I'm haunted by
a post that Bostonian wrote:
My 8yo son has qualified for the Study of Exceptional Talent by scoring at least 700 on the math section of the SAT.... My advocacy of a grade skip in math has failed so far....
It's painful. Really.
Since my son is mentioned above, here is an update. In the summer, I informed the school principal of the score by email, and my wife suggested leaving the ball in their court. They have not made any modifications. If my son were to accelerate, taking Algebra I this year (a skip from 5th grade to 7th grade math) would be plausible. A middle school math teacher posts the homework assignments (problem numbers from the textbook) online. Students are expected to do about 40 problems daily, of a routine nature. (When 40 problems a day are assigned, you know they cannot be too challenging. I looked up the problems online to confirm this.) My son does not need that much drill, so "sitting on his head" nightly to force him to do such work seems pointless. He is better off using the AOPS (or some other challenging) textbook and/or taking an AOPS course, or he may take Intermediate Algebra through EPGY. He has exhausted the Open Enrollment math courses, so now cost is a factor. He is learning little in 5th grade Everyday Math, but at least the curriculum is not making serious demands on his time at home.
