Posted by erica on 20:18 Sep 13
In Reply to: Acceleration and gifted kids... do they really "forget" the basics, (continued from thread below) posted by Kay in Cal
DS does forget things, but he doesn't need them retaught from scratch, just reminded. And after it's come up a few times it's stuck in there pretty well. The problem I've found is that most curricula are aimed at kids who get all their review in one block, where DS a) gets bored and b) hasn't really forgotten it yet. So instead of that we plow straight through at top speed doing only a few problems, but remind him when he has forgotten something.
Some things he never forgets and some things he slips up on more frequently (right now, distributing multiplication across the whole side of the equation when solving for a variable -- but this is an improvement over when he forgot how to distribute in the first place...)
He does not use a calculator, and will not until it's completely untenable to do it by hand, so he does get daily practice in arithmetic with whole numbers, decimals and fractions ~while~ doing algebra. And then on the side he continues with word problems a few levels back -- more arithmetic alongside the heavy thinking required in CWP. And sometimes I'll just throw in a random "what's 4x4?" to make sure he can cough up the facts.
The psychologist who did his testing specifically said (and I don't know if he was talking only about DS or if this was his opinion of gifted kids in general) - if he can do 2 problems he doesn't need to do 20, but that doesn't mean he'll never need to review. And that's what has panned out. Making him do 20 doesn't help, and expecting him to remember everything I've ever taught him doesn't work. But letting him zip through fast and returning to it as necessary has been perfect. 95% of it never needs to be reviewed, and the other 5% we return to until it's solid.