Working ahead

[sweetgrace]

My 6yo loves math. We are using LHFHG this year with Singapore math Essentials 1A and 1B. Would it be ok if we stopped using what is scheduled in the guide and work at our own pace? He always wants to work more in the workbook. Also, when we are done with these math books could we start the next level up? How fast is too fast working through math or other subjects for that matter.

[MomtoJGJE]

We go at our own pace for math and grammar. I know that's probably not the standard advice, but my kids are very mathy, except my oldest. It took me a LONG time (basically when I realized Julianna was a math genius.... halfway kidding) before I realized I didn't have to stay with the guide. And my oldest, when she finally understands a concept, generally has it down pat. Grammar we are back and forth with the guide, ahead of the guide, or behind the guide. I'm very inconsistent with it, and that's totally me, but in general they score a couple of years ahead on their yearly testing.

But with math when we finish one book we start another. Here is where we are right now.

Jayden - 6th grade, midway through 5B
Grace - 4th grade, midway through 4A
Julianna (seriously has never been taught math formally) - 2nd grade, midway through 3A
Evie - K, midway through KB

Julianna will likely pass Grace. She's brilliant with math. She also has almost a photographic memory. Grace generally gets math concepts pretty quickly, but she's content to do one page per day (my requirement, not lesson, page). Like I said though, Jayden will go through phases where for MONTHS she doesn't get something. Then it'll click and she'll go through the rest of the workbook in a couple of weeks. So even though she's just in 5B right now, she'll likely finish 6B or more before Christmas. So she basically does three workbooks per year.

[Rice]

I try to follow the guide for most things but I think there's nothing wrong with following a child's pace. We're behind in math for one son (my fault - I didn't read the math schedule in the back of the guide) but I'm not going to jump ahead but plug away a bit each day, hopefully catching up at some point in the future. Another son (using a different program) learns in leaps and bounds. He's finding things easy so we went over 3 units of material today and he'll do the tests before we'll learn something new in the next.

My biggest caution (for myself) is that we work on a subject every day that it's scheduled. If they can't handle the entire lesson, at least they've worked on it a bit and can make more progress next time. If they do more than what's scheduled, great! (With the caveat that we don't read ahead just because we want to hear the story! LOL!)

Blessings,

[MomtoJGJE]

Yes the reading part is way different in my mind than the math/grammar part. There is a reason why small portions of reading are scheduled daily. The need to have a chance to ponder over the readings, and the only way to do that is shorter segments. It's also a really good thing to anticipate the rest of the story.

And not to mention the readings get longer quickly