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I had that same problem in high school. There was no way around it really at my school, it was a public college prep school and Senior year math options were AP Calc or Honors Calc. Trig/Analytical Geometry (is that pre-calc?) in 11th grade (and Geometry in 9th grade) about kicked my butt. My solution for 12th grade was to transfer to a liberal arts college 500 miles away. They understood that, as an English major, I had not use for Calculus at all and allowed me to take some fluff math course where we talked about Lewis Carroll. Had I stayed in High School, there's no doubt in my mind that I would have flunked calculus.

Stats, functions, business math, accounting...

Some top universities have very specific requirements on HS classes. For example, Princeton requires:

* four years of English (including continued practice in writing)
* four years of mathematics (including calculus for students interested in engineering)
* four years of one foreign language
* at least two years of laboratory science (including physics and chemistry for students interested in engineering)
* at least two years of history

It does not look very good if a student only take two years of Math (even for English major). Having said that, if the kid is only 4th grade, you will have many opportunities to make adjustment along the way. I wouldn't worry about it now.

what happens if a child finishes calculus in middle school? Do high schools offer an additional four years worth of mathematics or would she have to repeat everything again? Is early college entrance the only other option in that case?

Keep in mind that most students take calculus in their senior year. More advanced ones take it in junior year. If a student finishes calculus in middle school, it is quite unusual. He or she can still do AP calculus BC, AP statistics in high school. Some most elite HS provides multivariable calculus, number theory and/or linear algebra as well. If the HS does not provide those, enroll in a junior college or university may be the way to go.

Admittedly, having one subject so advanced creates some problems. But these are lovely problems to have.

I would make the case for a gifted kid to take calculus, even if he/she was destined to be a humanities major or perhaps a science major. I think there is tremendous value in learning to think in the way that calculus teaches - fairly abstractly, with some very practical applications. I went all the way through multivariable calculus, and decided I wasn't as good at math as I'd hoped. I don't use any math in my profession, but I think it was valuable to learn the discipline.

Both of my parents actually took calculus last year at a community college (mind you, they're in their 70's) as a continuing ed adventure. They both thought they should take calculus before they passed from this earth, and neither had taken it in school. I got a great chuckle out of that.

This is my concern as well. What to do with higher classes? My DD9 would be starting prealgebra this year (based on ALEKS). I bought the ND 7th grade textbook which is skipped on the advanced track in our PS in favor of prealgebra. Originally I planned to use it as review, now I am considering letting my DD just do this for the year with her EPGY and then doing prealgebra next year in sixth, even if it is a little easy after this course.

Her interests are all science related and while she will need math I'm unsure at how high a level. She could always take more in depth algebra with something like AoP if she seems to need the challenge, but right now it isn't her interest. I don't think it will harm her to slow her down a little.

This belongs in the Ultimate Brag Thread. Way to go TwoMoose's parents!

My son is currently taking a math logic course through an organization that serves mathematically gifted middle school students. The classes are taught by a teacher during this school year. During the summer, they used online instruction for the logic portion of the curriculum.

This instruction, which is not included in most high school math sequences, could replace grade school acceleration in the case of your child and avoid the issue of going too far too fast.

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