I have a 10 yob who has done very little formal academics. He is very creative in nature, devours books (although he didn’t learn to read until age 9), draws continually, has an inventors mind (like his beloved daddy), can recite to you anything he has read from a book, is fascinated by history, but despises using the pencil! He is very obedient and will do whatever I ask but is coming to despise math because of its continuous writing. We have done lots and lots of mental math over the years, and I write a lot of word problems out on the board and he will do them. We started Saxon 54 this year. When he sees me pull out the book, his face does these strange contortions! He will complete the pages and get the answers correct but he loathes it! Is it time for him to just buckle down and do it?
Sandy

I wonder why it is that some boys just hate holding that pencil. I wish someone in a university somewhere in the land of degrees and professors would do a study and tell us why. Perhaps it is because just the though of all that “work” they must do in holding the pencil just so (and holding the pencil never really feels comfortable to them) and writing out each and every letter (and they know they can never get the letters to looks exactly just like in the books) is too overwhelming to them. And then on top of that they must sit still for so much time when they really just long to be jumping and rolling and talking.

I think a 10 year old should be doing some writing every day, even if it is just a little bit. Allow him to do as much of the math orally as possible or write out for him what he dictates to you. Your son sounds like a delightful laddie who is willing to please his mommy and daddy in most anything. Help him out with his weaknesses. In another year or so he will be more ready to write out on his own his math exercises.