During pandemic lockdowns I had the opportunity to teach my 7yo son maths at home. It does not work for all kids, but he showed a very strong interest in symbol

During pandemic lockdowns I had the opportunity to teach my 7yo son maths at home. It does not work for all kids, but he showed a very strong interest in symbolic manipulation. School overemphasizes arithmetic and arithmetic algorithms ad infinitum (extremely tedious and boring!). Our work plan is simple: a problem each day (together when the concepts are new), immediate reward after he finishes, and increase difficulty once he is ready. After one year, we have just started trigonometric equations at home, while they are still working on simple multiplications at school. In the same way that some kids are good at sports, drawing, music, foreign languages, or playing videogames, some of them are very good managing abstractions. Those would be very happy learning calculus or other advanced mathematics, just for fun!