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BabyBre

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  1. This was in a Q&A pamphlet distributed by our city waste department. "Where do I place my new cart at?" Am I wrong, or should we not end a sentence with a preposition? If nothing else, it sounds odd.
  2. It is sad, I agree. Good news is that the program was so hugely popular and successful in its glory days that you shouldn't have a problem finding the old texts. And the pendulum is always swinging.
  3. No. Sadly, I can say the contrary about our neighborhood school. Dd's public GT magnet program is surprisingly fantastic, though! Granted, it's our first year, and I've heard there are some issues in the higher grades, but for now...awesome!
  4. :hurray: Congratulations! More and more parents are realizing that it's THEY who are responsible for their children's education, not the schools. Parents choose the arrangement that's best for your child from what's available to them, and you're embarking on a more pro-active involvement. I'm proud of you! ;) Whatever it is that you do at home, do not overlook math. Math in most public school districts has devolved into a social experiment with very weak content. Your dd is young, so you're in the perfect place to prevent her falling victim to it. What's largely taught in ps is constructivism, or hands-on discovery methods. While this sounds lovely for first grade, it's not so lovely for 8th graders. :glare: What you can do at home is provide the balance and additional practice that's likely missing from her ps curriculum. (If you want to ask what math program her teacher is using and throw the name out here, you'll get all kinds of feedback.) My top recommendations are Saxon Math or Singapore Math. The Well-Trained Mind recommends these and some others. Let us know how it goes!
  5. Saxon is full of repetition, but there's no need to beat a dead horse if she's already mastered the content. That's actually one thing I like best about Saxon. It's far easier to leave out or reduce portions dc don't need than it is to add them in. We do go to school all day and do a rigorous before-school. We get up early and go to bed early, and we've done this since K. It's kept dc at the tops of their classes. Dd is now attending our district's gifted school, and ds will be eligible next year. There's sometimes resistance (although that could be said for all things), but now it's just what we do here. And there are far more kids at dd's gifted school who also afterschool at home. That should tell you something.
  6. :iagree: This is also a characteristic of gifted children. Be sure to look into that alongside your ADHD investigation. I bet she will. :)
  7. I want to preface this by saying that I am a huge believer that disorders are overdiagnosed and that overworked, over-regulated, underpaid, and underappreciated (by the system, I'm saying, not by you, the parent) teachers are often a catalyst for that. BUT, I do believe the ability you describe for intense, singly focused attention for an extended period is a characteristic of ADHD. I'd also say that at this point, that means nothing unless your dd is having serious problems, and it doesn't sound like she is. Part of the problem is that your child's teacher each year has only one year to meet goals or standards probably set by people at the state level (and soon to be the federal level). Your dd may not be ready to reach those goals yet, but her teacher is under immense pressure to make sure she does before next June. Next year, her next teacher will be concerned that she's not at whatever level those folks at the state office want her to be, and all the concern starts all over, giving you the impression she's struggling. However, YOU are the constant in her education, the one who knows how far she's come, the one who knows her needs the best and has been the most invested in her education. There is a point at which concern is due, but it's not in first grade. And the best way to help her is not to medicate her, but to work with her intentionally at home. Working with first graders, I've seen kids who hardly know their ABCs seemingly sit stagnant throughout most of the year, making NO progress in their reading ability at all, suddenly hit the point where it all finally comes together in their minds. I've seen first graders jump several reading levels in a matter of a couple weeks. I think that's an age where the range of abilities CANNOT be standardized. It will click when it's going to click, and that may be in preschool or not until the second grade. But it will rarely be at the same time, in the same 9-month period that 25-30 randomly grouped kids reach the same point. Didn't you know that math is hard? That's why kids don't get it today. Somehow math got harder and kids got stupider. Or it could be that that's just an excuse for not teaching it successfully. It's not entirely your teacher's fault. She's probably only following orders from her district who follows orders from the state, and so on, but the buck's got to stop somewhere and that's probably going to have to be with you. "Math is math" is a popular excuse for failure (on the part of the schools to teach it), and it sounds like excusing failure is a pretty popular attitude at least with this teacher, if not in the school or entire district (as it is in ours). Again, if you can't homeschool exclusively, the best way to combat this is to teach her at home yourself with a program that uses an opposing method. Your school most likely uses a "fuzzy math" program like Everyday Math, TERC Investigations, Bridges in Mathematics, etc. that focuses on avoiding the traditional methods we learned (just wait until second grade when you find you can't help her with her math homework), including practice and drill. Those are the things you NEED to teach her at home. We prefer Saxon, but the WTM also recommends Singapore, Math-U-See, Calvert, I think, and a couple others. It's also a good idea to try to work her ahead of grade level at home so that the efficient, long-standing, internationally know methods are the ones she knows solidly. Then everything she learns at school is enrichment.
  8. I do keep it short and simple for them, doing most of the exercises orally and skipping the parts that are review. I'm not sure exactly what FLL has that R&S doesn't, but that must be what my dc like. After looking at Shurley and A Beka, I went ahead and picked up A Beka God's Gift of Language. It seems more workbook intensive, like FLL was and R&S isn't. Maybe that'll be the secret. For now, we'll continue to do the writing lessons in R&S. I'm just far too happy with them to give them up yet.
  9. R&S was the perfect solution to our writing/grammar vs. time issue, and dc are dreading it. They're not retaining what we learn and they find it incredibly boring. We finished the FLL/WWE series (which they really loved), and I wanted to move to a combined program in the interest of time. I guess if it's not broke, don't fix it. Anyone else experience R&S regret after FLL/WWE?
  10. I think you could if your dd in K has a fairly good grasp on the very basics covered in Saxon K. We found Saxon K to be a very gentle introduction, not terribly challenging; however, there was a noticable jump from K to Saxon 1. Saxon K is very hands-on, no worksheets, fun and easy. Saxon 1, while still very hands-on, includes more repetition, drill and review/practice worksheets (which I believe are very necesssary and lacking in both Singapore and RightStart). Saxon 2 and 3 also rely on a good amount of manipulative use, combined with daily written and oral practice. It's a very good series that we left twice - once for RightStart and once for Singapore - but returned to fairly quickly. So, I'd say yes, if your dd has a fairly good grasp and your ds needs a little review.
  11. Here's the recommendation from Art Reed: "If there exists a math savvy student of John Saxon’s Math 76 textbook, who received test grades of 85 or better on the last five tests in Math 76 (50 - 55 minute test period, no calculator, and no partial credit), then that student would be more challenged and, from my teaching experience, much better off in the Algebra 1/2 book. However, if his last five test scores are below 85, then from my experiences, that indicates that student should proceed to Math 87, and upon completion of that book, if his or her last five tests are now 80 or better (minimal mastery), then that student can easily skip Algebra 1/2 and go on to success in Algebra 1. If however, a student encounters difficulty going through both Math 76 and Math 87, then proceeding through the Algebra 1/2 textbook before attempting Algebra 1 will allow the student to regain his confidence. Doing so will further ensure the student has mastered a solid conceptual base necessary for success in any Algebra 1 course." http://www.homeschoolwithsaxon.com/newsletterpage-2011.php#0611
  12. Start him at his level in spelling. Don't bore him further with lower level work. Begin with Ancients in SOTW. My dc are in 4th and 5th, and we're in Ancients on our second rotation. They absolutely love it (again!), but in a whole new way this time. Welcome! You'll get lots of advice and support here. :)
  13. That is true in many districts, which would make going to the principal pointless. He'll pretend to listen and care and then either feed you a line of something you'd like to hear or tell it to you straight that he's backing his teacher up, as good administrators do. Sorry, yes, I am bitter. :tongue_smilie:
  14. I'd first try to move him to another classroom. This teacher sounds like she's burned out by her class of first grade hoodlums. :glare: If you can't switch, I guess I'd try to have your ds do his best in class, but then do bring the worksheet home where you can more effectively go over it with him. The request that you come in for full days is rediculously over-the-top. It sounds like she's trying to take advantage of your availability and willingness to help out, and get out of taking the responsibility herself. Please don't give her any excuses about farm animals. Tell her you're willing to come in during whatever time a couple days a week (or whatever reasonable amount of time you're willing to spend), but that you think ds needs the opportunity to follow along under his own power. He's in first grade, the consequences are small, and I assume (as you're on the afterschooling board) that you're ensuring his proper education to the best of your ability from home. However, I absolutely do recommend you spend some time in this classroom - enough to get a feeling for the caliber of education you're ds is actually receiving - but spending several full days per week is unreasonable and really won't do ds any favors. Good luck!
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