Hello! My 8yo DS is gifted in math (scored SS=160 on WIAT-III math), and loves it (thinks about it all the time, playing with math patterns in his head, etc.). His school (3rd grade) provides almost no differentiation and there is no gifted program in the district. We have him in an extracurricular math program, which seems to teach lots of procedures without really going into concepts, which is more what we desire. We aren't interested in accelerating him, rather we want him to be able to really understand and be able to play with mathematical ideas. We think a mentor/tutor would be wonderful, but aren't sure where we can find someone who can teach him in this way? I contacted a local STEM focused university and no one returned my emails. We're in Central MA. Just wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation and what you did to find an appropriate mentor? Thanks!

A local Math Circle run by an University is the right place for such a kid. They have discussions and introduction of concepts that are beyond the scope of textbooks and school curricula and are usually run by highly qualified people whose interest is in encouraging mathematical thinking. Good luck.

I have a friend who was in a similar position with her son. She started by having him do Khan Academy online before school in the morning. He found it fun and it helped him stay engaged through what would have otherwise been mind numbing boredom. She found him teaching himself trigonometry in second grade - just for fun. She was able to generate printouts from the program whIch she brought to a local math tutoring center. She found someone there who was eager to work with him. It was exciting to work on advanced skills rather than with kids who were behind. Again fun for the kid and he was able to fill any holes from having taught himself high level material. Eventually the school district allowed radical exceleration but this tutoring partnership went on for years. HTH

Welcome!


You've received great replies already. I'll just add a few thoughts about math opportunities which may be of interest:

1) Epsilon Camp provides an opportunity to enjoy high-level math and meet like-minded peers.
2) UW Math Talent Search provides practice problem sets and solutions, which may be useful as material for a parent, mentor, or academic coach to review with a highly interested student.
3) Moscow Puzzles is a popular math puzzle book.

Yes, a local math circle would be ideal.

This site has a list of ARML teams, many of which are run by universities, organized by geography, so that might provide a lead - Joining an ARML team

The Beast Academy and core courses at AoPS have also been a great resource for my daughter, though we started with AoPS classes as Beast wasn't around back then.

Beast Academy
AoPS Onliine

I have a 3rd grade math gifted son, as well, and it can be challenging to find math enrichment programs that allow an 8 year old to participate or that don't assume knowledge of Algebra and Geometry. For a 3rd grader, I would look into AoPS Academy/Beast Academy for enrichment. These are much more conceptual and much less procedural than many other math programs. There are maybe 6 or 7 campuses across the country, but if you're not close enough to any of those, you can always buy the books or subscribe to the online program.

Perhaps you could get your school to offer MOEMS, CML, or Mathleague.org contests. If not, you could sign up for mathleague or CML as a homeschool participant. MOEMS has some nice problem solving books (on Amazon) that your son might enjoy looking through.

I heard about a math circle in Cambridge a while ago. I'm not sure if either of these are the same program, but they might be worth looking into. Both offer weekend programs.

http://www.themathcircle.org/index.php
https://www.cambridgemathcircle.org/

Thank you, all! Great ideas!

Don't know how to find a math mentor, but my son (now 10) played with these kinds of problems when he was younger:

https://www.jrmf.org/activities/

Not that he's too advanced for them now! I think that would be impossible. He just is into other things at the moment. You should do them together if it's a new kind of thing for him because it's easy to get frustrated and give up. Plus there's no feedback without someone to bounce ideas off of.

I hope you can find a good math circle or something. But in the meantime, some cool books:

"Which One Doesn't Belong: a Shapes Book" (it looks like a book for little kids, but it's really fun)

"Patterns of the Universe: a coloring adventure in math and beauty"

Martin Gardner's "Colossal Book of Mathematics" (this is really for adults, but there are probably some chapters he would like)

"Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension"

"Beyond Infinity"

"Math with Bad Drawings" (my son's current favorite)

Great books on that list... I've been peeking at several using the Amazon "look inside" feature.

Another interesting math logic book (not written for kids, but a gifted student who loves math may take to it):
J. Ellenberg, How Not To Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking (2014)