When to start math contests?

[mathnerd]

My DS (almost 6 years old) does not like "speed math". He cannot do anything under pressure (including sports) - anxiety and perfectionism issues. But he is super fast when doing things that are the most familiar to him. I want to enroll him in a few math contests in order to familiarize him to the concept of quick thinking, rigor as well as to work on his perfectionism issues. I want him to know that in the real world, tests, exams and contests are measures by which people are judged on their abilities and the outcome of these are very important to one's future (academically as well as in sports). I want to start with math because it is an important subject to our family, my DS simply wilts under pressure when the word "timing" is used with respect to math and also, I want to build up a resume of sorts for applying to a "magnet" school in my area that focuses a lot on math for the 4th or 5th grade level.

All my searches come up with Math Kangaroo and we will try it this year. I am not able to find any other contests that are easily available for the early elementary levels. I am thinking of doing 3-4 per year with preparation time of 1-2 weeks per contest. Any suggestions?

[Julie of KY]

I've not been interested in starting too young. I've started in middle school with Mathcounts.

[wapiti]

It would not be something I'd think about for a 6 y.o. If you'd like to get started on the young side, there's MOEMS, maybe in a few years.

 

A couple quick points to keep in mind generally: (1) Speed is far, far, far from all there is to math contests - at the upper levels, math contests are about problem-solving. Some don't involve speed at all. LOL, you'll never see my slow-processing kids in the Countdown Round at MathCounts - that's only a tiny slice of what's involved, for the top-10 finishers out of hundreds - though my dd really enjoyed participating in MathCounts last year. (2) I don't think I'd put math contests in the same category as the percentile-rank-awareness that goes along with, say, standardized testing - different ball of wax completely.

 

If your child has issues with being timed, I'd stay far away from that sort of contest in the early years (it may be that there aren't many contests for the early years that don't involve speed.

 

If it were me, trying to build a really young one's "math resume", I'd focus on depth of learning instead of contests and speak about the materials used and at which levels. I'd look toward providing work samples.

[Crimson Wife]

Continental Math League starts in 2nd, and you can give the exams in a low-key setting like your house or the library. My DS did better with the CML exams this past year than he did taking the Math Kangaroo one.

 

The World Education Games has a math component.

 

For a STEM magnet school, they'd probably look favorably upon participation in Jr. First Lego League, Elementary Science Olympiad, Destination Imagination, Odyssey of the Mind, chess tournaments, etc. Anything that shows aptitude for quantitative/analytical thinking.

[Julie of KY]

You say your son wilts under the pressure of being timed. If that is the case, I would do the exact opposite and stay far away from anything timed. I would concentrate on skills and being confident in what he can do. In addition to a standard curriculum, I'd look at some of Zaccarro's elementary books as well as anything fun and different - logic puzzles, math riddles, balance benders, chess, probability.

 

I think test taking tests to foster perfectionism (good and bad). I would concentrate on thinking skills over building any competition resume.

[Dmmetler]

When he wants to do them. I have a contest loving kid who is a perfectionist, and I think it's been good for her-but I believe that if I'd tried to push her into it earlier than she was ready (at age 5-6, she did only two contests- the homeschool group spelling bee and science fair, neither of which was terribly competitive. At 6/7, she added the World Education Games. At 7-8, she'd caught the bug-last year she entered something like 12 contests and competitive exams in different formats, and she has two she's working on entries for now).

 

I do agree that CML is a good one to start with because it's so low key-each round is only about 6 questions, and can be done in a very relaxed format (there is a time limit, but I never even bothered to tell my DD about it because she always finished long before she would have run out of time). It also is fairly easy for 2nd and 3rd grade, but ramps up quite a bit in 4th if you do the Pythagorean division.