Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Grade 2 math club or competition

Hi all. My son is 8, and in public school. At his school, the only gifted education is in-classroom, so basically the teacher says that once he finishes the math task for the day, then he can do his own additional worksheets. This is not really working out well for him. For reading, they have a parent volunteer that takes a few 2nd graders out, and they do Junior Oregon Battle of the Books. For math, I'm thinking of proposing something similar. So I could volunteer, and grab a small group of advanced math kids, and do something? Any ideas greatly appreciated.

I'd second the idea of math-circle activities.

https://naturalmath.com/ has some great resources aimed at primary grades.

Also I really like some of the material on: https://mathforlove.com/

So he gets more work. My son really took offense to that idea at that age. It also killed any after school math we tried to do.
I too agree with the math circle if they will go for it.
It has to be fun at this age

Thanks for the math circle idea, and of keeping things fun. I have a meeting with the teacher and principal set up for the following Monday, Jan 22. I'll have to look more into life of fred.

Perhaps a math club with an option to enter an elementary competition. My DD13 participates in the local ARML team learning sessions. ARML is for students through High School, so there are topics brand new to her, and with only 15 of the 30 going to the competition, she won't be one (and doesn't want to be). But she goes for the enjoyment of learning and exposure to higher-level topics. Some go for the competition option, but there are kids down to 6th grade just there to discuss math with their high-talent peers. (I must admit, it's interesting seeing a 10 year old discussing arctangents).

Here are some elementary competitions if you want to look into them - http://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki...ementary_school_mathematics_competitions

Just wanted to give you a quick update. We had the meeting with the principal and teacher yesterday. We brought up ssa and grade skip. They said that skipping into 3rd right now would not work, since they're in the middle of prep for state testing. We are going to talk at the end of the year about plans for the following year. In the meantime, the principal worked more with the teacher for enrichment in class. So my son and his math partner, after they finish their main assigned work, they will get an enrichment activity. Since my initial emails with the teacher, the enrichment has been getting harder, and my son has liked that, so maybe that will be enough for now until the end of the year. Making a math circle in the school won't work out because of the time and my availability (12:30 - 1:30, right in the middle of my work day).

Says a lot about school priorities, doesn't it? Don't do what's best for students, do what's best for the state tests.

We were in the same boat. My son felt insulted and bored by the math. In k and 1st I did twice a month math pullouts with 5-6 kids. It was more fun and I enjoyed being able to encourage some other kids in math too - especially some of the girls that really needed to hear they were great at math too (and they totally were!) This was such a small impact though compared to the SSA he finally got in 2nd. He still gets a perfect score on everything and is the strongest math student a year up too, but it is closer and feels better for him. Every once in a while he gets something a little new.

When I did math club I did prepare some fun topics but my go to when I didn't have time was to have the kids do old Math Kangaroo math contest problems. Nice variety and fun. GL. We are thinking about another skip next year but this ssa has been worth the advocacy so far, for sure.

By the way, not to complicate your life MORE but the best thing we did was to do Beast Academy after school. We are lucky to have real classroom nearby teaching it, but in the spring there will be an online academy available and also you can just use the books. My son reads them for fun, even (comics). He's covered almost 3 years of deep, quality math in about a year. He is inhaling the math, I can't believe it.

You're so lucky! That sounds awesome!

btw thanks for the life of fred tip, we got fractions from the library and my son loves it.