DS6 had his first official foray into real multiplication and division yesterday. He’s played around with the concept on his own, and done some simple single digit by single digit multiplication with me, but nothing much outside his own thought experiments (e.g. mental math time conversions from hours to seconds in the car when he wants to figure out how much longer until X, baking unit conversions or recipe doubling, making loot bags for parties and dividing prizes, etc)

Yesterday, he tried his hand at what he felt was an appropriate novice problem and solved it correctly: 4,232,436 x 23. He also attempted some division: 7,063,248/ 2. It seems Beast Academy has fueled a love of what DS calls “challenges” (often said with a wry smile).

Hilariously, he thought these weren’t real solutions, because he’d used Montessori materials to help him reach his answer. Apparently, to him, he’ll have shown mastery only when he can do these calculations quickly in his head. I expressed that some of the most challenging math problems in existence require brilliant mathematicians to struggle for years—on paper and with algorithmic support on computers—to solve. He seemed to buy that conceptually, but insisted he will do the multiplication and division in his head.

Another little math brag: DS has been having fun issuing me verbal code-breaking equations to give me single-word answers to questions I ask. He’ll give me a little algebraic equation to solve, and the answer is a number-to-letter substitution cipher. But he does this all verbally, without pen or paper, which amazes me, and the spelling is mostly correct. I never thought this was how I’d take pizza orders from him!

Ds12, 6th grade, presented a project to Northwestern University's FUSE program. He designed, set the parameters and built a bridge made from spaghetti and marshmallows that had a span of 15 inches and can hold the weight of several large marshmallows. . It is a level 3 challenge. I'm not sure when a decision will be made whether his project will be added to their middle school curriculum.

I have pretty high expectations of my DD14/8th grader, sometimes excessively so. But I was stunned with the 770/790 SAT score that came back yesterday. M800 actually wouldn't have surprised me - she made a silly mistake flipping a numerator/denominator - but a 100+ point increase in Reading/Writing over last year was a shock. State Top 15 in Mathcounts and You Be the Chemist, and a 4th place trophy at Academic Games Nationals are rounding off quite a year.

DD7, young for grade AND skipped, took part in the kangaroo math competition with her third grade class and got the highest score in the class. I was actually a bit shocked, most of her classmates are 9 years old.
She also scored at the highest proficiency level for maths and language arts/grammar and spelling, but only at the second highest for LA/reading. Kind of tallies with that i know does and doesn’t come easily to grade skipped kids. Because DD7 also scores as high or higher than the 4th graders in reading comprehension and speed I was curious and looked up the requirements for the highest level for LA/reading and it said something like “at this level, children can make inferences about themes and plot, develop their own thoughts about the narrative and can write them down coherently.”
I thought it is a writing issue but DH thinks it’s maturity she is lacking.

DD12's SAT score is 200 points higher than the average for high school seniors in our district. She qualifies for SET; we just need to get a paper copy of the scores to send in.

DS8 has recently started reading chapter books at the 6th grade level in a day or two. This is actually somewhat more impressive to me because he's HG/PG but also dyslexic.

DS15 did well on a recent state math competition and was invited to represent NC on the upcoming ARML competition. He is very excited to be picked.

Hopefully he will have a great time and the team will do well.

DD14 is also headed to ARML Nationals next weekend with the Western PA team. Good luck to all competing.

My eldest son, who was in 10th grade this year, one year accelerated, scored a 5 on two AP exams, Calculus BC and Computer Science, without taking either AP class at school (although he did take calculus at RSM).

Sounds like he might be a good candidate for Oxford and Cambridge....that’s the kind of independent learner and exam taker they like!

Excellent result - congratulations to your eldest son,