I�m new to this board and have been following some of the posts on math acceleration with interest as I have an 8-year-old daughter who has the opportunity to skip a few years of math. Her teacher recently called us in to meet with her and the school curriculum person and suggested having her jump two years of math so that when she is in 3rd grade in the fall she would go to 5th grade math.

I am hesitant to do this. My reasoning is that our daughter is perfectly happy doing grade level math and has not complained of being bored. I know she finds the work very easy but both she and I are okay with that as she�s very busy with sports, music and other activities. I really like that she�s enjoying being a child and don�t want her to feel any academic pressure at this age. She is very social and confident and part of my thinking is that right now I feel like she�s so in sync with her friends that I don�t want to rock the boat. What if having her skip a few years of a subject makes her feel like she�s different and not in a good way?

My husband is focused on the fact that the teacher said that based on her scores that the next two grade levels up would still be easy for her. He wants us to do what the school recommends and thinks that it might motivate her to start to enjoying math as much as she enjoys sports and music and start to develop an identity of herself as someone who is good at school.

The two of us have been in a kind of at a deadlock on this issue for a few weeks. I�m now second-guessing myself and worried I�m projecting my own biases of the perfect childhood on to my daughter. Can any of you walk me through your own thinking process and explain what tipped the scales in favor of one decision or another? Are there other issues that I should be thinking about but am not?

Wow, I see a lot of good points, well presented, on both sides. This is tough! I'm sure you will hear stories from others that either decision could lead to great success.

My own philosophy is to follow the child's direction, so I agree with you. However, your husband has a very good point as well: maybe your daughter will like math more if she is exposed to more engaging content.

My DD11's experience is not exactly like this, but we have chosen to let her take the lead and tell us what she needed. I knew she was really good at math when she was in K and 1st grade, but didn't do anything because she didn't really care about math. She has been obsessed with music and theatre since K, so she is always busy anyways. Since maybe the end of 3rd grade she expressed an interest in math. So we bought Singapore Math books for her to do at home. We didn't set a routine for her. Sometimes she would do Singapore Math everyday for a week; then the next week she wouldn't touch it at all. We just let her do whatever with it. Then at the end of 4th grade, she asked me about acceleration at school. I talked with the school and the district and settled on a plan for math. So in 5th grade she was accelerated at school and finished 6th and 7th grade math, pre-algebra and algebra. In the fall when she starts 6th grade she will take accelerated geometry.

My DD is the type of kids who have very specific ideas about what she wants to do. So we are comfortable letting her take the lead. Sometimes she doesn't want to explore acceleration even though we wish she would (such as world languages). But if she is comfortable with a group of kids or a teacher or simply doesn't feel the need to rush forward, I think it's OK. Kids are kids and having a relaxed childhood is a luxury these days but really has its merit.

If she is opposed to the subject acceleration, then yeah, I would not push it. A bad attitude, which she alone controls, can sink the success regardless of what everyone else wants.

If she is neutral on the subject, I might suggest a trial semester or quarter. Passive underachievement is a potential concern; that is, you don't want her to avoid challenge and take the easy route just because its not required. That said, obviously this is not a singular life changing opportunity, there will be time to re evaluate the choice later.

I have read through a bunch of threads on acceleration here and learned a lot about the pros and cons, and I now accept that it's really dependent on multiple factors and there is no one answer perfect for each year or child.

What I can offer from my own kids is that my DS asked for more, wanted more, absorbs it like crazy, and he's benefited from acceleration. DD8 goes in waves -- she picks math up easily, asks questions and learns quickly when she feels like it, but she likes to be in control. I find if she's not getting some challenge, she has coping difficulty when she does encounter frustration -- it overflows in other areas. She needed to be encouraged a little bit more. It really, really meant a lot this year to have her teacher give her higher-level material. She gained confidence that she had lost because she was frustrated with redundancy. I feel like she needs more math acceleration next year, and am exploring options, but I don't want to rush her through, so much as widen her exposure and deeper problem solving skills.

A compromise may be to tell the school that you'd like to try it, but it needs to be flexible. If she feels stressed, pressured, or unhappy, then you'd like her moved back down.

DD10 has a full grade acceleration (she is finishing 5th grade) and then a subject acceleration for math.
Her math teacher recommended a further acceleration to Algebra next year for high school credit. They recommended an algebra readiness test. I said "no" and told them to put her in pre-algebra next year. I know my daughter and because she is 2e she would be stressed out by a high school level course (esp. at age 10 with a disability!).

My son, on the other hand...we have accelerated him 3 years for math and he has done fine. He is in third grade and goes to sixth grade for math. He loves it, and he loves being w/ the older kids. He is also 2e and there are some physical challenges (in his case it is his handwriting). But we are trying to find ways to work around it. What works for one kid is a bad idea for another. Sometimes you just need to try it and see how it goes.

I'd be in the try it camp (with an agreement for the length of time before reevaluating). To be clear, I am projecting some of my own biases, particularly about girls being so friend focused that they hide their smarts (there's a fair amount of research on this point, which might suggest that there could be some social reason she isn't complaining about the work being too easy). That has long-term implications.

If her friends are going to treat her differently if she takes math in another room, are those really long-term friends? What's the lesson there?

This is of course, completely a family decision. Note though that it is pretty unusual for a teacher to proactively approach a family with this suggestion. I'd be sure I understand that teacher's thinking and what she/he is observing.

You've received great responses. I'll just add that when a child finds academics to be routinely very easy, the child may become accustomed to coasting along, without valuing effort. In fact, some may even begin to despise effort.

Evidently too much coasting along can cause brain changes, making it difficult for a child to apply themselves and learn new things when they do meet a challenge worthy of their potential.

Single-subject acceleration allows the child to keep their chronological-age peers while also meeting more closely matched academic/intellectual peers.

Great responses above so I don't have much to add. I am voting for trying it out for a period of time and re-evaluate.

Your dd might continue to be just as happy, and find math just as easy, with the skip - so if she's not opposed to it, I'd give it a try.

On the flip side, if your dd is highly capable at math today, she will still be highly capable at math next year and the year after. Unless she's screaming for more, more, more, she's not likely to lose much ground by not subject-accelerating in early elementary, and she'll most likely have other opportunities to accelerate when she's closer to middle school.

Good luck with your decision,

polarbear

I have questions for you.

Would the 5th grade math be in the same building?
Would it be in the same slot as 3rd grade math is held?
Would there be any other differences in her schedule due to the change?
Does the school have a plan to help her with the daily transitions?
What does your DD think? I would suggest here that most kids might have a knee-jerk reaction that they don't want any change, but that might evolve if she has a few days to think about it and ask her own questions.

I would overall be in the pro-acceleration camp, too. But I do think that I would want the logistical questions above answered.

It's highly individual and specific to the child, institution, and teacher(s) at a specific point in time. We won't be able to tell you the "right" decision, because there probably exists a range of options that would be suitable to varying degrees and various aspects of your DDs development. But you already knew that!

A two year skip in a single subject at 10 has the benefit of being easily reversible and minimally disruptive for your DD, because she will be in the same building for all classes and with her age peers for the vast majority of her time. She likely has the executive function and social skills required to blend into a class of children 2 years older than her, and you have been assured that the academics would still be easy for her. Personally, I would consider it seriously.

Music matters to DD a lot more than math these days and music lessons and practice keep her very busy.

I feel she is already being challenged a lot with music and I think the skills she is developing while practicing music would transfer to academics later in her life.

DD's childhood is turning out to be far from what we wanted for her. We are not crazy stage parents who wanted to create a prodigy. This is all her drive so we let her determine her own trajectory and time commitment. If this were coming from her teacher, I'd have put a stop to it.

I would base my decision on whether your daughter wants to subject accelerate. However, I also would give some weight to the school's rationale for offering the acceleration as well only if neither you nor your DH ever complained and/or pushed for acceleration initially.

You also need specific information on how this acceleration will be implemented and all the practical details on how it will impact her schedule day-to-day and during special occasions.

Not choosing to accelerate is not crazy. I made that decision for DD in 4th grade (not choosing Pre-Algebra for 5th) because she did not want to accelerate partly for social reasons. It had nothing to do with her academic ability. Acceleration required other sacrifices - inconvenient scheduling and occasionally missing certain activities and the general stress of being out of sync. It also meant being stuck with a couple of "nerdy" boys for math instead of hanging with her friends. While DD has been bored/annoyed with the slow pace of Pre-Algebra in 6th and Algebra in 7th, she has consistently appreciated being grouped with her friends and is fine with Calculus AB Junior year (current path) rather than Sophomore year had she been accelerated. This also made sense for DD because her strengths/passions are in the areas of visual arts and language arts.

On the other hand, I chose to accelerate DS in 2nd grade (to GT 3rd grade, which was combined 3rd/4th grade math) and again in 4th grade (from 6th to Pre-Algebra) because he really wanted to acclerate. Those accelerations were still considerably below his actual math ability levels at the time so it was pretty stress-free while he focused on developing his writing, graphing calculator (Pre-Algebra & Algebra) , typing/computer (various software programs that he needed to learn independently for Algebra in 5th) and executive function abilities. While the school made efforts (2nd grade teacher switched her math block to the mornings to match the 3rd grade schedule), there were inevitable mismatches/snafus (class field trips, state testing, etc.) so it made all the difference that DS himself drove these accelerations. For this same DS, I also chose not to pursue acceleration in K or 1st grade because he did not have the requisite writing or executive function skills in place. I also chose not to accelerate DS to Algebra I in 4th grade partly because we (including DS) wanted to make sure that his foundation was the strongest possible and also with an eye toward middle and high school considerations.

Keep in mind that those were not the only or even necessarily the best possible decisions but they were reasoned decisions at the time and nobody is tearing their hair out in hindsight.

I think that math acceleration in early-mid elementary can be a tricky decision for both student/parent as well as the school district partly because you can't always tell whether the child who excels at elementary math will necessarily find Algebra "easy" at an earlier age as well. I would say that as long as you can reverse an acceleration without damage, then it may be worth a try as long as your DD is not opposed. Good luck.

These are very important to have answered!

I know, because my DS has been moved up two grades in math. He is in a small charter that has the fifth grade math class literally across the hall from his regular classroom. Still, this year he missed some instruction in his third grade class, and once he told me it seemed they forgot he was still in the other classroom! Often he is given the instruction in math, but because he must return to his third grade room for instruction in another subject, he has to bring home the entire math assignment for homework. His homework load sometimes exceeds two hours. He has complained that the other kids have time to complete their math assignment, but he has to pick up and leave.

That said, DS loves math and would not want to be sent back. It's a compromise he's willing to make.

Get the answers and then consider a trial period.

The only reason I wouldn't do it is if she might struggle, sounds like that is far from the case.

ex: We had an opportunity for dd to move up one grade level, however we found out she had vision issues so we didn't go for it, wanted her to catch up ...and it has been an ok decision, some serious boredom, but not feeling underwater in reading at the time was good. Now she is sailing way past 'above grade level'...so we'll see what occurs in future.

Viginiamomq I will consider how much your dd likes math before accelerating. If you think she is not showing much interest in Math because she hasn't been exposed to engaging content I will try to do so at home first and see how she takes to it.

We did math acceleration starting in elementary school (2nd grade) for our twins, now 16yo and rising juniors in our neighborhood public high school.

DD was for many years more lukewarm to math than DS. I believe this was in part a social consideration similar to that discussed in posts above, which seem to impact girls differently from boys. DD had this party line of "I don't like math," but her actions suggested otherwise (for example: reading on her own, many times over, all of the volumes of the Murderous Math series). DD has always tested a bit higher than DS and we parents were firm about staying with the accelerated math as it was the "appropriate level" for her. Through middle school, DD was very writing/art focused, but continued to perform well while progressing through the math curriculum.

In the last 1-2 years, however, a metamorphosis has occurred, and she is now eager to pursue a science career and is enthusiastic about the math involved. She just completed Calc BC, and is eager for more math. Both kids will take math next year at the nearby uni as they have exhausted the hs offerings.

AND, because of receiving hs credits for having taken Alg. and Geometry in middle school, she is considering graduation a year early as she can satisfy the remaining graduation requirements in the coming academic year. She will be applying to colleges this fall and will decide on whether to do her senior yr in hs after seeing which colleges admit her.

Bottom line: we really didn't take our kid's opinion into consideration in pursuing math acceleration in elementary school and 8-9 years later we are satisfied with the outcome.

We did not accelerate our DS8. He will be a third grader next year. When he was in Pre-K, he was being tested by the school district for Asperger's because of the concerns of his teacher. (He does not have Asperger's.) His scores in Kaufman Assessment Battery were 4 Standard Deviations above mean. The school district and we knew he was gifted back then. His MAP scores in elementary school have always been high. His MAP Math score in second grade was in the high 240s.

We talked to our DS whether he wanted to skip grade the past two years. He always said no, because he enjoys being with his friends. He is not bored at school neither. He always does quality work. His teachers from K-2 have been able to find ways to keep him busy in class. For example, the teacher would let him teach some of the Math lessons. He enjoys teaching. There is also always a special needs kid sits next to him. My DS is a very kind boy. He helps and takes care of others. He treats every one nicely. We heard from parents of how kind he is to their children and how a good friend he is. He is a good friend to every one. We are proud of him.

We feel that there are more in life than academic. We don't need to rush him. At home, he reads all kind of books and does Khan Academy. He is a happy boy. We will let him be.

Someone mentioned frustration when their child actually does encounter challenging work. This EXACTLY. My DD (6) who skipped a year is still not challenged enough consistently. They'll give her grade level where she flies through then give her accelerated and she expects to fly through too and gets frustrated and mad when she can't. Even if the concept is easy for her (which she figures out once someone calms her down and explains this every time). Getting used to "coasting" and never working would be my concern as yes, eventually she will need to work hard. Whether that's college or high school. Eventually she will face a challenge in math and will need to have the emotional and mental tools to work though a challenge.