one advantage to doing the extra projects is honing skills that will be used in the future
I personally see no value in knowing how to use Powerpoint. Or how to make a brochure in Publisher. Excel, now, there's something worth teaching.
But to require a Powerpoint and oral report to demonstrate math proficiency is sort of like saying "Your kid can have harder books just as soon as she's able to play Mary Had a Little Lamb on the violin." It's all well and good to be able to play an instrument, but it's got nothing directly to do with reading ability, no more than public speaking has to do with math.
