acs, do you think things would be OK with your son if he didn't have the acceleration in math?
No, I don't. That acceleration makes a big difference for him. It is funny because math is his weakest academic subject and the only one he is accelerated in. I think it is because the elementary teachers were able to find lots of challenging materials in his strong subjects. They panicked at the thought of teaching him math and jumped at the chance when I suggested a homeschool self-paced math curriculum I could send with him. Partly, too, because it is not his strongest subject, he does need to be taught it. He catches on fast, but doesn't intuit the way he intuits other things.
He started math acceleration in 3rd when he told the teacher he was bored with 3rd grade math. He finished pre-algebra in 5th and started with the first year of the High school sequence (with the honors 8th graders) in 6th. Now he is in the 2nd year of the sequence and goes to the high school for that one period.
I should add that he does not crave learning math. But he couldn't stand being bored in it either.