well, he finished it tonight, started it Sunday.

Anyway, Stacy, I thought of you the whole time. I couldn't help, so I had to watch him make silly mistakes, like accidentally hitting an extra key but not looking up before hitting enter and getting it wrong. Or making a silly subtraction mistake and getting a long division problem wrong.

He got 84% on it. You have to have 85% to pass.

And darn it if that didn't motivate him beyond what I've ever seen him motivated (and the kid loves math!) It resets all the areas back to 4.8, so he has to get back to 5.0 before he can take the test again. Which is really annoying when he only had content difficulty with a handful of areas. But I showed no annoyance, and he met the challenge head-on.

He did math for 2 1/2 hours tonight, to try to get back to 5.0 in all areas. (didn't quite get there, I had to basically cut him off because he was so tired!)

Sometimes it's good to "fail".

And he passed it last night, with a 95%. (still some silly mistakes, but much better!)

he was so motivated, he was so careful with how he entered problems. He said, "I'm glad it reset me, because I got to practice a lot more!"

This was a really good lesson for him. Nice.

Wow, Heather, good for him!

WTG Erik!! DS is on his third test, and he did the same silly things this time. However, because he was reset as well, he is being so careful. :lol: This is the first time I've seen him actually be super careful and catch his mistakes. I think this might finally be a turning point with him.

He is also in a Bridges to Algebra enrichment class at school. He is the only kid that already knows everything in it. He had a sudden recognition this week, and it really boosted his confidence. He kind of looked around and thought, "Whoa! I'm pretty good at math." :D It's part of another block class or I wouldn't have requested that he go.

Didn't mean to hijack. It just sounds like there are similar "detail" issues with our boys. :D

Erik is incredibly motivated. That is wonderful!

ah this is something that is hard for me :) Liam will be doing workbooks and say adding things with decimals, and it is so hard for me not to say-- "did you forget something" if he forgets to bring down the decimal. This is especially hard for me to back off enough in regular school (his handwriting is or rather was atrocious, and he ended up with an 87 in Language arts last semester because of it -- they don't have handwriting as a separate grade) Anyway, he wants to do it quickly because he knows the answers, and the detail is lost. it is good to know that if I let him fail a few times that it might spur him to be more detail oriented :)


I think we are abt to try EPGY btw-- I ran out of time in December, so I need to wait for his testing results to come back now (he has done IQ and achievement testing in the last 2 weeks). I am pretty confident that he will test in about mid 4th grade year. In some areas he is a bit higher than that, but we haven't worked on fractions enough I think. Looking at the course descriptions, 4th grade seems about right. I would rather him start a bit lower and work his way through stuff he knows though. Heather, I know Erik started at the beginning-- Stacy did your son as well??? Or did he enter into it based on placement testing??

He was so excited to do 5th grade last night.

heather, I would think that you would want to start him at least at the beginning of 4th grade. Only because they do some stuff that I don't see covered in other places--molecular/atomic sentences especially, I guess. And all of the set notation. Maybe the geometry construction, too, but I guess they would back you up far enough to teach how to do it. Erik only started at the beginning because that was his grade level at the time--he entered at kindergarten with no test results. I feel like fractions are at a very basic level in 4th grade, but maybe it's because Erik seems to intuitively get fractions. No difficulties at all.

How did the testing go for you guys?

Stacy, having read your description of having to sit back and let him make the mistakes really helped me when he was taking the test. I wanted to hover so much. :) It's exciting for A that his confidence is increasing--I didn't think I was good at math until I was in high school, and I think it forever frustrated my mom. I can understand that now, because I was really good at math!

i think testing went well-- it was done during school hours, so I didn't get to talk with the psychometrist much (I have talked to her casually since). We should get the results in a week or so I think-- she hadn't actually scored the IQ yet when I talked with her.

My guess is that they wouldnt start him in the middle of a block, and instead would probably start him with 3rd grade, which is fine, and probably better to help build confidence and interest. He LOVES multiplication, and I would guess that third is probably a lot of multiplication. harcourt is what they use at his school for math, and in general I like the way it teaches-- it is very conceptual, and teaches pre algebra and pre geometry skills very early-- they have talked about vertices and symmetry and patterns and all that sort of thing, and about fractions in relation to geometry

Anyway :) thanks for all of the advice on this-- it really is helpful. I am not good at math :) Not aful at it, but not great. Liam is polishing my skills for sure, especially as I try to explain pre algebra type equations to him -- the explaining leads to me furthering my understanding of the relationships if that makes any sense :)

Heather, I love to sit and watch him do EPGY. I really learn a lot. And I consider myself good at math. :lol:

Nathan has done the same thing TWICE!!! 82% the first time 84% the second... and they were ALL silly mistakes. EVERY SINGLE ONE! He's working on getting back up to the grade level to do the exam again. sigh... but he's not quite so motivated.

Heather, did you start yet? Or rather, did Liam start yet? :lol:

OK, we're 12 days into 5th, and he's 1/4 of the way through. SLOW DOWN son! I know he will--he waxes and wanes on his own, like he'll go gangbusters then back off for a while and process, then want to do a bunch again. But it's still crazy to me. he just gets it so fast.

lol no, they havent finished his evals at the school yet. he can just do the online placement test though cant he? Or should I wait to get his achievement testing back? Should I go ahead and put his stuff in and just send in the test results when they come or??