Again, if we don't back off a little so he can feel the consequences of blowing things off in 8th grade, before it counts, then how is he supposed to learn?
This is the part of you post that really struck me - a critical life lesson so many of us fail to learn, or learn when the stakes are much too high. Do you feel like this is a lot of what's been going on? And do you feel like he's coming out of the year recognizing, "OK Mom, point taken"?
Because if you think that's the case, you're dealing less with math-readiness than responsibility-readiness, and it sounds like you are working well on the latter. So my two cents would be to think hard about which it is: his current math skills or instead his executive function skills which are being over-stretched by this class. Then place and support him next year accordingly, recognizing that generally, more challenging work provides a better environment to encourage strengthening work skills.
