Khan Academy and other sources

[Sydneystache]

My son has started high school (Year 7) and loves maths. Naturally, I want to encourage and foster his love for it. He sometimes find lessons boring so I think he is ready to learn more and beyond. He wants to learn new things not covered by the curriculum.

I have found Khan Academy useful (and wish I had it at his age) but he does not find it appealing and his attention span strays after a minute or two. Forget about a 10 minute video!

So, are there any other sources that you have used for your kids which keeps their undivided attention? Fosters and encourages their learning?

TIA

[zhelud]

My math-loving husband loves Art of Problem Solving- he works with our sons on their courses all the time.

https://artofproblemsolving.com/

[trashmanz]

My son has started high school (Year 7) and loves maths. Naturally, I want to encourage and foster his love for it. He sometimes find lessons boring so I think he is ready to learn more and beyond. He wants to learn new things not covered by the curriculum.

I have found Khan Academy useful (and wish I had it at his age) but he does not find it appealing and his attention span strays after a minute or two. Forget about a 10 minute video!

So, are there any other sources that you have used for your kids which keeps their undivided attention? Fosters and encourages their learning?

TIA

You do the lesson on Kahn Academy so that you can convey it to him without using youtube.  Don't be lazy, get involved if you really care.   :)

[Cranky]

There are a lot of videos on youtube about the math of paperfolding - my students always love those. And there are some related math/physics/engineering Crash Course videos.

I think you have to know *why* you want a Kahn Academy lesson, because they aren't very riveting on their own.

[Sydneystache]

You do the lesson on Kahn Academy so that you can convey it to him without using youtube.  Don't be lazy, get involved if you really care.   :)

We did a couple of lessons on Khan Academy together. This is him after a minute : "I know, I know." Then he switches off. He is interested but wary. Case in point, we did imperfect fractions recently but he has a more autonomous style of learning. He is an explorer and discoverer that wants to do things on his own.

He resents (?) when I try to solve puzzles with him e.g. fractions. With homework, the teachers have drummed into them not to plagiarise and OMG the backchat I get when I say to him, let me proofread your work to ensure you did not make any mistakes. So, how to deal with that? I want to help a very independent learner (which was also me at his age but done out of necessity) who gets bored easily.

Hence, I am looking for other sources which won't impose on his

[bogart]

... OMG the backchat I get when I say to him, let me proofread your work to ensure you did not make any mistakes. So, how to deal with that? ...

No idea what the norms are in your corner of the world, but I'd deal with it by not proofreading his work.  Heck, my son's in elementary school and I resent the fact that I feel I have to proofread his work because his teacher doesn't correct (among other things) spelling errors.  As far as I'm concerned, honestly my own job as a parent vis-a-vis his homework should be making sure he has the materials and space (literal and figurative) he needs to complete it (including me, if he needs help puzzling through how to do something, but not otherwise), and being notified if there are problems (e.g. he's not turning it in).  I want him to take responsibility for his own work.  Obviously that is itself a learning process, but IMO an important one.

[better late]

My math-loving husband loves Art of Problem Solving- he works with our sons on their courses all the time.

https://artofproblemsolving.com/

+1  for Art of Problem Solving.

Great classes as part of a curriculum and also prep courses for Contest Math, which might interest your child. The math is challenging, and suited to an independent learner.

He can start with Alcumus which is free.

[bop]

My math-loving husband loves Art of Problem Solving- he works with our sons on their courses all the time.

https://artofproblemsolving.com/

+1 for Art of Problem Solving (AoPS).  Their books and courses are designed for students who like math, who are good at it, and who are looking for an extra challenge. 

Full Disclosure:  I am a co-author of one of the AoPS books. 

[Sydneystache]

Thanks, looks like lots of recommendations for AoPS so will try that. 👍

@bogart At primary/elementary school, his teachers could not spell properly. Sounding like a grammar nazi but the basics : its v it's / their v there v they're / your v you're. Alas, he's carried these mistakes in high school and he is disgruntled when I correct him 🙄. He's afraid his teachers will know his parent has helped him.🙄🙄

[cacaoheart]

It's not a free program, but when my daughter is old enough in a few years, I'm looking forward to trying out Redbird math with her: https://redbirdlearning.com/ https://giftedandtalented.com/

It seems to be very comprehensive, adaptive, and interesting, with courses from kindergarten through calculus.

[galliver]

My parents would give me a puzzle from a book such as the one below, and then nothing else until I solved it, definitely NEVER the solution (I could sometimes wheedle a hint out of them after a couple *days*). It doesn't teach math in a curricular sense, but it does teach persistence and flexibility (looking at a problem from different perspectives) which really help e.g. when you start doing trigonometric identities and such.

https://books.google.com/books?id=fA3CAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=martin+gardner&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj67s7L9sfTAhXiwFQKHefhB8QQ6AEIKTAB#v=onepage&q=martin%20gardner&f=false

One of my favorites (not from this book, I think): 4 hikers are walking along, after dusk, and they come to an old, holey bridge across a raging river. The bridge can hold 2 travelers, but it is so old and holey they must have a flashlight to cross safely. However, they only have one flashlight. Additionally, they're at different levels of fitness/exhaustion and would take different amounts of time to cross over the bridge: 1, 2, 5, and 10 minutes. Obviously, the faster traveler can slow down and go at the slower traveler's speed. How do they get across the bridge in the *shortest* amount of time? (Hint: it's 15 mins. Also there is no throwing the flashlight or other tricks, it's quite straightforward.)

Another good one that tortured me for a week some months ago and gave great satisfaction to solve (I hope I'm remembering the conditions correctly): you have two flammable pieces of rope (fuses) that burn in 30 mins and 1hr respectively; however, they do not necessarily burn consistently (i.e. half the length does not burn in half the time. How do you time 45 mins?

You said he was an independent problem solver: give him problems to solve independently! (Maybe add a small reward for when he does...)

[bogart]

@bogart At primary/elementary school, his teachers could not spell properly.

Yes, similarly situated, I feel your pain (thus do I find myself marking my son's spelling, etc.  Even simple stuff like correct capitalization ... it boggles the mind.).  But I'll admit I pretty much never look at his math as he (and his teacher) seem to have a good handle on that ... so yes, I get involved where I have to also, but try to avoid it where I can also.

[Sydneystache]

Yes, maths seems relatively so easy compared to English these days. Simple fucking punctuation ffs! Where are the full stops and commas? I'm sorry but HR departments don't do ee cummings well. At primary school, the times his teachers would scrawl on his work: "Fantastic, your great!" would shit me up the wall.

Rant over. :-)

[bogart]

Amen.  School authorities have even told me they're not worrying about spelling anymore because "they'll have spell-check," which -- well, your example pretty much says all that needs to be said.  Not clear to me why we still need to learn math(s) by this logic, given the existence of calculators.  Sigh.

[Sydneystache]

That is sad and pathetic. Sure, spell check is helpful but it's still shit to rely on. When you're more educated than the educators themselves, it becomes a worry. I don't particularly subscribe to this current race to mediocrity where speed and efficiency are vaunted at the expense of accuracy. And  errors are acceptable because of their technology policy 🙄. Your school system sounds like it needs some kicks to the backsides of people running it.

On the bright side, I have found a Penguin book on punctuation and it will be on my nightly reading list with DS now. I have also joined my son's high school P&C (PTA) mostly out of serendipity. I could have never joined his primary school's due to the cliqueyness but his high school P&C seems to be cool and chill with the kids' best interest at heart. We shall see.

[mxt0133]

One of my favorites (not from this book, I think): 4 hikers are walking along, after dusk, and they come to an old, holey bridge across a raging river. The bridge can hold 2 travelers, but it is so old and holey they must have a flashlight to cross safely. However, they only have one flashlight. Additionally, they're at different levels of fitness/exhaustion and would take different amounts of time to cross over the bridge: 1, 2, 5, and 10 minutes. Obviously, the faster traveler can slow down and go at the slower traveler's speed. How do they get across the bridge in the *shortest* amount of time? (Hint: it's 15 mins. Also there is no throwing the flashlight or other tricks, it's quite straightforward.)

I think you got the numbers wrong.

Given person A = 1, B =2, C = 5, D = 10.

Start with sending A and B, takes 2 min, send A back, total 2 + 1 = 3 min.

Send C and D takes 10 min, send B back, total time 3 + 10 + 2 = 15 min.

Than AB back takes 2 for a total of  15 + 2 = 17 min.

How do you get 15 min as the lowest?

I looked up the problem after 10 minutes and the numbers should be 1,2,5,8 to get min time of 15.  There goes minutes i'll never get back.

[mxt0133]

Another good one that tortured me for a week some months ago and gave great satisfaction to solve (I hope I'm remembering the conditions correctly): you have two flammable pieces of rope (fuses) that burn in 30 mins and 1hr respectively; however, they do not necessarily burn consistently (i.e. half the length does not burn in half the time. How do you time 45 mins?

You lite the one that takes 1 hour on both ends, which will take 30 min to burn out.  As soon as the first rope burns out and simultaneously lite the 30 min rope on both ends which should take 15 min to get a burn time of 45.

[galliver]

One of my favorites...

I think you got the numbers wrong.

Looks like I did. It's been known to happen! I ran through it in my head but not very carefully, apparently.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[the_fella]

I'm also a big fan of Khan Academy, but Sal's repetitive nature and slowness really gets on my nerves. I have to watch his videos on 1.5 or 2x speed. Your son might appreciate that.

[milliemchi]

My daughter was working with Aleks this year, she was covering algebra readiness and pre-algebra. In school, her excellent teacher was covering pre-algebra and algebra, but my daughter decided to take it slow and do ALL the problems in the algebra readiness set, even though she could have tested out of it months ago. Now she's finishing the pre-algebra set online, and in classroom will move on to algebra next year (7th grade). Aleks has a method of testing your readiness level for each level problem set, and then progressively serving you 'skills' to master as you go. Each skill has a step-by-step explanation page in case you are stuck. The excellent teacher in school and Aleks allowed her to make up for two year of a horrible math teacher, and to go from 'I hate math' to 'I love math, it is so easy'. This is likely a level or two below where your son is, but Aleks goes all the way up to calculus. I'd try that for your son, because it's really modular. Each 'skill' stands on its own, and takes 3-5 problems to 'master'. If you know what you're doing, each problem takes under a minute. If you don't know what you're doing, it's still a circumscribed topic that lends well to short attention spans. It costs money, but not too much. For us, the school paid for it, and I'm considering paying to continue access when she switches to a new school next year. The downside for you may be that Aleks is very much aligned to the school curriculum, so you're not likely to get new types of problem. The benefit would be in being able to work ahead.