It’s mostly innate iq and innate math ability. Twin and adoption studies prove this. Either your brain has it or it doesn’t. Pick your breeding partners wisely.

We’re not in the DMV, but my DS was bored to tears in ES math. He was consistently getting 100% on the unit pre-tests. His teachers encouraged him to work on DreamBox (individualized self-paced math platform) whenever possible. Over the summers, I did have my kids supplement a little with Beast Academy and MAP prep right before testing, but we weren’t religious about it. In the beginning of 5th grade, he tested into pre-algebra and was cabbed to the MS daily (1-3 students do this every year districtwide). Now that I feel like he’s being appropriately challenged in school math, we do zero academically outside of school as he has other extracurricular activities he is passionate about.

My kids are grown now, but when they were little, I started to teach Math to them, way before they began their formal schooling.

I am a SAHM. There was a chance in my DH's work that we would move to another country and if that happened I did not want my kids to be behind in coursework in another country. I had access to curriculum and material from 3-4 different countries, so I could cherry-pick curriculum/textbooks and basically gave them a STEM and Humanities education that they would not get in US. When my kids started school, they were really ahead of their peers by several years and so they breezed through school. They won spots in the magnet programs which was a lot better than the general education they were getting in school, and I continued supplementing them or teaching them subjects not covered at their school/grade in US.

Acceleration, supplementation and enrichment by me actually turbocharged their brain in a way that they could self-learn at a very rapid pace on their own too. My kids are not geniuses by any means but because they have been taught a variety of subjects from a very young age by me, learning has come very easy to them.

Anonymous wrote:

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

How does literacy instruction work in Montessori? I’m curious about how they teach writing, spelling, phonics.

DP. But literacy is phonics based. They use a lot of manipulatives: the moveable (cursive) alphabet, prefixes and root words they add on to other words using word or letter tiles, grammar work with movable sentence components (verbs, adjectives, etc). They use short stories with comprehension questions students have to write the answers. Lots of paper and pencil writing

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When talking about young kids in particular, I think it's important to understand the difference between a kid who can do some math that's 2 years ahead, and a kid who is 2 years ahead in math across the board.

Bright kids who are interested in math and understand it intuitively, and who don't have outside instruction, are going to develop skills very unevenly. There are things that they'll figure out for themselves, or pick up from the environment years before they encounter them in the curriculum. But it's very unlikely that they will pick up all skills in the same sequence in which they're taught.

For example, I once knew a kid who was, for whatever reason, very curious about clocks. By age 4, they could tell time to the minute, which is a third grade skill. The same kid was very into the game of monopoly and learned to count combinations of bills, and to understand place value well enough that they could add and subtract multidigit numbers. But there were plenty of other math topics that didn't catch the kid's interest, and so the kid didn't know them. They didn't recognize a division sign, or understand fractions at all or know what the word quadrilateral meant. So, while they had some second and third grade level skills, and those skills were an indication of promise and potential in math, it wouldn't have been accurate to say they were 3 years ahead.

True. I have to believe that people who say their kid is two years ahead understands that.

That doesn't match my experience as a teacher. I often had kids in my class who had a few skills that were far above, but whose parents described them as at the level of whatever was their highest skill. Perhaps the kid decoded well, but had very limited comprehension. The parents would describe them as "reading on a 6th grade level", when their actual ability to understand text was more like 2nd. Or the kid had a basic understanding of multiplication, so their parent would describe them as "third grade level in math" but the kid didn't understand how addition and subtraction connected, or how place value worked, both core first grade concepts.

We never described our kids grade level to the Teachers, they had a far better idea of what was happening then we did. For example, I confused decoding and comprehension in K but a friend explained the difference. After that, I just let me son pick the books he wanted to read solo and let him read those while I read chapter books to him and, eventually, with him. Then we discussed the books. I did need someone to point out what is obvious now, that decoding is a totally different skill then comprehension.

His Teachers always commented on his math skills at parent teacher conferences. He was adding and subtracting with negative numbers in K, he played with different bases in second grade. That type of thing. He never struggled with the math he was given in school. I never felt the need to label his math skill at school, we supplemented starting in 3rd grade because we wanted him to continue to be engaged in math. The math competition classes were the best thing for him. They challenge him and offer material he does not immediately understand. He has to work through some concepts inorder to grasp them. It doesn't take long but the concepts are not immediate. We think that is a good thing because it is helping him understand that he has to work, even in math.

Supplementing is less about getting ahead and more about meeting him where he is and helping him develop strong study skills as well as strong math skills. I have older siblings that where not challenged and could coast in school. College was not fun for either of them. I would prefer to avoid those pains for my son.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When talking about young kids in particular, I think it's important to understand the difference between a kid who can do some math that's 2 years ahead, and a kid who is 2 years ahead in math across the board.

Bright kids who are interested in math and understand it intuitively, and who don't have outside instruction, are going to develop skills very unevenly. There are things that they'll figure out for themselves, or pick up from the environment years before they encounter them in the curriculum. But it's very unlikely that they will pick up all skills in the same sequence in which they're taught.

For example, I once knew a kid who was, for whatever reason, very curious about clocks. By age 4, they could tell time to the minute, which is a third grade skill. The same kid was very into the game of monopoly and learned to count combinations of bills, and to understand place value well enough that they could add and subtract multidigit numbers. But there were plenty of other math topics that didn't catch the kid's interest, and so the kid didn't know them. They didn't recognize a division sign, or understand fractions at all or know what the word quadrilateral meant. So, while they had some second and third grade level skills, and those skills were an indication of promise and potential in math, it wouldn't have been accurate to say they were 3 years ahead.

True. I have to believe that people who say their kid is two years ahead understands that.

That doesn't match my experience as a teacher. I often had kids in my class who had a few skills that were far above, but whose parents described them as at the level of whatever was their highest skill. Perhaps the kid decoded well, but had very limited comprehension. The parents would describe them as "reading on a 6th grade level", when their actual ability to understand text was more like 2nd. Or the kid had a basic understanding of multiplication, so their parent would describe them as "third grade level in math" but the kid didn't understand how addition and subtraction connected, or how place value worked, both core first grade concepts.

Anonymous wrote:

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

How does literacy instruction work in Montessori? I’m curious about how they teach writing, spelling, phonics.

Montessori is not a registered trademark, so there can be wide variation from school to school.

At an AMI or AMS accredited Montessori, Phonics *always* has been front and center. They never did the whole language, balanced literacy, Lucy Calkins crap.

They initially teach the 26 letters but using the sound the letter makes, not the name of the letter. Then they teach two-letter combinations like "ph" and "sh". After Phonics is mastered, they switch to phonetic readers that have a bare minimum of sight words. After student is really solid at phonetic decoding then they introduce more sight words and readers that are not strictly phonetic.

Each student learns at his/her own pace, just as with most Montessori subjects. One child might be reading at 3rd/4th grade level at age 4, while another student in the same room might be just starting reading at age 5.

Anonymous wrote:When talking about young kids in particular, I think it's important to understand the difference between a kid who can do some math that's 2 years ahead, and a kid who is 2 years ahead in math across the board.

Bright kids who are interested in math and understand it intuitively, and who don't have outside instruction, are going to develop skills very unevenly. There are things that they'll figure out for themselves, or pick up from the environment years before they encounter them in the curriculum. But it's very unlikely that they will pick up all skills in the same sequence in which they're taught.

For example, I once knew a kid who was, for whatever reason, very curious about clocks. By age 4, they could tell time to the minute, which is a third grade skill. The same kid was very into the game of monopoly and learned to count combinations of bills, and to understand place value well enough that they could add and subtract multidigit numbers. But there were plenty of other math topics that didn't catch the kid's interest, and so the kid didn't know them. They didn't recognize a division sign, or understand fractions at all or know what the word quadrilateral meant. So, while they had some second and third grade level skills, and those skills were an indication of promise and potential in math, it wouldn't have been accurate to say they were 3 years ahead.

True. I have to believe that people who say their kid is two years ahead understands that.

When talking about young kids in particular, I think it's important to understand the difference between a kid who can do some math that's 2 years ahead, and a kid who is 2 years ahead in math across the board.

Bright kids who are interested in math and understand it intuitively, and who don't have outside instruction, are going to develop skills very unevenly. There are things that they'll figure out for themselves, or pick up from the environment years before they encounter them in the curriculum. But it's very unlikely that they will pick up all skills in the same sequence in which they're taught.

For example, I once knew a kid who was, for whatever reason, very curious about clocks. By age 4, they could tell time to the minute, which is a third grade skill. The same kid was very into the game of monopoly and learned to count combinations of bills, and to understand place value well enough that they could add and subtract multidigit numbers. But there were plenty of other math topics that didn't catch the kid's interest, and so the kid didn't know them. They didn't recognize a division sign, or understand fractions at all or know what the word quadrilateral meant. So, while they had some second and third grade level skills, and those skills were an indication of promise and potential in math, it wouldn't have been accurate to say they were 3 years ahead.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In our district, math acceleration starts in 6th. My middle dc is in 5th and so bored with the math curriculum (though my older dc who is really gifted in math never got bored, so I think part of the issue is with my 5th grader not coping well with boredom)- but I worry if I supplement at home, she will be even more bored in school, because at least now she occasionally learns a new topic/concept. They just spend too long (in her opinion) reviewing the concepts. For those of you with kids that are so ahead by working on math after school- do they not get bored in school?

DS was bored at school, which is why we supplemented. We told him that the work at school had to be done because that was what the Teacher assigned and it needs to be completed properly, neatly, and without complaint. He needed to view the material as practice because he needs these skills as advances in math. Practicing now will help make sure he a strong foundation and will help to make learning more advanced math easier.

We told him that while it might be easy for him, he had classmates who were struggling so he needed to remember that and keep his comments about how easy it was to himself. Mentioning how boring it is unintentionally unkind to a kid who is struggling. It makes them feel bad about not understanding the material and he does not want to be unkind. It helped that I have learning issues and found math challenging all through school and I felt stupid because I did not get the material while other kids were loudly discussing how easy it was.

The supplemented work was more interesting and kept him engaged in math while the work at school was repetitive. The other benefit was that the RSM Teachers were clear that they expected answers to be written out and completed on paper. That helped him develop that habit and not focus on mental math so he developed better habits for Algebra and other classes.

Yes! That is one thing I do like about RSM. It’s all on paper. I do wish certain problems provided more space to do the work. I know we can use scrap paper, but having built in space on the assignment shows the student that you expect them to need the space to write and think.

Anonymous wrote:In our district, math acceleration starts in 6th. My middle dc is in 5th and so bored with the math curriculum (though my older dc who is really gifted in math never got bored, so I think part of the issue is with my 5th grader not coping well with boredom)- but I worry if I supplement at home, she will be even more bored in school, because at least now she occasionally learns a new topic/concept. They just spend too long (in her opinion) reviewing the concepts. For those of you with kids that are so ahead by working on math after school- do they not get bored in school?

Yes but they were bored in school to begin with, hence the work outside of school.

Anonymous wrote:In our district, math acceleration starts in 6th. My middle dc is in 5th and so bored with the math curriculum (though my older dc who is really gifted in math never got bored, so I think part of the issue is with my 5th grader not coping well with boredom)- but I worry if I supplement at home, she will be even more bored in school, because at least now she occasionally learns a new topic/concept. They just spend too long (in her opinion) reviewing the concepts. For those of you with kids that are so ahead by working on math after school- do they not get bored in school?

We are very lucky that for both kids, their teachers offered them alternative advanced work in elementary school. They both have the option of skipping the default lessons (once they prove themselves) and then they got much more challenging work to engage them during the day (some on adaptive apps and some from a teacher).

The older one is now in a middle school that accelerates a lot (algebra 2 by 8th) math, so it's all fine.

this is in DC -- DCPS elementary and BASIS for middle.

Anonymous wrote:In our district, math acceleration starts in 6th. My middle dc is in 5th and so bored with the math curriculum (though my older dc who is really gifted in math never got bored, so I think part of the issue is with my 5th grader not coping well with boredom)- but I worry if I supplement at home, she will be even more bored in school, because at least now she occasionally learns a new topic/concept. They just spend too long (in her opinion) reviewing the concepts. For those of you with kids that are so ahead by working on math after school- do they not get bored in school?

DS was bored at school, which is why we supplemented. We told him that the work at school had to be done because that was what the Teacher assigned and it needs to be completed properly, neatly, and without complaint. He needed to view the material as practice because he needs these skills as advances in math. Practicing now will help make sure he a strong foundation and will help to make learning more advanced math easier.

We told him that while it might be easy for him, he had classmates who were struggling so he needed to remember that and keep his comments about how easy it was to himself. Mentioning how boring it is unintentionally unkind to a kid who is struggling. It makes them feel bad about not understanding the material and he does not want to be unkind. It helped that I have learning issues and found math challenging all through school and I felt stupid because I did not get the material while other kids were loudly discussing how easy it was.

The supplemented work was more interesting and kept him engaged in math while the work at school was repetitive. The other benefit was that the RSM Teachers were clear that they expected answers to be written out and completed on paper. That helped him develop that habit and not focus on mental math so he developed better habits for Algebra and other classes.

In our district, math acceleration starts in 6th. My middle dc is in 5th and so bored with the math curriculum (though my older dc who is really gifted in math never got bored, so I think part of the issue is with my 5th grader not coping well with boredom)- but I worry if I supplement at home, she will be even more bored in school, because at least now she occasionally learns a new topic/concept. They just spend too long (in her opinion) reviewing the concepts. For those of you with kids that are so ahead by working on math after school- do they not get bored in school?

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

How does literacy instruction work in Montessori? I’m curious about how they teach writing, spelling, phonics.