Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Late on Math Discussion fo 6 yr old

Ghost is pretty much independent in all that he does, but coordination of all of it is beyond him yet - or he is like his dad and will never be able to remember dates and appt.;-)
I am profoundly exhausted by being a driver - yes - and it does not look like it is going to change any time soon, unfortunately. We live in the area with a very poor public transportation system, so I have no choice but to be my kid'd private chauffeur.

Yes Kriston, I meant Singapore - sorry:-)
Anyone owns higer math textbooks?

I second Singapore and Alex. I would also recommend looking into Zaccaro Primary Challenge math. I am pretty sure we will use Singapore and Zaccaro for hs.

I haven't seen the 7th grade books yet. I think I read Art of Problem solving may be better at that point, but honestly what do I know?

AoPS are excellent, but for very top math kids. Most of their books also do not follow any specific curricula, so it is kind of hard to use them as your core book. Having said that I again stress that they are excellent.

It is hard to use Zaccaro as your core books - they are definitely enrichment. We loved especially What Future Scientists and Engineers Should Know - or something like that.

My kids use Singapore for elementary math. We have used a variety of online math and textbooks for higher level math. Sorry, Ania, don't know anything about the upper level Singapore.

Oh boy, do I know how that feels! I have 3-4 carpools depending on the activities, but sometimes it seems like keeping track of carpools is even harder than just doing it all yourself (if you could be two places at the same time). We have really pared down the activities. Even so, I continue to deny DS6 gymnastics and DS11 guitar lessons because I don't want more stuff to track and be responsible for. Maybe after spring break...but then soccer starts, and summertime is around the corner.

I think AoPS is excellent, very challenging, very fast-paced, and for the serious math-talented youth (not kid!). It comes with a "community" of other math-talented kids, who enjoy solving problems for fun (difficult problems!). DS 9 is taking the Intro to Algebra course, which covers topics in both Alg 1 & Alg 2, plus some trig; most of the kids are older (11-12), but I was pretty desperate. He can't do many of the challenge problems, but he's exposed to new topics. My strategy is that he'll take a "real" Alg 1 course next year for credit, where he'll solve all the problems, maybe do a couple competitions, and maybe take another AoPS course toward the end of that to keep finding out new topics. We'll see.

As for DS 6, his teacher says she'll get him to work a little more on ALEKS, since he'll be doing it a lot next year, and I'll probably buy some Singapore for self-paced summertime work.

Do they offer Intro to Algebra? I thought they only offered Intermediate Algebra?
DS started his "flirt" with AoPS by taking AMC 10 class. The rationale was that it will get him prepared better for AMC 8, since AoPS does not offer AMC 8 class. What can I say - the class was very difficult for Ghost, he could not follow most of the problems.
Next he took Intro to Counting and Probability and it was a totally different story. He was able to follow during class sessions, was contributing a lot to the classroom discussion. To learn most from AoPS you have to be familar with the subject to the point of being able to participate during class. If you are just sitting in front of the computer and watching it like a lecture (as Ghost did for AMC 10 class), you are not going to gain a lot . After each lesson about 10 problems are posted online for class participants. You have to wrestle your brain and try to solve them, even partially. After second lesson a challenge set number 1 is released. You have a few weeks to submit it to your instructor for evaluation. After leson 8 set number 2 is released. Those are really difficult problems (that's why it is called challenge :-)and it takes a while to answer them. And then within the challenge, there is even a larger challenge - Ghost was not even able to touch those problems:-)
Of course he was procrastinating, and you can't do that - you have to be very systematic and start working on the challenge set as soon as it gets released. But it is easier said than done.
Do not even think about participating in the class without a textbook. Actually, they ask you to read selected chapters before each lesson, so you will have some idea of the problems you are about to encounter.
They say that of all the intro classes Geometry is the most challenging. It is also the longest. DS is still waiting to take that, even though he "did" Geometry last year.
What I am trying to say, like Cym did in her last post, do not jump into AoPS just because your child is gifted in math. I think is is better for them to cover the material at school first and then learn on AoPS how to approach problems that are based upon that section of math.

Also, AOPS Intro to Problem Solving Books (I -The Basics and II - -And Beyond) are great for math clubs. There is a school here in Utah that has a daily problem solving class based on those books. Kids from that school are excelling on all math contests in our state.

Yes, Ania, there's an "Intro to Algebra" course, book, solutions, etc. I think it is an amazing class, but very very hard. I find it harder than the honors Algebra 1 course by EPGY, though the nice thing is DS isn't worried about a grade. If he gets several problems wrong or doesn't do them, it's purely for himself.

Thanx Cym !
How come I have not seen that?
Guess what class DS will be signing for next:-)
Even though he can do more complex problems, he still strugles (makes mistakes)on the easy ones, so our mutual decision was to repeat an Algebra course. I am so glad they are doing that!
Thanx again Cym!!!