5 yr old can add and subtract in head and do times tables - not at school yet all self taught.

[hambo]

I know this is not 'gifted' having read some amazing stories on here about 3 yr olds etc...but is this level ahead of an average 5 yr old? He starts school after the summer and I am worried he will be bored.

Bored? probably not, he will be about the level of some other 5 yr olds going into year 1.

think it's pretty unusual for a reception child to beable to do times tables!

but this is mumsnet after all

think he may need extra work but I am not a teacher so can't say really

wow though , sounds really clever!!

i would say that is pretty gifted actually yes, and I think he will be bored when working on basic maths if he is more advanced.

i have no experience of having a particularly gifted child, but I would say just let the teachers get to know him and figure out that he is naturally good at maths and hopefully they will set him work that is appropriate so that he doesn't get bored.

Thank you - I thought I was maybe having a PFC moment!! He constantly amazes me and I recently had to enrol him at school and wondered if I should mention his love of numbers, so I think I will. Thanks for all your replies xx

Why is he not at school now if he is 5?

My 6yo dd has always been very good with numbers - but not that good! So yes, he's ahead of the pack and it's worth mentioning it to the school so that they can make sure he's appropriately stretched.

Are you outside the UK?

I was thinking the same as iamnotinterested re why is he not at school yet.

I wouldn't say its hugely advanced for a 5 year old but most definitely above average as potentialy a child of 5 yrs would be in year 1 in English schools so would be doing this kind of work, however he would definitely be the top end of the class for sure.

The school should be able to stretch him well enough to make sure he's not bored and don't forget a lot of the learning is through play so he will be developing his social skills, literacy and other areas so there should be plenty to keep him occupied.

I was always told rather than to push my DS in one area that he may be exceptional at, that I should broaden his knowledge in other areas ie sports, music etc.

Hello

No, I'm up in Scotland, and had to decide whether to send him youngish or oldish and I went for oldish. He's just turned 5, but has lots of other stuff to learn as lou2321 says so will do as suggested. Thanks for your replies.

My4.8 year old is in reception and can also do these things. He was bored to start with in terms of Mathis work as they didn't know what he could do. Therefore he was working on counting objects to ten, recognising numerals etc. once we had a quiet word things improved, he is given extension activities.

But, he wasn't ahead in any other area (eg he couldn't read at all), so actually the vast majority of the time he was fully engaged in the same activities as all the others.not bored at all!

Dd2 can add and subtract in head, only knows 2 and 5 times tables but she hasn't been taught any of that. She is still learning to read(though making v good progress), but is v obsessed with interested in history and teacher reckons her vocab is better than her own! Honestly how many children are likely to be talking about what they did during ''doing time or as I like to call it -child initiated time''.

To be honest a lot of reception for her has involved learning to make and play with friends - something she found v hard at nursery, junk modelling, evesdropping on teachers and working out which reading level everyone else in the class, and beyond, is on. There is loads going on in reception for a clever child to focus on without getting bored.

DD is five and can do similar things (she's in Reception). School sent a maths worksheet home suggesting she work on 'the story of 2' which is, thrillingly, the fact that 0+2, 1+1 and 2+0 all add up to 2. Have ignored it. She can add eg 12+10 or 21+7 in her head without missing a beat. She worked out herself that if you know 5+5 and want to know 6+6, the answer must be two more than 5+5. The class goal this term was to order and write numbers up to ten, count objects up to ten and think about one more and one less which is pretty dull for her, though she doesn't really mind. She's a pretty well-behaved and sensible child and always pays attention even when things are easy for her which I kind of suspect might take her further than her early facility for arithmetic!

We are just pootling on with more interesting things at home, like odd and even numbers - we did an experiment with raisins to see how some are odd and some even and if there's a rule, and she's now busily pointing odd and even numbers out all over the shop. We are also dividing by three and four and five with raisins as props - then eating one or more and seeing what happens. She informed me (unprompted, following a period of unaccustomed silence and visible cog-turning) a couple of years ago that if you had a basket of three things and two more baskets of three things then you'd have nine things and three baskets. Bar charts have also been v interesting for her. And she is very intrigued by Venn diagrams and sets of things and what makes something be part of a set.

We also got a great book called something like Sandbox Science from Amazon, which has ideas for 'experiments' you can do at home - not strictly maths but it has given me a great jumping off place to think of fun stuff. Some of it requires you to get hold of equipment, but even the things we haven't been able to source have given me ideas for other activities. For a child who has a natural facility with numbers some early science activities can be very absorbing and perhaps a kind of sideways stretch.

Hope this gives you some ideas of things you could do with your son that might interest him! I'm under no illusions that DD is going to turn out a genius but in the mean time, we have had a lot of fun with our raisins and bottles of frozen water etc!

I think if your child does not show (or have the chance to show) what he can do and starts to not enjoy a subject he previously enjoyed I would mention it. I would give the teacher a good time to assess each child first though as they will be all be at different levels. Hope your little one enjoys the rest o fthe time he has pre school .

I agree it sounds like very good mental maths! However maths is a wide and varied subject and although a facility to deal mentally and have a 'feel' for numbers is a HUGE advantage there are other areas which may stretch him later.
My DS2 (Yr 2) is a complete natural with numbers, place order and mental maths. He has very good skills in these areas and seems to just 'get it'. For instance when he was in Yr1 and just 5 years old we discussed negative numbers and he was able to come up with the analogy of a lift going to the basement for minus one and extrapolate that there must be a negative infinity as well as infinity. His older brother just looked blank
BUT get him to draw a bar chart or a symmetrical figure and he is all over the place as his fine motor skills are not as good as his mental maths! Time telling is also tricky for him but he is getting there. And word problems where he has to pick the maths out of a paragraph are really good for stretching him especially if he needs to think which operation to do first.
Cooking and using volume and expressing Measurements in different units (eg 1 meter 46 is 146 cm) is a good way to go as is using money and looking at the properties of shapes.
I am sure your DS will do really well but there is soooo much more to maths than times tables!