Went to Montessori through third grade-they just self paced in math such that they were several years ahead when they switched to public.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This really depends on what age and grade you’re talking about. Mine is in 2nd and is doing 4th grade math. Which sounds impressive sure, until you realize this just means he can add and subtract 3 and 4 digit numbers instead of 1 and 2 digit numbers, and can multiply/divide singles. He knows area, perimeter, and large numbers which are all easily picked up. And he knows about money and how to make change, but only because he actually gets a cash allowance and buys things with cash. He can use a ruler and watch, practical life tools. I’m sure all of the above is normal and expected of average children in many other countries.

It’s more impressive if you talking about a 7th grader completing Algebra and Geometry before 8th. I’m not sure what kids do between 4th-6th to make this happen. Math at our school is mind numbingly slow. 2nd grade math was just a review of 1st grade.

Mine is also and second and way ahead, simply because he can do 3 and 4 digit addition and subtraction and basic multiplication and division. He just seems to "get" math. We don't do any formal supplementation like RSM or AoPS or Mathnasium. All we do is answer the questions he has ("so is division like the opposite of multiplication?") and he takes it from there. Sometimes he wants to practice things like times tables or skip counting by 7s (or whatever number) and we'll do it, but we as parents don't ever push it. We let DA drive the bus, so to speak. Will he remain far ahead, particularly without formal supplementation? Who knows. Math comes easily to him now, so we're comfortable with the path he's on at the moment.

I was actually asking this for parents of older kids…like 5th grade and above. I can imagine most relatively intelligent 2nd graders are ahead in math without any supplementation.

Right but many 2nd graders ARE supplementing. So they are doing 3rd-4th grade math in 2nd grade, 4th-5th grade math in 3rd… so naturally by 5th grade they’d be 2 grades ahead. Sure some kids are “naturally good” at math. But lots of those naturally math minded kids are also part of the group that does math work outside of school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This really depends on what age and grade you’re talking about. Mine is in 2nd and is doing 4th grade math. Which sounds impressive sure, until you realize this just means he can add and subtract 3 and 4 digit numbers instead of 1 and 2 digit numbers, and can multiply/divide singles. He knows area, perimeter, and large numbers which are all easily picked up. And he knows about money and how to make change, but only because he actually gets a cash allowance and buys things with cash. He can use a ruler and watch, practical life tools. I’m sure all of the above is normal and expected of average children in many other countries.

It’s more impressive if you talking about a 7th grader completing Algebra and Geometry before 8th. I’m not sure what kids do between 4th-6th to make this happen. Math at our school is mind numbingly slow. 2nd grade math was just a review of 1st grade.

Mine is also and second and way ahead, simply because he can do 3 and 4 digit addition and subtraction and basic multiplication and division. He just seems to "get" math. We don't do any formal supplementation like RSM or AoPS or Mathnasium. All we do is answer the questions he has ("so is division like the opposite of multiplication?") and he takes it from there. Sometimes he wants to practice things like times tables or skip counting by 7s (or whatever number) and we'll do it, but we as parents don't ever push it. We let DA drive the bus, so to speak. Will he remain far ahead, particularly without formal supplementation? Who knows. Math comes easily to him now, so we're comfortable with the path he's on at the moment.

I was actually asking this for parents of older kids…like 5th grade and above. I can imagine most relatively intelligent 2nd graders are ahead in math without any supplementation.

Anonymous wrote:This really depends on what age and grade you’re talking about. Mine is in 2nd and is doing 4th grade math. Which sounds impressive sure, until you realize this just means he can add and subtract 3 and 4 digit numbers instead of 1 and 2 digit numbers, and can multiply/divide singles. He knows area, perimeter, and large numbers which are all easily picked up. And he knows about money and how to make change, but only because he actually gets a cash allowance and buys things with cash. He can use a ruler and watch, practical life tools. I’m sure all of the above is normal and expected of average children in many other countries.

It’s more impressive if you talking about a 7th grader completing Algebra and Geometry before 8th. I’m not sure what kids do between 4th-6th to make this happen. Math at our school is mind numbingly slow. 2nd grade math was just a review of 1st grade.

Mine is also and second and way ahead, simply because he can do 3 and 4 digit addition and subtraction and basic multiplication and division. He just seems to "get" math. We don't do any formal supplementation like RSM or AoPS or Mathnasium. All we do is answer the questions he has ("so is division like the opposite of multiplication?") and he takes it from there. Sometimes he wants to practice things like times tables or skip counting by 7s (or whatever number) and we'll do it, but we as parents don't ever push it. We let DA drive the bus, so to speak. Will he remain far ahead, particularly without formal supplementation? Who knows. Math comes easily to him now, so we're comfortable with the path he's on at the moment.

Anonymous wrote:DreamBox helps to accelerate.

At a snail's pace. That program is so laggy and moves ahead so slowly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two of my kids were two grades ahead and one was a year ahead. We did nothing. Some kids just are naturally good at it and others are naturally good at other things.

This makes no sense to me. If your kid is just doing math at school and nothing else, and they all follow the grade level curriculum, then they would stay at that level because they wouldn’t be exposed to harder math concepts and problems. They must get it from somewhere, either an online program, workbooks. If school offers different levels of math, then that’s not doing nothing imo.

Depending on the grade, a lot can be self taught. A kid will learn to add and subtract two digit numbers in 1st grade. If they can extrapolate that to 6 digit numbers, then they're doing work several grade levels ahead. Early elementary school kids who learn their multiplication facts end up ahead too. There are a few other basic skills kids need (e.g., what is a decimal, how to convert fractions to mixed numbers or reduce a fraction), but they they can probably figure out a lot of other elementary math from those few concepts. For instance, deducing how to calculate perimeter of a rectangle isn't rocket science. It does take more to be ahead by late elementary school because the work gets harder. But it's not impossible in early elementary at all.

Anonymous wrote:We did nothing. And my child doesn’t even particularly like math. I honestly think the standard path is so easy that many kids just need extra work to keep them engaged. It could be more depth (which they don’t get) or acceleration.

There are plenty of kids that struggle with the standard path and even more that are on grade level. We knew kids who were pushed into the Advanced Math group, to round out the class, who did fine but needed support. They are doing fine in Algebra 1 H in 7th grade but need support. I know a few who will earn a B, which is not problematic for the kid and their parents are ok with it. I also know a bunch of kids who were doing well in Advanced Math and choose Math 7H because they did not love math and they didn't want to accelerate any further.

The percentage of kids who find the standard path easy and accelerate naturally is smaller then you think. I would guess about 1/3 of the kids who find the math at school easy in ES will end up in enrichment classes because 1) they enjoy math 2) their parents want them to actually learn something. And there are a good number who simply continue to do well without any enrichment because they are good at math but they don't love math.

My kid is 2yrs ahead in Math but doesn't love math or have a particular aptitude for Math. She was in AAP (FCPS) and that curriculum became the norm.

My kid who is ahead in math is very interested in math. Meaning, he thinks about it on his own and asks questions. When we bring up anything with numbers, he has questions. My other kid is not like that at all.

DreamBox helps to accelerate.

Anonymous wrote:One of my kids enjoys doing math problems at night. She likes Beast Academy. I actually think think it's more of the opposite though, the rest of the school is just behind.

Your kid does math problems for fun and takes extra math classes after school and you think it’s everyone else? Ok.

We did nothing. And my child doesn’t even particularly like math. I honestly think the standard path is so easy that many kids just need extra work to keep them engaged. It could be more depth (which they don’t get) or acceleration.

I have a Kindergartener and I recently realized he and his friends already know their times tables and it's from these songs called Number Blocks. I'm not sure where they got it from but they're all obsessed and quiz each other. I can't take any credit for this.

They also jumped ahead in math because they had to learn addition and subtraction to play Pokémon battles.
My husband is the one who taught our kid Pokemon and that'salso spread throughthe friend group.

The trick at least with very young kids seems to be making math fun. But what's really interesting is that they're reinforcing it with each other by it being trendy?

Mine loves math like me, I have an applied math degree. He does workbooks on his own, also likes to measure things, build, analyze angles. Zero push from us, it's useless in elementary school.

One of my kids enjoys doing math problems at night. She likes Beast Academy. I actually think think it's more of the opposite though, the rest of the school is just behind.