Skipping ahead in math

[yippityskippity]

So, 6 yo DD likes math but not "baby math." She's all about finishing filling in her multiplication table and learning division.

Is it going to screw her up skipping ahead to mult/div without knowing how to do double-digit subtraction yet or even much about place value?

The other problem we run into is that she wants to do pages from her Miquon book that are beyond her ability at the moment, because she hasn't learned the basic skills (yet) that build up to the fancier math.

I don't want her to lose her passion for math. But, I also don't want her to start thinking math is "hard" just because she's chosen to skip over some of the basics that would make things easier for her. Does that make sense?

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

[cappuccinosmom]

Can you find math games and things to make the "baby stuff" fun for her? It really is important.

My ds skipped ahead but eventually ran into stuff he couldn't do without a good basic foundational. For him the big problem was that he could figure out basic addition, but it took time and frustrated him. Multiplication made sense to him, with groups and patterns. Because he's somehow not internalized the "number line", adding and subtracting was just random and unpredictable to him. Don't know why his brain did that, but it did. We had to stop and go back to counting forwards and backwards to 100 many times--he had a lot of trouble thinking what number comes before a ten. If I asked him what comes before 80, he'd cry because he really didn't know.

[SundayCrepes]

Here's an interesting article someone just posted in another forum

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...r-own-learning

I'd say if your daughter is wanting to learn something, let her learn it. Let her be self-motivated in her learning rather than de-motivated by an imposed schedule/order.

[moominmamma]

Miquon introduces basic multiplication and division long before place value / regrouping / multi-digit addition and subtraction. They also make it clear that the ordering of the workbook pages and their grouping into the various books is just a simple way to publish them and that an individual child may want to follow particular threads further into other books. That's why the pages are labeled by thread or topic.

The best way for your dd to realize how important some of those basic skills are is for her to encounter things she wants to do but can't because of gaps.

In other words I think you should follow her interests. And the program you're using is set up to allow that.

Miranda

[AAK]

I would let her skip ahead. I would make sure that she saw how multiplication was related to addition. She won't go very far with multiplication without needing to come back to addition, so she won't ever get to "get rid" of addition/subtraction. I would also provide plenty of "real life" math opportunities that showed adding/subtracting. But, maybe she is ready to move on. Maybe she "gets" the concept of adding/subtracting, even if she doesn't have the entire subject mastered.

I don't see math as strictly linear. Sure, she will need a firm grasp of the four basic operations, and ideally "know" her basic math facts well enough to quickly answer them, but going ahead, and then stepping back keeps thing interesting.

amy