I am a big fan of AoPS and definitely prefer its curriculum over the poor implementations of the Common Core.
Further, as the Standardised testing ends up cumulatively killing about a full year of tuition over 12 years if you want your children to have Calculus under their belts by University you have to do something extra, homeschool entirely or go the private school route.
I have also read The Calculus Trap by Rusczyk and agree with its message. I am not in a rush to have my DD master what I would call HS level Maths (which includes Calculus BC) but in order to compete internationally for a STEM place at Uni I think she will need it (was that coherent?).
I have slowed things down a little - DD did AoPS Pre-alg (I&II) when she was 8/9 and Algebra I when she was 9/10. She did this after school and it ended up being just the right side of too much but close enough to make me back off. She gets it conceptually but doing it to strict deadlines after a full day of school and a lot of school homework was just taking too long.
Her future middle school is testing her with the end of middle school exam used to test for honours placement in HS on Thursday. I am not prepping her at all mainly because I want to see where she is having taken a break for a few months from AoPS Maths. We will see where she ends up. One potential option is to bus her to the HS but I do not want that. I would rather she just does the AoPS books in the library on her own instead but the school wants her to be in a class for the 'cooperative learning' (hogwash).
I am going to 'dilute' the mixture/titrate the dosage down by having DD work through the AoPS books first and take the classes after that. It will still involve after school work but it will be less intense.
I just do not see an ex-AoPS curriculum having the same rigour and challenge.
Last edited by madeinuk; 05/19/15 07:39 AM.
