Maybe you should treat the advice as one person's opinion. Also were they literally suggesting college level classes, or were they just saying seek advice from a college faculty member. In an earlier thread a few months ago you said your DS7 was in 5th grade math.
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted...._get_my_son_into_acceler.html#Post186434It seems he should do a course sequence up to calculus (and add some discrete math) before trying college math or science classes.
If you're homeschooling a highly mathy kid, AoPS is the way to go.
I have no idea what to do for science and would love to hear suggestions.
This was from DS's engineering teacher. The teacher teaches engineering classes in a public magnet high school. The teacher felt that DS was beyond what he teaches in his HS engineering classes. So, he just thought that if DS were in his class, he wouldn't have much to offer. He says that DS's ideas are extremely sophisticated and that DS has an innate understanding of various laws of physics/chemistry. So, for example, they are working as a class, on building something. DS takes their simple project and brings it way beyond what they are doing in class. The teacher felt it would be great if DS had a place to actually develop his ideas and create them.
As for math, DS finished 5th grade math in June, placed out of 6th grade math and is working on pre algebra online now.
In my mind, what would be optimal would be DS visiting my father's garage with his amazing collection of hand tools, robots and various devices. But my father is no longer around and the tools are long gone (and not like I could even work with them if I had them).
I will say, that at a cocktail party once, I briefly mentioned one of DS's ideas to a patent attorney. (I know that rule #1 of talking to patent attorneys is to not tell them about your/your mother's/your friend's great idea). This guy asked me what DS was working on lately, and so I shared it with him. (He is a friend of the family.) He emailed me a few days later and said he thought DS's idea was patentable. (It was a rather simple thing that DS thought of - an easy device to make babies more comfortable.) I never pursued it of course because it costs like, thousands of dollars to get a patent. And really, who cares? But I was just trying to illustrate that it's the creating and building that DS needs to do to fulfill his great need. He's got some good ideas!
