So I was curious. If you have a math-loving kid, how do you keep his enthusiasm for learning math going without consigning him to boredom at school? Should we just turn him loose and let him go through math as he pleases and let the school deal with it with subject acceleration? Has anyone walked down this path enough to offer warnings or praise?
I have at least one math-loving kid. The 3 year old is showing signs --- namely she asks me to do maths with her, sometimes even when I think I overdid it yesterday.
I teach the eldest two-ish days per week, summer included. Sometimes he doesn't want to do it, sometimes he does, sometimes he gets very excited by whatever he's learning. Graphing a line/slope was a big hit recently. I did his grade level math homework last year, as I preferred him to spend his time on more advanced stuff.
Next year he and his brother are going to a school that groups by ability. They place kids at whatever subject level they're ready for and "don't see much point in making them do something they already know how to do." We're all pretty excited about this school. The last one was pretty rigid, though they did offer a grade skip. I've mentioned that I'm going to report on how it works out.
I'm a big believer in challenging kids outside school if school isn't providing this. I feel it's very important for my kids to tackle things that are hard --- it's an important skill in life.
Val
