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    Joined: Mar 2013
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    Portia Offline OP
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    Hello All,
    Edited...

    Are there any disadvantages to letting him run wild with this program? How far is too much? I assume EPGY's program is a complete curriculum and not something which needs to be supplemented, right? Do I need to put something else on my radar in this field? I see a lot of people use APoS. That seems to be older than the stage we are currently. Am I missing something?

    Thanks,
    Portia

    Last edited by Portia; 02/04/15 07:23 PM.
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    EPGY is pretty comprehensive, although it is probably a bit less "honors"-y than your son will ultimately want.

    I think Singapore Math word problems are the main thing I would supplement EPGY with. The Mental Math books are also good. You can probably wait with both until he hits 3rd or 4th grade EPGY material.

    AOPS is indeed very good stuff, but can wait until he gets into 6th or 7th grade EPGY material. I'm referring to the sequence that starts with Pre-Algebra; they have start on a new 3rd grade cirriculum, but I've not looked at it.

    The book "You Can Count on Monsters" was a big hit for us at that stage.

    As far as how far is too far, I would let him just go, until algebra at least. You can always go back to things and add depth if you want later. Enjoy it -- this is a fun time of life.

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    I second Singapore Math Challenging Word Problems. Another one you might want to look at: Beast Academy. It's the elementary curriculum from the folks at Art of Problem Solving. They've only had the 3rd grade level (consisting of 4 workbooks and 4 textbooks). The textbooks are in comic forms and the workbooks are excellent.

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    My 7yo ds did EPGY for age 5/6.
    He completed 4 or 5 grade levels and was learning but not really challenged.
    We tried AoPS but due to the high typing demand, didn't work for our young student.
    What we have found is ElementsofMath.com
    This is the first program that has actually challenged my ds.
    They can start this program once they finish 6th grade math and it's really FUN learning the math behind secret codes and such.
    I think the hardest part for ds is the fact that he actually has to slow down and think through his answers - something he hasn't had to do with math until now.
    According to Elements of Math, once a student completes their 15 courses, the student will be ready for AP Calculus.

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    I'd say you keep going with the math at home. The math was one of the reasons why we're homeschooling our DS7 too. Last year, in kindergarten DS was only do addition yet in pre-k he was doing multiplication. We ran into all sorts of headaches with the school.

    This year, he's rapidly accelerating through curriculums/grades. I bought a very cheap general curriculum series (grades 1-6) to make sure we're covering the basics; I didn't spend more than $25 for the entire series. But DS is doing more online - much of which is freely available and accessible - and also through books from the public libraries. So I think you'll find the situation will get somewhat easier for you when you start homeschooling next year; you won't have to deal with the school's policies. When you homeschool, you can jump around or decimals in a day or two.

    Once a child has finished 6th grade, the situation changes as others have mentioned. Then it's pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, calculus, etc. There's AoPS, Thinkwell, Elements of Math, Living Math, LoF, Khan, Education Portal, etc. So the world becomes your oyster.

    In the meantime, I would let him read math books like the Murderous Maths series, Life of Fred, and anything else I could get my hands on for free or cheaply. I'd also maybe start looking at various mathy things online (i.e. xtramath.org or something on fractals or anything that tickles your son). Go to Hoagies Gifted Education; they've got a ton of resources for math.

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    Originally Posted by Portia
    Even when he sings, he makes up songs about math.

    * * * [excerpted]

    Are there any disadvantages to letting him run wild with this program? How far is too much? I assume EPGY's program is a complete curriculum and not something which needs to be supplemented, right?

    I love the singing thing--my DD likes to make up songs too, although she doesn't make up songs about math so far. (BTW, DD9 now loves the Capitol Steps and Jonathan Coulton--both making-up-song-types, in case your DS might enjoy those too, especially maybe in a couple of years??).

    We have always let DD drive the agenda--she also complained bitterly about the math at school being slow except for when a couple of *lovely* teachers gave her and a couple of the other kids individual/ accelerated lessons every now and then. So when she lacked those lovely teachers, we started EPGY and have continued with that. The curious thing is that, as much as DD complained about not getting special lessons, she often tries to 'get out of' the afterschooling EPGY lessons on any particular day--not terribly hard, but enough that it puzzles me why she asks for the advanced lessons when she then objects to actually carrying through. So I have really pushed her on carrying through on a commitment to a course of action at least to EPGY--and at least until our prepaid time expires--and then she always wants to renew. However, we do make her 30 minutes of video game time conditional on doing her daily lesson. I think generally we are all happy with this, and we have just continued with the program and are now about halfway through algebra although it is going slower than I thought it would. But as long as I sit with her and she is doing the work herself, I can't see any problem with progressing as fast as she is able and doing stuff above grade level to whatever degree might result. However, I do worry about what happens when we try to re-integrate whatever she's done with EPGY into a school math program; this is yet to come. I imagine the school would require a test of some kind to accept it for credit and I guess that is the best we can hope for. Good luck! smile

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    Hi Portia,
    Our DD is further down this path. She is currently grade skipped one year and math accelerated an additional 3 (total of 4). When we were zooming through math just prior to starting public school to make sure DD hadn't skimmed too lightly, I found it helpful to buy the teachers edition of the math books that are used in our district. I bought the DVD/online version and they came with the full textbook and extensive recaps that summarized the learning goals for each chapter and section. (It was super helpful that our district used really ancient textbooks so buying them on EBAY was incredibly cheap ) This also gave me access to the tests for each chapter and year. Our deal was ace the chapter test and she didn't have to study it. If she didn't ace it, I had her read the learning goals and take the section test. It must be noted that she thought our district's textbooks were horribly dull, repetitive, and badly written. Four years later DD still mentions the publisher by name and credits their horribleness with "egging" her on to finish one more year of math so that she would not have to see them ever again (our district has other books for high school math).

    Many people discouraged us from accelerating DD so rapidly in math and declared "What will she take after calculus? She'll run out of math in Sophomore year!" I'm happy to report that DD's school recently announced that they will have even more advanced International Baccalaureate math next year, so she will still not "run out of math". So I say "Go for it", let your son do math at the speed that makes him happy, but test him to make sure he has covered the curriculum and knows the district curriculum's vocabulary. Oh, and start looking ahead to plan for high school!

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    Originally Posted by Portia
    "What will she take after calculus?" Oh goodness! That you for the laugh on that one. As if calculus is the end of the road in mathematics. Wonder if anyone told Einstein he had run out of physics. Can you imagine that conversation? "Run out of physics, eh? I'll invent... relativity then. Have at it."

    Portia

    Exactly! Tell them by the time he runs out of math, he'll be well-placed to invent more. smile

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    Try to take it one day and step at a time - with an eye towards the future. It can be exhausting and overwhelming with a 2e/pg kid. There's so much to juggle and factor in, it seems. Try not to lose your head over it and remember to breathe.

    One day, one step at a time, I say. I totally agree with you, Portia, that you feel pulled in different directions. I know the rate and speed of acceleration can be staggering some days. It can take your breath away.

    I was actually told by a 2e expert to consider ds7 as a special needs student rather than a pg child. She told me to NOT get caught up in the big developments, which is easier said than done. Still, I can see what she meant. She didn't want me to forget about the special needs issues. She didn't want me to get caught up with the academic stuff and neglect his weaknesses.

    The problem with most schools, imo, is that they only see the weaknesses and special needs. They don't necessarily see the pgness and ds7 had been pretty good at hiding it when he attended school. Remember, too, children often will reveal more at home where they feel the most comfortable and likely have maximum control rather than in another setting.



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