What should a child have mastered before beginning a course of study in traditional Algebra 1?
What I like to see before kids begin algebra is that they have mastered and understand basic facts, place value, fractions, decimals, percents, exponents, and operations with negative numbers. A child who has done this is probably ready for a traditional Algebra 1 course. Those are the topics I like to see already mastered before beginning algebra. However, there are also other considerations to make, such as maturity and motivation. There are some younger kids who have mastered all those specified topics who are also so fascinated with – and motivated by -math that it would be a crime not to have them go on to algebra, no matter what their age. There are also some kids who are intellectually ready for algebra but not ready maturity-wise in terms of the necessary rigor and focus. In that case, I recommend doing some algebra but at a slower pace, while supplementing the algebra work with math enrichment topics and activities (which are mentioned below). • Criteria for choosing an algebr
