Tiramisu Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 No stamina for reading, extremely limited knowledge of grammar, never learned the standard algorithm for multiplication, and today I realized, clueless about US geography. She can write well and has impressive mental math skills. This is my eighth grader. My fourth grader seems better educated in some ways. Of course, I would never say so in front of either of them, and I'm not comparing their innate abilities, which I believe are similar. The worst is that she has no motivation which I attribute to having lost the joy of learning. She was always a very bright, curious kid, though admittedly distractible. :( 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrappyhomeschooler Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 I'm sorry. I only put mine back in for a few months two years ago. It was so completely different from what we had been doing at home, that the alacrity of their regression was completely shocking to me. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idnib Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 :grouphug: I would focus on re-kindling the love of learning. Once you have that, she can be a lifelong learner and fill in her own gaps, like we all are. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lllll Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 nm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiramisu Posted October 2, 2015 Author Share Posted October 2, 2015 And her the level of the reading material she chooses hasn't increased since she went to ps in third grade. She was an advanced reader then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idnib Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 And her the level of the reading material she chooses hasn't increased since she went to ps in third grade. She was an advanced reader then. One trick I heard is to get the audiobook of the first volume of a really good series and once they're hooked, buy them the subsequent books. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 No stamina for reading, extremely limited knowledge of grammar, never learned the standard algorithm for multiplication, and today I realized, clueless about US geography. She can write well and has impressive mental math skills. This is my eighth grader. My fourth grader seems better educated in some ways. Of course, I would never say so in front of either of them, and I'm not comparing their innate abilities, which I believe are similar. The worst is that she has no motivation which I attribute to having lost the joy of learning. She was always a very bright, curious kid, though admittedly distractible. :( :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: And this is why I'm never impressed when people tell me how good their local public schools are, because yours is not the only exact-same story I've heard. :sad: 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Mousie Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 I had much the same experience when I pulled DS after 7th grade. He too had not been taught the standard multiplication algorithm, and still doesn't get it. He too had limited grammatical knowledge (along with a hearty disdain for having to review what nouns are every year). And, unfortunately, his self-confidence in math, which had been high until it was crushed in first grade, is taking FOREVER to rebuild. It took me until 7th grade to get him to stop counting on his fingers (thanks a lot, first grade teacher! :cursing: ). I just keep chipping away at the mountain, and rejoice at every success and improvement. :grouphug: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtomom Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 :sad: I was going to mention finding a good audio book series. That has worked for my less enthused reader. Even if it doesn't motivate free reading at that level, listening to it will be good for her. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idnib Posted October 2, 2015 Share Posted October 2, 2015 :sad: I was going to mention finding a good audio book series. That has worked for my less enthused reader. Even if it doesn't motivate free reading at that level, listening to it will be good for her. Yes. Get as many well-written sentences and vocabulary words into her mind as possible! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 8th graders are tricky. That age can just really hate school even when they used to adore it. FWIW, my son hated doing school etc at that age and he was home schooled. He was enrolled in public high school for 9th grade (decision for that was made before 8th grade) and he was a totally different kid by the end of the year. He was engaged and positive about learning again. I don't attribute that to the change in his school so much as being further along with puberty. So, don't make any huge assumptions about her relationship with school or books right now. A LOT can change in the next couple years. My ds1's best friend is a girl and in 8th grade she was a happy go lucky thing, very into the social scene. Now she is a very bookish and serious 10 grader who spent the summer teaching herself Spanish and Latin so she could place in the higher levels at school. She also started her own classics book club. So many changes between 13-15! 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nart Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 I can relate. My son is in third grade in a supposedly high performing school (according to test scores his school ranks in the to 5% of public schools in CA). They use Everyday Math. It was becoming a battle for him to use standard algorithms in math instead of doing math the Everyday Math way. That program is big on find a "ballpark figure" when they should be using mental math to solve a problem like 198 +324. I was having him do Singapore Math but it wasn't enough to overcome Everyday Math. He is now doing Saxon 5/4 and it is a great antidote to Everyday Math. My son entered kindergarten fluently reading books like Magic Tree House books. He has never been challenged and I now realize I have to push him to read more challenging books because the school doesn't. UGH! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlgaLA Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 It was the same story here, although with a nice Catholic school. Actually, my daughter was in a public school until the beginning of the third grade, where Everyday Math and sight words happened. My daughter started guessing the endings in Russian, too, and I'll just say that in an inflected language it is a very bad idea. So I pulled her out, and homeschooled for about 7 months. Then I made a mistake and enrolled her in this Catholic school. It seemed very nice. Their math was good, their reading program was fine, and she was happy in the beginning. So from 4 to 6 grade she was there. In these three years she went from a child who loved math to someone who is afraid of it. In ITBS in math she went from high 90s to high 50s, and all that with a level of homework that just didn't leave time for afterschooling. I don't really know what it is, but algebra is just a huge problem even now, more than a year later. Her grammar level stayed on the level of MCT Island minus whatever she forgot. Luckily, she loved reading and still does. However, she wants to try public school again for high school (she is in 8th grade now) and I am not sure what to do. On one hand, that is what she wants, on the other, I am afraid of another slide back. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abba12 Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 My sister got good report cards, not As, but around B or C. Her teachers spoke highly of her. Mum pulled her out at the end of 5th grade when I was pulled out for the final time. She was functionally illiterate due to undiagnosed dyslexia, and at a 2nd grade level of math. When mum confronted the school, very angry, they simply said 'that's our education standard here'. This wasn't a high achieving school, but it certainly didn't have a reputation as low achieving either. It was generally well respected and popular. I'm so sorry you're going through this. Try to find that joy of learning. If you can get that back, everything else will fall into place with time. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imagine.more Posted October 4, 2015 Share Posted October 4, 2015 My sister got good report cards, not As, but around B or C. Her teachers spoke highly of her. Mum pulled her out at the end of 5th grade when I was pulled out for the final time. She was functionally illiterate due to undiagnosed dyslexia, and at a 2nd grade level of math. When mum confronted the school, very angry, they simply said 'that's our education standard here'. This wasn't a high achieving school, but it certainly didn't have a reputation as low achieving either. It was generally well respected and popular. I'm so sorry you're going through this. Try to find that joy of learning. If you can get that back, everything else will fall into place with time. This was our DD's experience in school too. She had mostly B's on her report card and yet in 5th grade was functionally illiterate...at a 1.5 grade reading level. I was 'consoled' by being told that lots of students were at a lower reading level than her. Her math was stuck at a beginning 3rd grade level. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefgazer Posted October 4, 2015 Share Posted October 4, 2015 This is exactly what I noticed when my bright and curious DD spent time in public school, starting in kindergarten. She has always been an excellent reader, but the rest....yup. The part about losing motivation and losing love of learning was especially damaging. It's been three years since we pulled her out, and I am just now getting my kid back, but it has been a rough road getting there. We took DS out before fourth grade to limit the same type of damage. No stamina for reading, extremely limited knowledge of grammar, never learned the standard algorithm for multiplication, and today I realized, clueless about US geography. She can write well and has impressive mental math skills. This is my eighth grader. My fourth grader seems better educated in some ways. Of course, I would never say so in front of either of them, and I'm not comparing their innate abilities, which I believe are similar. The worst is that she has no motivation which I attribute to having lost the joy of learning. She was always a very bright, curious kid, though admittedly distractible. :( 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idnib Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 She had mostly B's on her report card and yet in 5th grade was functionally illiterate...at a 1.5 grade reading level. I was 'consoled' by being told that lots of students were at a lower reading level than her. :banghead: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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