How is your child 2 grades ahead in math
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Anonymous
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My child attends public school and has many classmates that are 2 years (or more) ahead in math.
Did your child get there because you personally tutored them, or did they go to something like AOPS or Russian School of math to get ahead several grade levels? |
Anonymous
| Mine had a weird interest in math since very young age - like definitely by 3 wanted to do math problems. Did beast academy in 2nd grade, occasionally, online. In third he is allowed to use school IXL website that allows him to go as far ahead as needed and he just surged ahead. We also started RSM this year as he was losing his mind with school math, but in RSM he does grade level math (though what RSM considers grade level and what DCPS considers grade level is quite different). |
Anonymous
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One of my kids ended up a few years ahead in math. My older kid isn't great at math, and needed a lot of help, and his little brother kept eavesdropping. I was concerned that he was going fast, but not deep, so I got him Beast Academy and told him it was an exception to our screen time rules.
Now, this was at a time when we were pretty isolated due to the pandemic and high risk family members, so boredom was a pretty big motivator. I'll also say that I'm not sure it's been a net positive. He's just in 9th, so we'll see how it turns out for him. |
Anonymous
My second grader tests at the 4th/5th grade level in math (and the school gives him appropriate work, which is wonderful!) No supplementing, but my husband and I are both math people and will answer all his questions and draw out concepts and buy books for him. He also taught himself a LOT of math just by playing with a calculator, which he would do for hours. This is totally self motivated. My older son is bright, but never chose to spend his extra time just daydreaming about math, which is what my younger son does. |
Anonymous
| It doesn't take much to get a kid 2+ years ahead in math in early ES. The curriculum is slow and repetitive. So a kid who is interested in and exposed to math can progress really fast. We didn't do anything other than play math games and talk about math concepts when my oldest was little. His school then put him into independent learning with adaptive software and that really pushed him many years beyond ahead of the curriculum. |
Anonymous
| I don’t really know. We didn’t supplement at all until the pandemic- when we had to homeschool. Kids were in 3rd and 4th grade then. Up until then they always tested 90-99+ percentile in math though. Once we had to homeschool school and actually teach math, they took odd. We continued their home math lessons once school went back in person and they finished precalc at the end of 8th grade. |
Anonymous
| Also in my experience it’s not that common to be ahead of your grade in RSM, assuming AOPS is the same. RSM has three levels per grade. |
Anonymous
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In elementary school he became obsessed with Prodigy. Really wanted to win those monsters. When two of his friends started playing with him, he got even more into it. It gave him incredibly fast calculation skills which allowed him to easily pick up the more abstract problem solving behind math.
In high school, math was incredibly easy for him. One group of his friends including a girl he liked were planning on taking AP Physics and Calculus the next year WTH him. They were all taking a community college non credit course in Calculus that summer. He decided to do it with them. While he regretted signing up while he was in the class because why would anyone want to wake up early five days a week during the summer and spend 3 hours doing Calculus, he was really relieved the next fall. He said he understood now why some kids find it those classes easy and others really struggle. He noticed that his prior high school classes hadn’t prepared him for either class but the summer one did. He’s a nice kid and spent a lot of hours tutoring friends and other students who hadn’t already taken the course. |
Anonymous
Our kid was ahead 2 years ahead and wredidn't do any tutoring. The pace of math is ES is slow as molasses for all the kids who never went to preschool, didn't travel, etc. Our kid was eventually put in compacted math and just kept advancing. |
Anonymous
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Teen DD is ahead in math. She was very bored as a kid in elementary, so we did Art of Problem Solving, which for that age group is called Beast Academy. She loved the little monsters and the stories! Then she was placed into the MCPS CES math track for 4th and 5th, then tested into Algebra 1 in 6th grade and is now in Honors Precalc in 9th grade. Will take AP Calc BC in 10th and then various other math classes. She hasn't needed any math tutoring yet, but as her math track progresses, we're not ruling it out. My father is a research biostatistician, and is ready to help if she needs it.
Certain school systems require a math class every year of high school (and indeed, it does look better for college admissions), so one consideration in all this is what to do if a kid has reached the end of their math track at their school yet still needs to fulfill a math requirement. MCPS provides dual enrollment courses with Montgomery College and we know one kid who went to UMD as a high school senior for an advanced math class, so there are options... but it's an added wrinkle. I have to add that our other child, currently majoring in a Humanities degree in college, is not mathy at all. He needed a math tutor for AP Calc BC, which was the end of his high school math track. I am of a similar disposition, despite being a research biologist. I use a little math for work... but I don't like it 
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Anonymous
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Another piece of consistent feedback here: two DCPS kids who are both two years ahead. They're both reasonably good at math, and when given opportunities to work ahead, the kids took them. One just likes being advanced - I think that child would honestly be a little better served being closer to grade level since the grades aren't stellar, and the other kid has it come really naturally. We don't supplement or tutor (but may need to with the challenges as they get into Algebra II and beyond)
Basically - don't sweat it!!! Teach your kid to advocate for themselves if they want the challenge: but it's 100% fine to be where you are! |
Anonymous
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My 2nd grader really enjoys and is challenged by RSM 2nd grade Honors. DCPS moves SO slowly and IMO is currently covering concepts (time, currency) that many kids grasped in PK. But one great thing to come from that is DD has gained a lot of confidence because she considers school math a breeze.
I believe the RSM track gears them to take calculus in 10th, but only if you do the extra geometry hour from 6th-8th (and then are allowed to skip geometry in school). That would be two years "ahead." But otherwise you end up only one year ahead. |
Anonymous
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Did Montessori for preschool through K. 1st kid arrived in 1st grade way ahead in math. 2nd kid was so far ahead the school floated them up to the next grade level advanced math class. 3rd kid we had tested by the ES in spring and then ended up skipping 1st grade.
No extra tutoring. They did unstructured Khan Academy (just the quizzes) in summer for fun. |
Anonymous
This was also also. Didn't do anything outside of school. In class was given an extra packet to keep working ahead in 5th grade. Now in 8th grade they're completing geometry but got there by testing into 7th grade math as a 6th grader then tested into Algebra as a 7th grader in our DCPS MS. It just comes easy to him and kept working to the point of finally getting it to be challenging. |
Anonymous
| Mine discovered Khan Academy and he was off and running. |