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Pupil is a math magician

Being home schooled isn’t always easy, and then fitting in after transferring into public school is even harder.

Angus Tulloch is in his first year at Crestomere School’s Grade 8 program. He was home schooled from grades 1 through 7.

“Part of the homeschooled community that we got involved with suggested that we take him to Dr. Andy Liu who runs a math club for junior high kids in Edmonton,” said Mark Polushin, Tulloch’s dad.

Being home schooled has worked to his advantage, Tulloch said. “I’d like to thank my parents for their steadfast refusal to buy a gaming system.”

Tulloch participates in a weekly math club in Edmonton every Saturday and even participated in an international competition in Seoul, Korea in July. Tulloch won for his outstanding achievement in the International Mathematics Competition.

“This is his (Angus’s) third year of involvement. Andy has been taking kids internationally to math competitions for quite some time. There is something of a community of these competitions,” said Polushin.

“He’s taken kids to Eastern Europe, South Africa and all over. This is a lower level of competitions just under the World Math Olympics.”

“The larger overarching part of this competition was getting young people together. There was a very large cultural element,” Polushin said. “There was an evening devoted to young people giving presentations.

“There were lots of people dressed up in their national costumes; Canada doesn’t seem to have one, except for a baseball hat,” Polushin said.

Tulloch said he will always remember the trip he made with his father to Korea for the International Mathematics Competition.

“We had a day to go around and tour the sights in Korea. Then Angus and I went off on our own for a tour of China,” Polushin said.

Eight kids from Alberta attended the competition and except for Angus, they were all from Edmonton.