Math and FIne Motor

[mrsrandolph]

My 5 year old son is in LHTH. I usually start LHFHG at age 6. He turns 6 at the end of November. I feel that he is immature for his age (whiney, short attn span, fine motor). He is VERY smart...he can read and has a Great grasp of number concepts. I don't want to hold him back from academics.

My main concern with him is with fine motor. He is using Handwriting Without Tears "Get Set For School", and we have their ipad ap.

I KNOW he can handle the math concepts in Saxon 1(we use Saxon for math), but he can't "write" the numbers. Is this a reason to hold him back from it?

One thought I had was having him tell me what number should be written in a given space, me writing it in marker, then him tracing it in pencil.

Thoughts?

[raindrops]

Well... LHFHG sounds perfect for him (I think), but you know him better AND you have more HOD experience with him. Little Hands gentle encourages fine motor skills and number (remember the dishsoap idea?) and letter formation. If he understands numbers but has difficulty forming then LHFHG is ideal. If he has already mastered forming numbers then he'd be "beyond" (pun intended, hehe) Little Hands. They aren't suppose to be masters at the beginning of the guide.

My thoughts!

[StephanieU]

We use a different phonics and math (Horizons), and I often write and have my daughter trace when there is just a lot of writing. She CAN write, but she is actually younger than your son. I don't let her fine motor control and endurance to slow her down from learning anything.

[MelInKansas]

How close are you to finishing LHTH? Attention span will play a part in whether he does well in LHFHG also. If he is going to finish LHTH anyway, then I would say you could move on to LHFHG and help him with writing numbers for a little while. My oldest was the same, she was very smart (still is) but writing has always been the thing to hold her back. Even now that is the struggle. So in some ways I can see the value in waiting. I have read some things (Charlotte Mason was a big proponent of this) that if we expect too much fine motor skills out of young boys especially at a young age, then you really turn them off of all school. Maybe he needs to be mentally challenged without the expectation of too much writing yet, but if you get too far into LHFHG and he still isn't doing any/much writing then Beyond will be a big leap. Again, that's what I found with my oldest daughter. Yes, you can help them along, but you don't want to be doing that all the way through.

If he still has a lot of LHTH to do I would just keep that going until it is done. Add in other things he is ready for, reading, math. Writing numbers isn't a math concept and therefore if you feel he understands math but just can't write, I wouldn't necessarily let that hold him back. He will learn how to write them someday.

[bethelmommy]

I know I read a suggestion once of using number stamps. I actually looked for them at one time, but ds was coming along in handwriting enough by then that I opted not to purchase them. I think tracing the numbers for awhile would be fine and I think I remember doing that for the first few weeks when we started LHFHG. I'm pretty sure we also used some Kumon letter and number books for extra practice prior to starting LHFHG.