How do I get Evangeline to slow down?

[conuly]

We've been having the nieces do "extra math" because NYC schools put a big emphasis on reading and I think math really suffers a little. Especially when the kids are already reading at or above grade level.

We didn't finish their workbooks during the school year, we're doing that now, and starting up with math games and all again because if nothing else, this summer Ana has got to, got to, GOT TO start memorizing some of her addition and subtraction facts. She has to count on her fingers, and then she gets frustrated that it slows her down and she drops her pencil.

If Ana works at the pace she's going, one exercise a day (which is more than she would be doing during the school year, there are more days than assignments), she'll pretty much be done by the time school starts in September. One workbook is half a year, we started late in the second half of the year, that's about right.

If Evangeline works at the pace she's going, 3+ pages a day, she'll be done with first grade math by the time she enters first grade.

She is ahead of where her sister was at that age, at that point in school (remember, Ana entered kindy half a year older than her sister entered did!), heck - she's ahead of where Ana was in the middle of her first grade year already!

I have tried talking to her, imploring her to slow down. "No thanks!" I've tried taking away her math and giving her on-level books to read to me. I've tried hiding her math, which is just deeply surreal.

I love this child. I don't understand her. HELP ME.

(Also, I love Ana, but she has got to stop with the fingers. I know the school didn't emphasize memorizing, and I know they have a really valid reason for that, but I also know that Ana is getting really really convinced that because she can't do math fast she's not good at it, and that's not the case. But you can't convince that child of anything. Best thing for her is lots of very cleverly disguised drill. Next year is not going to be very fun.)

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

I had huge problems with "math" in Elementary School, even though I was great at math concepts. The only thing that worked was years of regularly doing math. By about partway through fourth grade I'd done enough that it clicked enough in my brain that I was alright. I think you shouldn't discourage her using her fingers, just keep her regularly doing math. If she does it enough, bits of it will start to stick in her brain, and she'll use slower tools less as she needs them less. And hey, I still use fingers now and then, and I think that's okay. I didn't run into serious problems with math until calculus 2, so what I did worked well enough.

As to Evangeline, why have her slow down? Sure, she'll be bored in school with her math work, but you wouldn't deliberately slow down someone's reading development for that reason. Slowing someone down can really kill their enthusiasm and hurt their momentum. I say let her keep advancing. If she has a natural gift for arithmetic, then let her enjoy that, progress in it, and be good at it. And if it saves her time later, she can put it into any subject she finds more challenging. She's unlikely to be equally good at everything. And if she ends up having all her homework being really easy, then you can work with her on other things outside of school that suit her abilities.

[conuly]

She's already bored in school, though... and sorta acting out a little because of it. If she enters the school year a year ahead in math, that's not going to help.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Well, the correct solution to that is to get her into more challenging classes, but I take it that is not necessarily an available option.

[conuly]

Well, she did get into the gifted classes. So did I. It didn't help me. (Or at least, I don't recall that it did, but who knows?)