Something interesting happened at school recently. Heidi (in 2nd grade) was asked to try the Pace math class at school. Pace math is an accelerated math curriculum. My neighbor told me they are trying to get the Pace math kids 1 full year ahead. So it is more challenging and at a much quicker "pace." She passed half of the screener test. She did great on the problem solving test but couldn't do her math facts quickly enough. So they put her in on a probationary basis. She lasted 1 week. She got so overwhelmed and felt like she couldn't hack it. Some of the other kids were starting on multiplication tables and she still had to work on her addition facts (in 1st grade, they just studied addition up to 10 (4+6=10) and but 1st grade Pace math did addition up to 20 (7+13=20)) The day she quit, she came home sad because she felt like she'd failed. The class was "skip counting." I could never figure out what kind of skip counting it was (counting up by 3's or something). But she was lost and lost her confidence.
I am really proud of her that she has such good problem solving skills. Certainly, I can't complain about her math facts, I still can't remember all of my multiplication tables. But math facts are just a short part of mathematical education (my math minor illustrates), so I bet the Pace math question comes up again.
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