Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments impacts of being 3-years-accelerated in math

This was out thinking with our ds when he was in 4th.
We did AoPS Prealgebra at home after school.

I have a 3rd grader who has finished 5th grade math and we were offered the bus option to middle school next year for math. My DS was thrilled at the opportunity to ride a shuttle bus daily because we drop him off at school by car and he wishes that he could take a bus to school! But, we turned the opportunity down and instead asked the school to differentiate for DS in his regular classroom and the teacher plans to provide customized work packets for him and teach him in the extra help hours after school if he had gaps that needed to be filled.
we chose to not take up the bus option because my DS is 8 (almost 9) and he is naive and does not know how to handle himself if there are bullying situations involving older kids. He was in a mixed age math class before and got severely bullied when two older kids realized that he had overshot them in the math level that he was working on. The situation was addressed immediately, but, I found my DS in tears when I went to pick him up on the day of the incident. He is a kid who is brave, very social, very verbal and knows to ask for help if there is trouble. But, multiple kids bullying him and mocking him was too much for him to handle as he really liked and trusted that group and thought of them as friends.
So, I think that for my DS, I will not move him to middle school for math until he is around 10 years of age hopefully more street smart.

We did discuss briefly grade acceleration. He is about 1 grade ahead in reading, maybe a little more and his writing is above average, but not a year ahead. He is also one of the youngest in his class and just sort of keeping his head above water socially/emotionally. We're not saying we won't accelerate down the line, but right now it doesn't seem like the right choice.

That's my general feeling as well. Now I suppose I ask the school system, how do we meet his needs and not send him to middle school at age 9?

As I alluded on the current grade-skipping thread, we had a fourth-grade-age student in a multi-age class with 6/7/8th graders, doing pre-algebra, which worked out well, granted, in a tiny private school, so not entirely analogous. The following year (fifth-grade age, seventh-grade placement) was algebra I, in a two-person class with an eighth grader. I don't think it's so much the age of the classmates in general, as it is the temperament and maturity of the specific student, the attitude of the receiving teacher, and the composition of the receiving classroom. In a medium-to-large middle school, there is also the factor of negotiating the campus.

More importantly, though, I think it is unnecessary to worry so many steps down the line. It is highly likely that the plan will have to be revised again between now and fourth grade. I would make placement and programming decisions based on what your child needs in the next six months to a year, and then re-visit it on a regular basis.

My 7th grader took Algebra in 6th (not 7th) but in his case we are fortunate in a way that there will be about 30 kids in the district on this math track. He will have to bus to the high school early in the AM next year. The drawbacks are loss of time with transporting, getting up earlier, and missing his beloved jazz band which meets before school 1x a week.

It will not count for HS graduation, but he will take Pre-calc, AP Calc, AP Stats and AP comp sci likely for his math credits while in high school. We also had an admissions counselor at a highly competitive school tell our gifted parents group that kids should take discrete math before college! For us, that would mean outsourcing it unless the offerings change in the next 4 years.

Being stuck in a lower level class is torture, and as long as a kid is getting social interaction its gonna be okay. did you try asking him? 6 year olds understand a lot, and at the very least he gets an option to say no. if you ask it's not dictation, its cooperation. And as he gets older, KEEP asking. and could those high school level classes count as high school credits?

I am a stringent believer in the idea that school is not for socialization. and if your child is old enough to go to school with seventh graders, he can probably make friend with them if he wants too.

Where does he want to be?

Thank you all for your wisdom, which has helped calm my nerves. While I appreciate the school system trying to give a bigger picture, we think we need to take this year by year right now. (thank you aeh!) Also, AnnieQuill, we have asked him briefly and he is very excited about 4th grade math with many of the same 3rd graders he's in class with now. He doesn't really understand compacted 4/5 and we didn't get into it too much. We're just trying to focus on the fact that right now he loves math class and is doing well, so we'll continue until one of those things change.

Funny story- Today I volunteered to help his first-grade class at the school book fair. While I was helping other kids figure out if that had enough money for what they wanted, he was finished buying, read the picture book he bought, and then went to his teacher to ask if it was ok if he went upstairs to math. He didn't want to miss it. :-)

We have a 5 yo who attends Math Circle with 8 and 9 year olds, goes to math in the Grade 5 class, and talks algebra etc with middle schoolers who share the building. At home he kept on sneaking to the basement and reading my university textbooks until I finally bought him some elementary books.

To echo aeh, take it one year at a time and follow your child's pace. My advice to my child's teachers is that they should neither actively press the accelerator nor obstruct him. Sitting in on Math Circle, it seems that the biggest challenge is with children just a couple of years older: he thinks their juvenile humor is hilarious and sophisticated, and is frustrated that he can't keep up with them when there are tasks demanding more advanced motor skills. Though they are not actively mean to him, they are also not always very conscious that he is younger and thus less robust both physically and psychologically. (imo this is just because 8 year olds tend to be a bit oblivious) The much older children are very kind to him and recognize and respect his abilities while understanding that he's still just a baby. A lot of older children have younger siblings, and innocence can be protective.

I do think it is helpful for a young math-oriented child to spend time around others who love math and are working at their level. This helps to foster both a collegial and collaborative atmosphere, and is much less lonely than reading a book or working on a computer.

Even if your child does keep up a blistering pace in math I wouldn't worry too much about deciding their high school courses or workload. Speaking as a math person, much of math through typical second year university courses really is not difficult for those mathematically inclined. Doing multivariable calculus, linear algebra and differential equations will not add substantially to your child's workload: it will be different math than the courses typically covered in high school, but certainly no more work. Things do get more intellectually challenging once you start getting into analysis and advanced abstract math topics, but even then it is about deeper thinking rather than more time or larger amounts of work. This is very different from content-dense arts or science subjects, where university level courses do require increasing amounts of time for reading and lab work. Math is about working smarter, not more. It's a search for elegance - the ideal proof is both succinct and complete.

mom2R&R, What an amazing child you have and it's wonderful to hear that the school has recognized his talents. We have a meeting coming up for our daughter who is 8 and very advancedm although not as advanced as your child! We are wondering if you could please share how you advocated for acceleration with your school? Did you contact the district first? Did you bring test scores from private evaluations? Research on acceleration and how it benefits children? What was your first clue that your child might benefit from acceleration? In the end, what convinced you to advance your child? Is there anything that would have convinced you to not accelerate? It sounds like your son is doing great but can you tell us the reaction by his peers and other schoolmates? Are they accepting or do you worry about putting him at risk for bullying?