Math options for 4-5 year old who prefers learning independently?

[dietcokette]

Hi y’all! I had always kept this forum bookmarked for good tips for sideschooling resources, but COVID has me figuring out the options for plunging into actual homeschooling. 

I think partly because of temperament and partly because of a little perfectionism, my 4 year-old kiddo strongly prefers doing a lot of learning independently (whether from books, iPad apps, or audiobooks) and then checking in with me to come show me what he’s figured out, or when he’s decided he needs help with a specific skill or concept. I think he also likes that he can control the pace this way — he will suddenly go on a spurt plowing through a month or two’s worth of lessons over a few days and then spend a couple of weeks reviewing things he’s done before and testing the boundaries around how something works. 

When I’d first pulled him out of preschool, I wasn’t worried about actual curriculum at that point — both because it wasn’t clear this was going to be a long-term situation and because of his age. And it may be that this really is good enough, but I don’t want to be looking back and regretting that he had some real gaps in the foundation or picked up some habits that will cause challenges downstream — so it would be great to hear thoughts both on what we are using and on other options that you think might work. 

Right now he uses “Math Seeds” (the math side of Reading Eggs), sometimes gets really into DragonBox (numbers, big numbers, and algebra 5+) for a few days at a time, and then we use the “Mathematical Reasoning” workbook (finishing up level A) a day or two a week when he wants to show me what he’s been working on or for me to fill in some gaps I’ve noticed (or truthfully, for the fine motors skills practice, as that book is one of the few things that will get him to hold a crayon or pencil). He really likes cuisenaire rods and such, and will play around with those or sometimes bring them to me when he’s stuck on something. 

Anyway, because he’s at a point where he’s enjoying learning on his own and is making reasonable progress, I’m reluctant to interfere in that. But is this likely to leave him with some big gaps and later I’ll regret not doing more of a “full” math curriculum like Singapore or Miquon? 

Thanks!

[dietcokette]

Thanks, this is super helpful. I think I have the basic frame of our curriculum figured out, then. I am asking some of my engineering friends what coding resources they use with their kids — do you have one that you like? I have several downloaded on the iPad to try out, but haven’t had time to sort through them all yet. 

[Sarah0000]

I wouldn't worry about it but my kids liked to play around with Miquon indepedently at 4-5 years old. The workbooks are so cheap it's no big deal to get a couple for fun, especially since your kid already likes c rods. 

[dietcokette]

We have now started going down the Tynker Jr -> Tynker pathway for coding, which he’s been loving so far, and now he has dreams of making a video game of “True and the Rainbow Kingdom”. And Sarah, we don’t have the Miquon workbooks, but I should consider that — they aren’t expensive and he has really enjoyed the problems I’ve set for him with the rods so far. 

[NataliaMusk]

I can relate, one of my kids HATES being taught and wants to do everything by himself. For coding that age we enjoyed the Wonder Workshop Dash robot, but we've since then moved on to Lego Boost and now Mindstorms. It's a very expensive interest 😭 But it's used every single day in our house. I also bought him coding books for kids on scratch 3.0 and now moved on to Python and he likes working on those projects independently. This book on Python is something he's been really enjoying, can't really remember the early ones used cause they've been donated. And for math we now use Beast Academy (2-5th grade) but before that we also used K5 learning math which is another online based math that can be done independently. 

Edited July 25, 2020 by NataliaMusk