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Steamboat Springs — Raising the eyebrows of others is nothing new to Charlie Stoddard, but even he was a little surprised by his most recent feat.

Stoddard, an 11-year-old sixth-grader at Steamboat Springs Middle School, was one of only four sixth-graders in the nation to get a perfect score on the 25-problem American Mathematics Competition test. More than 157,000 students took the test this year.

Even more amazing, the test is not only optional, but intended for eighth-graders.

"It's pretty cool," Stoddard said matter-of-factly after he was told of his score Thursday morning. "I knew I did well, but I didn't know that I scored that high."

Math has been a passion of Stoddard's since an early age, when he picked up a kindergarten math book at the age of 4, said his dad, Bob Stoddard.

"It's just fun to be able to see the problem and understand how to do it," Charlie said. "It's really exciting to see it and understand it."

"He can manipulate numbers in a special way," Bob Stoddard said.

Stoddard is taking Algebra 2 this year, a level of math usually reserved for high school juniors.

"He'll be done with all the math we offer as a school district by the time he's done with middle school," said Kristine Lance, the school's eighth-grade math teacher who oversees Stoddard's independent study math time twice a week. "He'll probably move to college math, but that's at the discretion of his parents."

And there's much more to this youngster's life than hair-pulling logic problems and mind-numbing formulas.

"As parents, we've tried to give him as many opportunities to do different things as we can," Bob Stoddard said.

Stoddard Alpine skis, does Nordic combined, ski jumps, distance runs, swims, plays piano and, like most kids his age, hangs out with friends.

"He has great people skills," Lance said. "A lot of gifted kids can't relate, but he has a great sense of humor. He relates with his friends. He can relate to people of all ability levels."

Stoddard placed third in this summer's Steamboat Pilot & Today Run for Literacy 5K, posting a stellar time of 20:22.

"He can beat me," his dad said.

Some kids don't think about college until application deadlines are fast approaching late in their high school years. Stoddard thinks about it regularly.

"It's never too early to plan for the future," he said.

In the meantime, Charlie Stoddard is just happy to be an 11-year-old kid living in Steamboat Springs.

"That's what makes us the happiest -- is that he's a happy kid and a nice kid," Bob Stoddard said.