Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School elementary kids in middle school math??

DD 10 is in sixth grade and walks to the middle school through a connector for a double period of seventh grade advanced math. She has to leave social studies 5 minutes early because the schools aren't on the same schedule, but both teachers have been great about her leaving early or arriving a couple of minutes late. When she is in eighth grade, I'll have to get her to the high school for geometry. We'll deal with that when we need to because now her needs are being met.

I would ask parents of other math accelerated kids. As mentioned by others, many schools with staggered start times (HS starts earliest, elementary is last to begin the day) will have a first period math class. Kid gets on the MS bus in the morning, takes math first period, then is bussed to elementary when they are just starting their day.

Depending upon where you live, this could get trickier in HS. If there are colleges nearby, accelerated HS kids can just take a class at a college. Folks in this district are fortunate to have three 4 year colleges within a mile of the HS. My kids will not need to use this resource, but they know kids that started college courses in 8th or 9th grade. HS math goes through Linear Algebra though, so HS courses are adequate for most kids.

DS is in 5th this year and is allowed to do EPGY for the second year. The school discussed transporting him to MS but they were looking at one grade of acceleration whereas he was 3-4 ahead when we started last year. EPGY was a better fit. He is definitely being challenged now but the disadvantage is that he has never learned math in a classroom setting with a group, instead by listening alone to online lectures.

Our issue is that for "official" purposes he is considered a 5th grader so in theory still must take the other grade levels again. The school has offered to have him begin Novanet.com this year and supposedly he can take pre-tests and get credit for what he tests out of (we live in NC). I had already purchased EPGY so he is hopefully going to finish this quarter (Int Algebra) and then begin Novanet in December. I am sure we will have some issues to deal with as I do not think it will be as simple as him taking a test and getting credit for 5-9th grades but we will see what happens. Has anyone ever used or heard of Novanet?

In any case, given he was several grades ahead I do not want him being in classes with kids that much older. Not sure what is ahead as HS math only goes through Calculus. The great thing is that if he is able to keep progressing, so many programs are available online now so it should not be an issue I hope.

Hope it works out for you. Unfortunately for my DD, when she got to 5th grade, they refused to do anything & she had to sit through an entire second year of the math she had already successfully completed. The middle school principal was fine with her being transported & taking the math there. He & the elementary principal were willing to use the middle school curriculum at the elementary school (my DD was actually part of a cluster of 5 that had been taught 5th grade math in 4th grade), but the district office was unwilling to work with us and the other 4 sets of parents were unwilling to fight with us. So, instead, my DD had negative growth on her assessments because she completely shut down.

Now, we have moved districts, she is once again accelerated in math, and we are waiting to see what happens next year when there is no math class for her in 8th grade.