Son Loves Math....question?

My daughter is in 1st Grade and she attends a school for gifted and high acheivers. She too LOVES math and is well above grade level in every aspect of math. Our school uses a wonderful website for math. However, you can also be a member of this website as a parent too. You pay a small membership fee for access to the site. It's FANTASTIC! My daughter would sit on it for hours on end if we let her. These kids don't even realize they are working b/c it's so much fun! It's www.ixl.com Please just go and check it out and see if it's something your son would enjoy doing in his spare time. Maybe even bring the site to your school's attention b/c they may consider adopting it as part of their curriculum as well. Then, it'd be free for you. =0) I'm very greatful for our school, as they individualize their teaching to each child's abilities. Therefore, making sure each and every child is always learning and being challenged. It will never hurt to bring this type of concern up with your child's teacher/school. They are like sponges at this age, so I would encourage higher learning and challenge your son for as long as he is receptive to it and enjoying it! I pray all the time that my daughter's intense love for learning sticks. =0)

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If that hunger doesn't get fed he will lose interest

What a way to put it. I say go for it. Ask the teacher for more challenging work. The schools have dumbed down so much, most kids in first grade can probably handle more.

He won't lose the interest until fourth or fifth when he realizes it really doesn't matter what they give him, it's just too easy. Then middle school and high school come and he's never been challenged, it's so sad really to see very bright kids get bad grades because, why do the work if they can just get the A on the test.

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You're right, he needs to be challenged. Talk with his teacher. Hopefully she has already noticed this. My son would always come home with drawings all over his papers because he would get his work done so fast, then just draw while the rest of the class was still working! I had to actually tell his teacher to give him more work! - don't just let him sit and draw!

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In the schools around here, there are math clubs. They meet after school and go to math competitions. There are also advanced learning centers, that offer math clubs. Check in your area and see,if they offer something similar. The clubs are very challenging, will feed his hunger and I'm sure he would love it and thrive! Also, he could meet friends that enjoy the same things. I always loved having a friend or two, that were good at the same things I was. Good luck!!

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Talk to his teacher. Math and Science that's the subjects are children do need to strive in. Since he loves it so much feed that hunger. (I think) I have a cousin who is almost 10 years younger than me, well his sister (my cousin too) taught him math, there was 5 years between them. He understood it and loved it, because a math major in college and can get any job he wants. I really think it had a lot to do with his sister teaching her baby brother the math she was doing that caught his interest and gave him his love for it. He sounds like a natural, I really would talk to the teacher to get him in advance math.

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That's awesome!

Do you have a community college in your area? Often they will have math programs for kids where they not only learn math but it centers around some sort of thematic sequence. The only downside is that these classes tend to be held in the summer which is a ways off.

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If he excells there are tests he can take that will advance him a year. Ask him if he wants that, let him know the repercussions it will have (being the youngest in his class, the shortest, etc) If he wants to then do it. You can always put him back to his original grade if it doesnt work out.

But it sounds like another log needs to be put on this fire.

Maybe you could look into math related extra carriculars as well, my daughters totally into math too!

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Our daughter also LOVED math. she joined the "Math Pentathelon." in elementary school. It is a group that gathers and plays special math games.. it is awesome.. see if you can find a group, if not consider starting a group at your school. They have tournaments.. it is a big deal.. it continued in middle school.

Also I would take our daughter to a teacher shop and purchase math workbooks.. she loved doing them for fun (nerd)..

Teach him how to use an abacus. Teach him to play chess. Find other kids like himself and start a math club at school.. ..

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Can you find the curriculum for 2nd grade, or find books/DVDs, etc with higher level math and let him learn those outside of school. Maybe discuss with the teacher that after he is done with assignments she assigns for him, that he uses his "bored" time to work on those you give him so he is challenged. He may not go up a grade, but at least at the current grade his mind would constantly be challenged and ONLY at his pace. I wouldn't push him to do those higher level work unless he finds interest in them. He is still a young child who needs to grow in other areas too.

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Talk with his teacher and get her opinion...but I am inclined to say he needs to be challenged.

Both my boys are Math nuts as well (so was I) and I do not want them to be bored in school...I am already nervous about my youngest, he just turned 5 this week, and has been doing basic addition and subtraction in his head for a year...he can already count by 2's and 5's and 10's...and I just know he is gonna be Bored stiff when he starts K next year?

My oldest is in 1st grade and I have just kept working with him at home...we are already on multiplication tables and basic division...we will be talking about the same thing as you at his conference coming up...

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Wow-you sound like me! And I wish I could give you better news from my experience. My son is in 3rd and, like yours, loves math and has a natural ability and interest in it. I have been beating my head against the wall trying to get him some math enrichment at his school. He is already in the Gifted program and that is not giving him anything. I spoke with the school about doing a math enrichment program and they said that they would-but I am getting so much Push-back from his teacher and the gate teacher(who would do the program)-his teacher doesn't like him "pulled" from class b/c he might miss something and she claims that she is going to put together a small group for math enrichment. But it is almost Nov and nothing yet. And the GATE teacher is I think stressing because it will be more work for her and is questioning everything that I say I would like to see included. Very frustrating! And even more so when all my son does every day in math is work on puzzles in the back of the room while everyone learns the lesson and he is done already. I really believe that the public schools do not want kids to push ahead. Teaching to the middle is the easiest and that is what they are going to go with. I am currently trying to enrich him at home but its not the same. I have considered getting him a private teacher but I know that he would NOT like that!

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Do not ignore this now. Bored students eventually act out, get in trouble, and later do poorly even when they are VERY bright. Talk to the teacher soon. She may already be planning to give him extra work if she has noticed and if she hasn't noticed she needs to. She will most likely still need to give him the regular work but should be able to challenge him a bit more.

My son's kindergarten teacher kept trying to slow my son down and then he stopped paying attention (to the other subjects too). He was so good in math already that you couldn't tell but in other subjects he missed some core skills. His 1st grade teacher used to send him out twice a week to work w/ 3rd & 4th graders w/ more advanced math (he still did the 1st grade work too). One of his other teachers put him in charge of a special graphing project and he decided who could help and who couldn't when other kids got done.

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My son refers to himself as a "math nerd" so he LOVES math too! Personally, I'm glad he breezes through math & has more time to concentrate on reading & grammar, etc. I have bought him math workbooks a year or two ahead so he can get a good math challenge fix IF he's in the mood for it.

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You can see if the school can offer some challenging math work for him.

OR you can find things to do at home. There are some things my preschool doesn't cover that I wish they did, so we just do it ourselves at home.

That is awesome that he LOVES math. I'm hoping my kids will be like that. Make sure you keep up his interest in it and look for math camps, etc when he gets a little older.

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What does HE want to do? We have two children who have been "identified" as gifted (from iq testing done by the school psychologist). One wants to coast, the other wants to be challenged. The one who wants to coast would resent it if we continally pushed him. He already feels sometimes it is a "burden" to be gifted b/c more is expected of him. The other one wants the challenge and asks for it. She has been accelerated in math. This year she's in 6th grade...but doing math at an 8th grade level. She's also in a 7th grade English class. The district wanted us to have her skip a grade, but she's already one of the youngest in the class and we didn't want to do it because of the social pressures of middle school. That said, I know there's an 11 year old in our district who is now in 11th grade and is doing well. You have to decide what's best for your invidivual child. Supposedly, our school is one of the best in the area for gifted education, but I don't see it. We have to push for EVERYTHING we want/need for our kids. There are laws in PA about what is required for the gifted kids, but we have to push our district to comply with the law. It will happen, but it won't happen if we don't intervene. I'm not familiar with MD law, but I suspect you could find out about the laws on the MD dept. of education website. Our district has a parent group for parents of gifted kids and the leaders have tremendous insight. Tap into parent resources in your district. Most districts won't test kids as young as your son, but you can have him tested on your own. I'm not sure where in Maryland you're located, but from what I understand, Johns Hopkins has some very good programs for elementary school students and can also do some testing that you would bring to your district to support your position that he is advanced in math. I know my daughter took one called TOMAGS (test of mathematically gifted students) and that helped us to convince our district to advance her. Good luck with this. If you have any further questions, feel free to send me a PM. I've spent LOTS of hours on this issue.

Oh...and as someone else mentioned...both our kids have GIEPs. Don't be bashful about advocating for your son. You are the one who has his best interest in mind!

Other thoughts...ask for different work..not more work. It's not fair to the gifted kids for them to do more work just because they're gifted. If you don't want to advance him a grade (as we've chosen not to with both our kids despite our district's recommendations), try to find some type of hybrid where he can be challenged. When our daughter was in 5th grade, she went to the middle school for math. This took a while to convince the district, but it was so good for her. There are also a TON of on-line math programs...first in math and study island are two our district uses. Maybe he could be doing some advanced work on the computer while others are working on the skills he has already mastered.

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My son is the same way. He is in second grade this year. He loves math too. I talked to his teacher last year and she said that she could only teach 1st grade math. So, I do fun, or harder, math at home. He likes to be given a dollar amount and tell me how many quarters are in it ex., $523 and it equals 2092 quarters. Good luck with your issue. K.

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Last year my daughter was in first grade in public school, after being in a Montessori K and pre-K. Her teacher said the first "Unit" was all review, this was for math and reading. In my mind, the unit would have been a couple of weeks, but I think in reality it ended up being almost 2 months. She was bored and it was easy. I do think things improved a little after that.

That being said, it doesn't hurt to talk to his teacher and find out how the curriculum will change over the course of the year. Find out if what he has been doing has been all review (my daughter's was stuff she had done in pre-K). Some school districts do have G&T programs, in others, those don't start until at least 3rd grade. Before you push the teacher or the school, just try to get an understanding of what is ahead. Kids have very varied backgrounds prior to 1st grade, so I think they spend a lot of time on the basics in the beginning, trying to get them all to where they can progress.

Something you could do, if you think he would enjoy it, is go to a teacher supply store and buy a math workbook for 1st or 2nd grade level. He can do his own worksheets in that if he wants to challenge himself with math. They have "bridge books" designed to keep the kids brains from going to mush over the summer, or just a workbook for the year. He may find it fun for awhile to skip to the back and try to do harder stuff, or he may decide he has more fun - less work-like ways to spend his free time.

It's my opinion that you and your husband need to talk about this a little bit more, because I think that there are two different issues here... One is whether it will "help" him in the long run to work on more advanced material. Most of what I've read is that it is difficult to continually move ahead from the rest of the class and maintain it, until you reach the grades where math courses are separated by interest/ability. I think in this regard, your husband is probably right that it won't "do him any good" from a long term learning perspective. However, the other issue is his interest level... you are right that he will stay more interested if he is challenged, and keeping him excited is more than half the battle. For this reason, I suggest working with his teacher to find materials that will challenge him without pushing him to achieve any specific outcomes... hope this helps :)

The first two months of math are usually review because so many kids' skills slide backwards in the summer. (Hence the push for year round schooling!) However, just because the work will eventually get more challenging, doesn't mean that you (or the teacher) should ignore your son's request. ALWAYS encourage the impulse to work harder and learn more. Learning to hold himself to high standards and make good use of his time is more important than any math facts your son will come across! If he's finishing his school work faster than his peers, his teacher could have some enrichment worksheets available for him to try. She could keep them in a special place where he go and pick one up quietly while the other kids are working. (Just make sure they're fun activities and not just more of the same boring stuff.) At home, I bet you could find some math games on the internet he'd enjoy. Your little guy seems to have a great work ethic already! I think that this is a wonderful "problem" to have!

I would definatly 'encourage' his love of it, but it is likely that you will have to do it at home for now. I know that with my daughter's school they do not start any gifted programs till 3rd grade. It is always worth askign about, but don't be suprised if they don't have any programs for his age.

I have a son just like that. He can see math in everything he does. If the work is to easy for him ask if there is an accelerated program thru the school. my son has a GIEP. we all know that an IEP is to help students with learning problems well a GIEP is to help those students that are gifted get the education that they need.

Ask your teacher they know if your son is ahead of the grade in any class. And no matter the class size or the "trouble" that they would have to go thru to help with extra work. They are after all the kids teacher and it is their job to do so. ANy good teacher would never hesitate to do so.

Its okay to ask nicely. Your school may have a gifted program that you son would qualify for. However, please don't "push" the teacher. Most teachers have 30 students in a class now, without an aide. And they have to prepare 4 to 7 different subjects a day. They unfortunately do not have time to find & assign extra work to students. (As a former teacher myself, most of us would LOVE to have the time & ability to nurture EVERY child's interests & abilities. However, we are restrained by STATE mandated curriculum & high stakes testing. Which leaves no room for anything else.)
You may be able to give her a workbook to keep in the classroom that he can work on when he is done with his classwork. But, don't expect her to have time to help him figure it out. Unfortunately, most students are behind in math. My husband was told by a local teacher that almost half of her students come to kindergarten not know what a circle, square or triangle are. The teachers have to catch these students up, so that they will pass all the state tests. Any extra time teachers have, must be devoted to these students. It is sad & unfortunate, but it is a result of our test obsessed society.
Your best option is probably to work with him at home (or push to have him tested & moved up a grade level). Stores like Target & Walmart sell work books for every grade level in various subjects. Or you could order math books on line. Singapore & Japan have very highly ranked national math programs & there are companies that sell English versions of their text & work books. I would recommend buying one at his current grade level & working through the book. When he finishes it, start the one at the next grade level. This way he doesn't miss anything. Also, since he already spends all day in school, I wouldn't spend more than 10 minutes a night on the extra math. (I have not purchased these texts yet, but I plan to at some point. I anticipate the same problem with my kids as you are having. My oldest is only 3, but he is way above his same aged peers in academics. )
Good luck.