Textbook Vent

[AggieMama]

DD is finishing up kinder this week. Her teacher has been sending home her textbooks. They are the kind with the rip out pages. Two weeks ago DD brought home two math books that had approximately 75% of the pages left (conservative estimate). Today DD brought home her social studies book, which she said she had never seen before today. This makes me mad, more so as tax payer than a parent. DD understands all of th material so I'm going to use it for little sister to prep her for kinder next year. This is an issue that is rampant throughout the district as my husband and I work for the same district. I just don't know how to feel about this other than disgusted. End rant.

[SKL]

Yeah, my kids' class could definitely have done without their consumable textbooks for social studies and science, at least.  They had their test on chapter 1 (social studies) in April IIRC.  Why bother?

 

The teachers will send them home and I'll tell myself we're going to complete them over the summer, but who knows....

[Arcadia]

The SARC has a line item that states if each child has their own copy of curriculum, especially for language arts and math. My oldest brought back his math workbook and spelling workbook at the end of the school year in K and 1st. Social studies and science were printed worksheets. People would complain if the kids don't have a set of curriculum each because school funding is high. Whether teachers choose to use the district approved and purchased curriculum is up to the teachers.

[vonfirmath]

My son brought home two of those Go Math! Workbooks for math.  The first (Vol 1) looked nearly full. The second (Vol 2) had about half the pages torn out. Just randomly throughout -- some in a chunk. But nothing like starting at the front and using every page. Looks like his teacher used the pages he needed tp teach skills and left the rest there for extra practice/etc. Since I know they did quite a bit in math, I'm okay with this.

 

There were no social studies or science books brought home. In the past he's brought home a LA workbook. Not sure what happened to that this year (though he did say he decided not to bring home some of his supplies).  I'm pretty sure they have a single classroom set of textbooks for at least some of the subjects. Everything that came home social study or science related throughout the year was photocopied pages.  (And it didn't come home every week. But it was at least obvious they were working on the subjects throughout the year.)

 

[SKL]

It's such a waste. DD's class only worked through about half of her Journey's LA book. I'd bet we'd all be shocked at how much these little consumable kindergarten textbooks cost. 

 

DD's going to private school next year and will be using MIF and Superkids. I researched Superkids to see if we could buy any of it to keep at home for afterschooling. The 1st grade series is like $900 per student or something ridiculous like that. 

 

One of the things (among many) that annoys me about modern schooling is that the schools expect the parents to do homework with their kids almost every night but don't make it easy for parents to learn how to effectively help their children. IMHO, parents should have access to the textbooks used in school. Either provided by the school (yes, I know this would never happen) or easily acquired for a small amount. 

 

Our school makes MIF available online to us.  We can get the student book and the main workbook they use.  They also offer access to online practice / games from MIF and others.  In addition, I go on Amazon and order additional related books (extra practice / reteach /enrichment depending on what is available) for extra work at home.

 

I'm not familiar with Superkids, but it may have a similar setup online for the schools that use it.

 

I know some science / social studies textbooks and related goodies are online too, but my kids' school hasn't updated its curriculum links for years.