puffin: He first did 3A when he was 6.
We currently own 3A-D and 5A/B, and he loves it all. He prefers to jump to the starred problems and wrestle them into submission. LOL. We just don't have a lot of time for it.
It sounds like you have 2 different things going on: 1) unchallenging math and 2) social appearances.
First one: I have seen a parent go to the school to provide math. In some cases, I have seen a parent offer the math "course" to more than just her child, which helped with concern #2. In both types of situations, things seem to have worked well.
Second one: Is his math class close to some sort of break (lunch, end of day, beginning of day) so that you can just check him out for a bit? Or could you teach him math at home and have him do the work during math time without teacher support (ex: flipped classroom)? Another option to consider is to just have him come take his math class with you and see what the others say. If anyone says anything, have a good comment such as "I wanted to do something different with math." Most classmates know when a class is not a good fit for someone.
Just some thoughts.
He says they typically do math first thing. So I suggested that he should just come to school an hour later, and we'll do the math bit at home. (It's a 5 minute drive, so this isn't a hardship.) Or I could pull him to work in the hallway or library. He's sort of okay with this. But he's worried that he'll feel like he's bragging if he ever discusses *why* he's doing things differently. You're absolutely right, it's not like the other kids don't know. And plenty of kids get pulled from various subjects for all kinds of reasons, mostly remediation. It wouldn't be that weird.
