Is getting ahead in maths a waste of time?

[Bubbinsmakesthree]

DS is going into year 1 next year. His literacy and writing is about average but he seems to have a bit of an aptitude (and enthusiasm) for maths.

I could easily encourage his interest in maths (he enjoys doing workbooks and being set number challenges) but is it a bit of a waste of effort? Will he just get bored at school having to go over the same learning again?

If it makes a difference the school follows a Singapore approach to maths teaching.

Thanks everyone this has been such a helpful thread. He’s quite keen on learning tables at the moment so may as well capitalise on that while it lasts.

Loads of great ideas to think about for ways to engage and interest him without ‘moving ahead’.

Yesterday we cut out pictures of the numberblocks and I challenged him to think of different ways to group them to make particular larger numbers - so he could make 12 from 6, 4 and 2 or from 5 and 7 etc.

times table songs helped my ds, he liked singing along

You need to get into 'stemhub' and find someone willing to nurture the flame of interest....(try and view the Marcus de Sutoy stuff on YouTube don't know if its there... just his skills and interest... )

Maths is 'mechanical'...like a flight of stairs....you must be in one before you reach for the next. Interest and skill must be coaxed and nurtured to survive!

Good luck!

Have you discussed it with the school head? My DD was also very advanced in maths, so the primary school got the local secondary school to send along their first and second year textbooks, and DD worked from them by herself while the rest of the class did primary stuff.
She started secondary school about a year and a half ahead, so again worked alone from the next year’s syllabus, sat her maths Higher a year early, sat her Advanced Highers in pure and applied maths early, and then did a maths degree at uni.
She now has a well paid career in risk analysis with a major bank’s head office.
It helped that our village primary was tiny, so the kids could be given very individual attention. DD had half an hour teaching each day alone with the head, for English - she was reading Dickens in reception class, so didn’t really fit in with the reading scheme!

I'd be inclined to teach him the English National Curriculum at home and challenge him, you should always go by a child's "pace" rather than a year group.
If the school isn't following the National Curriculum I'd be inclined to do it as a non negotiable (even if a child was working behind).
If my child was working ahead in school (on the NC) I'd still challenge them, and expect school to pick up that he's working ahead and do additional work at school.
As someone who works in schools/ private education I personally think it's lazy parenting to not do additional work at home if they're finding everything super easy.

Some good advice from PP. Working at 'greater depth' involves being able to solve problems with the mathematical concepts learned, being able to explain how they solved them, is there more than one answer, spotting when answers are wrong and being able to explain why/how they know it's wrong etc.

With times tables, also learn the related division facts. This will be a great help when learning fractions higher up the school.

Make sure he understand what times tables mean and how to apply that knowledge. I've taught children who have learned them by rote, who get 10 out of 10 every week on times tables tests, but cannot answer questions such as "How many groups of 8 can I make out of 72?" because they don't know what a times table statement means.

Depth and breadth is what I'd be aiming for in the long run. At this age just following their interests and challenging them to experiment or work things out, is ideal.

Later on, if they are picking up a lot of knowledge from watching the many excellent youtube videos etc that are out there (numberphile has been a particular favourite in our house for years), I would recommend encouraging the use of pencil and paper to go back and work through things independently. My youngest has very deep maths knowledge, but at one point this was not matched with the ability to actually apply it / reproduce solving questions, as he just hadn't had enough algebra practice for instance. His teacher in the last year has been able to help him rebalance skills with knowledge though I think.

Have fun!

Get him playing darts - fabulous for number bonds

Look out for logic puzzles and mysteries. Mathematics (once the basic arithmetic is learned) is all about problem solving.

Leaning how to code (both computer programming, and 'how to be a spy' games) might appeal

@Ethelswith could you expand on the "how to be a spy" games please? I've tried googling and now have many instructions in how to play I Spy.

Look into Maths adventure books - there are some similar to Horrible Histories.

www.amazon.co.uk/Maths-Adventures-Paul-Virr/dp/1788286367/ref=asc_df_1788286367/?hvlocphy=1006528&hvlocphy=1006528&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&hvptwo&psc=1&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvnetw=g&hvadid=375506194706&hvadid=375506194706&hvpone&hvpone&hvlocint&hvlocint&ref&th=1&hvpos=1o2&hvpos=1o2&hvdev=c&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-798010140909&hvtargid=pla-798010140909&hvrand=2668624041007501636&hvrand=2668624041007501636&adgrpid=79766931994

www.amazon.co.uk/Adventure-Flip-Flap-Journeys-Kjartan-Poskitt/dp/1405276614?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

www.murderousmaths.co.uk/books/books.htm

Can he tell the time,

tables I will concur with others will be a huge help,

number bonds of less obvious numbers - like 76 etc

loads of games to play www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/kids-activities/fun-maths-games-and-activities/#

Look at Andrew Jeffery's web page

Get him making up number mysteries to help the literacy as well

@ElstreeViaduct

I didn't find exactly what I was thinking of, but googling 'making codes how to be a spy' brought up quite a few child-friendly hits that might interest you.

Working at the speed of your child’s ability is never a waste of time.

How is he on sports, drama, art and music etc ?? All these are really important too at this age. They learn about them selves and other talents they have

Does he have mathlink cubes? My DS (also going into Y1 and numbers obsessed) loves his. He calls them his numberblocks!

Sorry of it’s been mentioned, but using cooking. Baking and making cakes, cupcakes, brownies etc- weighting and measuring.

My maths mad 6 year old loves Sudoku and the like. We like Puzzle Kids this summer. Challenging but he can do most of it with a push.

Yeah ds1 does like numbers too. He sometimes asks ‘silly’ questions like what is 89 x 212? When he does this I turn it back on him: ok - well that’s v hard, do you know about how much it is? So 100 x 200 is 20000. Can we do better? Well 90 x 200 is 18000. 90x 12 is 1080. That’s 19080 - 212, which is 18868. If he loses interest half way I just say - well we know it is about... it also makes it less annoying for me as a parent to hear ridiculous questions repeatedly.

I got him a fraction pizza game and he liked combining different pieces to make a pizza. Kinda let him visualise that 2/6 equals 1/3 etc and how fractions were like splitting pizza in equal pieces among x number of people. When he was used to this I asked him what would happen To the size of the pizza slice if you had to share it among more people (eg 10, 20, 100, 1000)? Does it ever get to 0?

www.amazon.co.uk/Learning-Resources-Pizza-Fraction-Game/dp/B0008JIL8Q?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

He may also like the following iPlayer program on infinity:
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01sfj5y/whats-the-big-idea-29-infinity

Depth over going ahead definitely but also do get time tables to 12 at least out of the way. Such a great base for primary maths to have them done by end of year 1. Once learnt random table squares against the clock aid facility and focus.

And work on his literacy if that lags his maths