Posted by Carrie on 18:32 Jan 10
It has been obvious to me for some time that my son is a very good reader. And while he was working a grade ahead in math, I really didn't give it much thought. But it is starting to become more evident to me that I am holding him back and I need to figure out how to adjust to him. He is 6, officially in 1st grade, and we are doing BJU Math 2. Last year we didn't seem to have this problem, in fact he sometimes got frustrated with the work. However, I have realized that it wasn't the concepts he was having trouble with (he completely understood addition and subtraction) it was just the memorization of the facts. Now that he has the facts down very well, this year that hasn't been a problem. This year the book has been a complete breeze for him. Mostly it has been review, and the few new concepts we have touched on (addition and subtraction with renaming), he has picked up very quickly. Unfortunately, I've just made him work through the book, one lesson at a time. Now next week we are supposed to start with multiplication but he already knows how to multiply. He knows the order principle of multiplication and the grouping principle. But, he doesn't know his facts ( he knows some but has a long way to go before he knows them all). So, my question is....how should I proceed? Do I keep on track, going lesson by lesson? Or is there some way I can continue to challenge him with new concepts while taking our time learning the facts? I don't want him to start getting frustrated with math again, like last year, just because he doesn't have the facts down cold.
Any suggestions?