Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources AoPS Intro to Geometry course review

I think the appropriate place to start with AoPS depends on interests and mathiness of the kid and whether the kid hates or feels challenged by exposure to material he/she cannot master.

My DS did some online math courses at 8 hated them. Hated the material. Hated the math. Hated the repetition. At 9, he tried AoPS Algebra I. This was a while ago and it's much different now, but it was a sink-or-swim situation (no help from parents, pretty much mastering typing and LaTeX at the same time and no prior exposure to hard problems). It was a bit brutal, but he loved it and it restored his love of math. He subsequently took all the intro and some non-intro AoPS courses and he agrees with Colinsmum that geometry was the toughest of the intro courses (AoPS founder also says this).

If you are considering toe-dipping, I'd recommend starting with pre-algebra. If he's already had pre-algebra *and* has mad and well-developed deep problem solving skills, I'd consider algebra but AoPS pre-algebra will not be the same as a standard pre-algebra course. Perhaps the pre-algebra 2, rather than the first one if you wish, but it would be kinder to start developing perseverance with harder problems with material he has some familarity with rather than also learning a new subject. And this is really, really different than typical math.

The AMC/Mathcounts problems are easier since they all require speed so the problems can't be that deep. There are tricks learned and initial problem solving skills, but a big difference between those skills and challenge level geometry problems which DS would work on for an hour sometimes.

I don't think of doing C&P and NT as delaying, but rather enriching the typical and somewhat limited typical school sequence. Since the courses are not full year for any of them, the kid ends up further accelerated anyway. So DS did algebra I, algebra II, geometry, C&P, NT, pre-calc in far less time than alg I, II, geo would be in a regular sequence, but he much learned more math.

Some kids don't like the format. Some kids don't like math problems they can't solve. Some kids get frustrated with the difficulty. But some kids eat this stuff up and if you have such a kid, AoPS is simply fabulous.