Primary School Mathematics, Mathaletics, and Excel

In a previous post School and Right-sizing Lessons, I was talking about my son Wills8, an equivalent of grade 2 in a regular primary school, who expressed he was bored at school. This started a whole process, which led to our meeting with his teacher and seeing how very responsive his Montessori school was. Essentially the plan was to broaden his project experience at his level and to introduce him several times a week to upper primary or the equivalent of grade four in a primary school. This would allow him to ‘right size’ his english and mathematics classes to a level which was more engaging and exciting.

Primary School Mathematics and Excel?

We also made sure to follow up on Mathaletics, an online program that challenged the speed of his basic skills and his retrieval of mathematical concepts.

Recently, I’m suspecting even this wasn’t enough. Primary school mathematics at grade 4 didn’t seem to introduce concepts more difficult than grade 3. So I took one step further and looked into grade 5 material. It seemed to me that this level would challenge him appropriately, if he was provided some guidance through it.

So I’ve taken the initiative to orientate my 8yo boy with this grade 5 mathematics syllabus. I’ve also decided to provide his lessons on MS Excel and to make sure he is shown practical applications for the math concepts he’s learning.

I started off explaining the analogy for the computer directory, then creation of documents, then basic functions of excel. For the last week or so, it seems he has kept pace and has taken on board math concepts that allows him to come up with ‘expressions’ to describe real world phenomenon/behaviour using just numbers.

This post isn’t about how good my son is. The post is about how we can all take the time to make mathematics more accessible and more practical for young children. A strong mathematical and logical platform drives a lot of the business activities that I myself do … and I assume its importance will continue to be the same for him.

Read the follow up post Primary School Maths – Should I Push My Son?

Cheers

Links

• School and Right Sizing Lessons
• Top 10 Ways of How to Help Your Kids do Well in Math
• Mathaletics
• Literacy and Math Testing for Four Year Olds!
• Art Over Maths
• Education Posts on SuperParents

Colin
–
The Original SuperParent
Supporting Parents Caught in the Middle Between Young and Aging Adult Dependents
Come visit SuperParents Behind-the-Scenes FaceBook Page, become a fan, and spread the joy.
SuperParents Homepage | Submit an Article | MoDiscipline | Baby Names | Calendar