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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, I teach high school math.  I would caution you to think twice, and then twice more, about pushing this far ahead.

A student who takes algebra 1 in 7th grade will run out of math at my FCPS school.  They will have to take senior year classes at NVCC, online, or skip math entirely.  Fine for a year, maybe even a good college prep lesson for an 18 year old.

A kid who takes algebra 1 in 5th grade will run out after freshman year.  (6th grade: Geo, 7th grade: Alg 2, 8th gr: precalc/level 1 IB, 9th grade Calc/level 2 IB)  Then what? A sophomore doesn't have a drivers license to get to Nova for classes.  If your kid goes to TJ they'll have a few more options, but that's an "if".  I guess if they are at an IB school they could try going to an AP school to take AP calc, or from an AP school going to an IB campus for that crossover, but it's not straight forward.

I'd try to hold off on algebra until 6th, because then your student will at least have a (small) cohort of kids in the county doing what yours does.

FWIW, I do have a 7th grader in my honors algebra 2 class.  He's having a hard time.  He flew through algebra 1 and geometry according to prior teachers, but his brain just doesn't seem developed enough to pick up the algebra 2 concepts that quickly (he's 12!)  He has a B, but he's working really hard to get that B.  Maybe your child is different, my sample size is n = 1 (in 15 years I've never had another 12 year old in algebra 2), but it feels like a big time race to nowhere in most cases.

I'm sorry you are dealing with this, it must be super stressful to try to balance what your kid can handle within the confines of a school system.[/quote]+1 there’s no advantage at the college level with racing through either.  [/quote]

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