Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Algebra 1 at a young age?

My son's school (with the help/advice of the school system's top AIG person and the school system's Middle School AIG head) is trying to devise a personalized educational plan for him.

He's 9 years old (turns 10 at end of March), in 5th grade, and was advanced one grade level two years ago.

They are looking at how he will advance through the different levels of Math over the next couple of years and one of the tracks they are looking at puts him in Algebra I (sometimes called Math I) as a 7th grader...only 11 years old.

For anyone who has had a child take Algebra I at a young age, how did your child (and you) handle it? Is there any advice you can give my wife and I?

Thanks for any and all help!

TripleB

My DD12 (in seventh grade) took Algebra I over the summer and is now in geometry. It was a lot of work because she simultaneously took AoPS for rigor and an (IMO) inferior course that is taught by Washington-certified teachers. But it wasn't by any means too hard - she did very well in both courses. (It took a little convincing to get her to believe that she did well in AoPS, because she actually had to work on the problems, and sometimes gave several wrong answers before she found the right one. I had to give her a number of pep talks about how that is how math is supposed to be.)

I don't see any reason why an 11-year-old seventh grader shouldn't be able to succeed in Algebra I.

My son took Algebra I (*) in 7th grade. In our district this was common enough there were two classes of kids taking Algebra in 7th grade, about 8% of the students. But that was pre-Common Core. Those students would now be in a compacted 7/8th/Algebra I course for junior high and not start CC Algebra I till 8th grade.

My son loved it. It was one of the few classes he enjoyed, that and band. I don't think it should be a problem for the right kid.

How unusual is that situation in your school? Will he be with much older kids?

Diana

Our DD 11 did this and did quite well.

She had done AOPS for rigour which helped her over some of her perfectionism/stress over wrong answers. The intro to combinatorics and probability class that she did Last academic year was absolutely the rock that broke the tide of her perfectionism.

Some of those Alcumus exercises were relentless in their tendency to revert from green through amber all the agonizing way to red before finally being wrestled back again and eventually into the blue. At first, this was quite aggravating but eventually she became more pragmatic - still not entirely mellow but vastly improved.

There are several on this board whose progeny have gone far further earlier.

IMO, mental readiness trumps calendar age.

Every member of my immediate family and my family of origin who has attained that age had taken algebra I, or its equivalent, by the age of 12, some under the old US system, and some under the integrated international system on which CC is based. The youngest was about seven or eight, I think. Median age, ten.

No noticeable issues with doing so for any of us. All of the post-collegiate family members acquired further education in STEM fields. In the case of our children, nipping perfectionism in the bud was exactly the reason we did it for one of them.

I would agree that the readiness of the individual by far trumps age.

I took it at 12 years old. I believe DH was 11. Math is actually my last favorite subject but algebra made sense to me in a way few other math courses did (I also hated trig, precalculus, algebra II but loved calc). I think he'll do just fine.

My DD (age 11, accelerated 1 year) is currently in Algebra 1 and getting A's. Her school has 2 classes of 7th graders taking Alg.1 so it's not unusual for that grade. It's the only class that makes her work (a bit). We are still in the situation if something is challenging she gets angry because everything has come easily to her so I am glad that at least one class makes her exercise the brain muscles a small amount.
She will not will not will not do AoPS again. She says she hates math so I leave it to the school to teach the subject.

DS took Honors Alg1 in 6th and Honors Alg2 in 7th. He was with a group of 3 others on the same track. He is in 8th now and taking Honors Geometry. It was tough in 6th grade but he was ready and did well. Alg2 was tougher but he got better and ended the year in the best shape he has been in. Geometry is a breeze this year.

In elementary school he was 2 years accelerated in math so at the end of 4th grade he was out of curriculum. Starting 4th we had him do AoPS Pre-Alg and he used Alcumus. He still uses Alcumus and Math Counts Trainer.

Getting a high school plan is getting kind of tricky.

My son is 11 in 7th and taking Algebra. No problems. Has to put in effort randomly (still has good chunks of time when it is very very easy).

My eldest took algebra when he was 9. The first semester was a challenge for him, but the ideas started sinking in during the second semester. My DD started algebra when she was 10, and we saw pretty much the same pattern --- after we switched her to a new book and started again.

Both are grade-skipped. Age gaps weren't much of an issue for my son at ages 9-11, but my daughter started feeling uncomfortable in 5th grade (a bit) and more in 6th and 7th. This year (8th) is better for her. Things started getting awkward for the eldest in 8th, but were much better by 10th.

The best advice I can give is to tutor your daughter at home if her school uses a textbook produced by a mainstream publisher like Pearson or Prentice-Hall. US math textbooks are generally very bad, and are downright confusing starting at the algebra level. My eldest looked at the first algebra book my DD was using and...well, you can read my review here. Look for "dog's dinner."