Another ? re: Primary Grade Challenge Math

[Lostinabook]

I had decided to get Primary Challenge as our "extra" math for next year. Then I kept on reading & noticed that the reviews were from people who have gifted children. My children are not gifted. Is this book going to work for them or will it be way over their heads?

 

Thanks!

[Heather in VA]

I don't think a child needs to be gifted for these books. They are a nice challenge for students but they aren't beyond an average child's ability. They also have the problems in catagories from easiest to Einstein. Just do the ones they can do. Then in the future come back to the harder ones.

[Debra in CO]

Libby,

 

I have used Primary Grade Challenge Math with my oldest, who is certainly advanced in math, if not gifted. It worked great, we truly loved it.

 

Now, I have not started it with my next son, who is pretty average in math. But I do plan to do so. Just not as early. I think that I want to start PGCM when he is doing 3rd grade math work.

 

We'll work through the chapters in a similar way to what I did with my oldest. He read the chapter and did the level 1 problems. I corrected those. Then he did level 2, and I corrected them. And so on... until he was struggling and missing the point. I made a note of the chapter # and how far he got. After we worked through the entire book that way, we went back to the beginning and did the chapters I had made notes about. In his case, there were only maybe 5 chapters. For my "average" child, I suspect we'll go back through most of the book.

 

Debra

Mom to five, ages 1-10

[DarcyM]

I would agree with Heather's comment.

 

While I would consider my oldest ahead of grade, not necesarily "gifted", I would consider my middle son lumped right in the middle.

 

Do the level 1s, if those go smoothly, do the level 2s. They get progressively harder within each topic. So it's easy to make this resource last over several grade levels. You can keep coming back and doing the higher levels.

 

That said, my 6 yo didn't understand anything beyond level 1, while my 7 yo was able to figure out level 3s, and only a couple of the Einstein levels.

 

This book is good for about 2nd - 4th grades, maybe 5th grade for the higher levels. Then, there is Challenge Math. From my understanding, that book picks uup where PCM leaves off. :)

 

HTH!

[Lostinabook]

Thank you all very much! I feel better now about purchasing it for dd. She'll be in 3rd grade next year so I'm assuming I'll be able to use it over the next 2 years for her.