mature. For example, one student was concurrently taking calculus 2 and a jr/sr proof-based class (not going to go into the scheduling reasons) and was a very strong student in the proofs course.

 

The wonderful thing about homeschooling is that we can feed them material at different levels. It's perfectly okay for an asynchronous child to be doing computation at a different level than problem-solving. What matters is that they're being fed material to help them grow in both areas.

 

With specific respect to the lining up columns, are you allowed your own scratch paper? If so, I would give her graph paper with large boxes for her to work on.

[CardinalAlt]

Thanks, everyone! That's all really reassuring. I was planning to keep up with Miquon while adding BA in, so I probably will just keep BA to the amount of time I have energy for in a day :). I do give her the large graph paper for her scratch work, an excellent tip I probably picked up from this forum - she still just forgot to line things up in the excitement of the testing!

[blondeviolin]

I used to worry about helping my kids through problems that stumped them: "How will she ever learn?" At this point, I feel like I am modeling correct math thinking and concepts when I help or direct. Like reading, there should math instructional level where they need a little bit of help, at level where they can do it on their own but not for a long time, and then fun math "behind" their level that let's them gain fluency and confidence.

[CardinalAlt]

I like that, that makes sense. So BA is her stretch, Miquon is about on level... I may need to add in more of the math for fun... Or do you think games count for that, things like Add Subract Uno and Battleship? I'm getting better at protecting our game playing time :). Zaccarro kind of spans the 3 levels, too, since it's a range of problems...

[SarahW]

Is she still in the geometry portion of 3A? It seems that the level of reasoning expected in that chapter does require a good amount of maturity. Maybe when their grade 2 is released 3A won't seem to start off so tough. But coming from a "straight" program, all the flipping and turning of shapes required in that chapter is a new concept.

 

With CP I ended up just covering that chapter lightly, and then moving on. He already "gets" the concepts of the rest of the chapters, so I expect those to go much easier. We'll revisit triangles and polynomials in a few months, and see how it goes then.

[CardinalAlt]

She is, Sarah- that's good perspective. Yes, those acute angle mazes right off the bat!!

[sunnyday]

IMO, mathematics and computation are fairly distinct fields. A clever mind can definitely understand and apply instruction about how to do a specific computation. That's the gifted learner trait coming out, the fact that you don't have to repeat yourself. "When the problem looks like this, you do that." And the thing is learned. Gifted learners are great pattern graspers which helps too.

 

But thinking mathematically is a horse of a different color, and that's what Beast encourages. And it takes a bit of a different pathway through the brain to do that. The maturity needed is both the developmental capacity to synthesize ideas from many areas and make something new (the classic "logic stage" distinction) as well as the emotional strength to persevere and wrestle with something that doesn't come immediately.

 

My observation, totally biased by what I see in my kids (and myself), is that there's a transition around age 7 that takes away some of the maturity stumbling blocks. I think that gifted learners have some of those "logic stage" traits much earlier than typical (and that the stages aren't black and white for anyone) so they're able to synthesize better starting around this age. And combined with the usual "age of reason" ability to buckle down, this is a good time to expect more.

 

For some kids, it seems like the best thing to do is to go ahead and fly through basic computational stuff to get it out of the way and to keep the student interested with the novelty of learning new things, then come back and do more problem solving when they're ready. But kind of as an experiment, for my kids I'm working on an approach that gives them other stuff to mess around with until they have the maturity to do useful problem-solving, so that they get to problem-solve with basic math operations while those operations are still fairly new to them.

 

My still newly-5 DD is very bright but I'm kind of...hiding the curriculum from her. I don't want her to get very far ahead while I am still unsure of her ability to bounce back from disappointment and uncertainty. She's getting better at this and I might pull out some puzzly things for her soon, and step up her chess game a little. I want Beast to wait until she can really enjoy all aspects of it. She keeps sneaking the guides and reading them, which is frustrating...I might have to keep 3C out of her reach when it comes. (She's reading LoF as I type. When she gets confused by a Your Turn to Play she says, "Mom, I'm going to ask you to help me with this, but answer me with a QUESTION, because this is MY math." Last week she was getting annoyed when I would guide her to figure out answers on her own, so this is progress!)

 

Now, my DS at 7.5 with some problem-solving experience under his belt, he thrives on challenge. He skips straight to the starred problems in Beast, calls Borac his "advanced/interesting math," and yesterday he spontaneously described to me his ideal math class; it was basically a math circle with a teacher guiding Socratic discussion. This is a kiddo who, even though he is probably just bright and not a gifted learner at all, is going to go far with mathematical learning (I hope!)

 

When he was just newly 7, we hit the Geometry chapter and angle mazes were terrific fun and he got polyominoes pretty well but he was stumped by counting triangles. He got the wrong answer and flipped his lid. That turned out to be a terrific learning experience!