[luckystarmom]

He should learn how to estimate. It is important.

For example, you have $100 to buy groceries. You don’t go around calculating the exact dollar amount for every item you purchase. You estimate.

There are a lot of other examples. How much paint should you buy to paint a room. You estimate how big that room is and then calculate how many gallons of paint to buy.

[wintertime]

Estimating should be learned only **after** the basics have thoroughly and completely mastered.

In fact, once a child has learned and fully MASTERED the basics, estimating comes **naturally**. It requires very little instruction whatsoever.

I've had some experience with this.

My homeschooled kids used Saxon Math. The entered college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. All finished Calculus III by the age of 15. The two younger earned B.S. degrees in math by the age of 18.