Has anyone tried independent study for math before? Is there a way to tell the school that DD is not just a good math student but is a >99.9% kid without it sounding wrong? What do you think of the idea?
My DYS DD9 has been doing AoPS pre-algebra with a reasonable amount of success. I am in a similar position in that my DD is already grade skipped one grade (we are reluctant to skip more) but way ahead of her classmates. Pragmatically, we cannot expect her grade school teachers to be able to differentiate for just her.
We like the AoPS format a lot because it stresses a genuine discovery based approach that embraces rigour as opposed to the apparent standard US approach of using discovery as a substitute for rigour, KWIM?
We started this during the last half of the last academic year and eventually got DD's teacher to accept that DD would do all of her regular class homework, tests and 'group work' but would do her AoPS work in the 'quiet' solitary work times in the classroom.
We photocopied the relevant chapter work from the AoPS text so as to not make DD look too conspicuous by working from a completely different book. We assured the teacher that DD would come to us for any guidance not her so that concerns that she would unfairly have to support DD's needs over every other student would be alleviated. This worked well for us last year (4th grade).
We are planning on a 'softly, softly' approach next year and not pushing this next year until after the first teacher/parent conference as practice during the soccer season will consume a lot of DD's time after school anyway.
