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SMRB

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Everything posted by SMRB

  1. As a follow up, here's what the teacher is doing. She gives a pretest for each chapter before they start it. For any child who shows mastery on the pretest, they get to go do challenge math with another teacher twice a week instead of regular math class. It's not perfect, but it motivates DS to perform on the pretests, acknowledges that kids may have mastered some topics but not others, and DS seems to be happy so far.
  2. Can you tell us what areas he's finding most challenging and what texts they are using in school for those subjects? We might be able to suggest some supplemental materials that will be more of a complement to what he's seeing at school and help you along. I would not blow off the homework, but I wouldn't automatically go with the extra work the teacher suggests either. Sometimes more material from the same program just makes the problem worse vs. pulling from another program that might click more for your son. I also agree with others that you should keep trying to help him through this year and use next summer to your best advantage. I have to sit with my son to get homework done, too, and he's in 3rd grade. This year is totally different for him, and he has been in the same school since K. 3rd grade is just a big transition year for all of the kids, so don't get too discouraged!
  3. Guardians of Ga'Hoole series (4th grade) - DS was totally into the facts about owls woven throughout and tore through the series Wolves of the Beyond series (4th/5th grade) - this is the follow-on series to Ga'Hoole. Both great for kids who love animals and animal facts Frank Einstein (4th grade) - I think there are 3 of these now, fiction but each focused on a different science area - these were pure fun reads for DS and he goes back to them often Phantom Tollbooth (5th/6th grade) Number Devil (5th/6th grade) I also second Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms and its sequel. A Wrinkle in Time if there's interest in science fantasy. Have Spacesuit Will Travel and Robert Heinlein's other junior novels if there's interest in sci fi.
  4. I'm not so worried about the math - I do think that was carelessness. He is great at mental math and fluent with addition and subtraction facts. He is almost fluent in multiplication facts and is expected to have those internalized this year. He's no math whiz, but he can certainly easily get 100's when he takes his time and reads carefully, and he can do challenging word problems if he reads them carefully and breaks them down. We've had to coach him to read everything twice and slowly rather than getting frustrating and not even trying on word problems. His testing problems in math were things like not checking that he had answered every question, putting the answers in the wrong spot (getting the answer and then not filling in the bubble), or careless addition/subtraction errors. They were not frequent enough to knock him below an A in math, though. I'm hoping that LA is the same thing and that we can coach him to read more carefully, look for clues, use process of elimination, etc. It just seems odd that one area would stand out for him like that, especially for a strong reader. I would have expected carelessness in tests to pop up in all subjects, but he's acing everything else so far. I like the idea of getting at it from the writing and grammar side. We have been trying and liking the trial lessons for CAP Fable, especially how he has to change sentences around and rewrite stories. Maybe that will help him understand how words can be manipulated to vary meaning and get at his writing reluctance at the same time.
  5. He gets his pullouts based mainly on classroom performance and teacher recommendation. He would lose his mind if he had to stay in the regular math class, and he's been doing a much better job showing his ability in that area this year, so he was recommended for that pullout again. LA is a little different, because they use Stanford scores as the criteria starting in 3rd grade for that, which is Jr. Great Books. We're upset about that one, because his teacher last year said that was exactly what he needed to improve his comprehension. We've been struggling to find something to fill that gap. We can cover math well at home, but figuring out what to target and how to get it done with the little time we get at home is the current challenge.
  6. We afterschool math and some LA. For math, we tried accelerating at home, but it made the school problem worse. We tried just letting it go and not doing math at home, and DS starting hating math. Now our approach is first to go to a whole different level with challenge problems on the topic being covered in school, and then to go wide for other things that school won't really do. During summers we cover the upcoming grade with Singapore to make sure that we won't have to worry about school. That leaves us free during the school year to explore math with whatever strikes our fancy, which is BA this year. We do try to focus mostly on math problem solving at home rather than mechanics - that helps us to avoid boredom issues at school, too - there's plenty of algorithm/process practice there. We also work with the school to figure out a plan to allow challenge work during the day when the regular classroom work gets too easy, boring, or repetitive. So far it's working out much better this year for us.
  7. For DS8, math is our only requirement, but with Beast Academy this year, and we're going to try Hands on Equations if we have time. We finished Singapore 3 and started Beast 3A a couple of weeks ago and love it! He's also trying a greek mythology course at Athena's online this year, and we're hoping for more science time with our microscope. We use various materials to work on reading comprehension, too. For DD5, we'll keep doing Singapore for math, AAR for reading, and see where else the wind blows her mind...
  8. If I had a nickel for every time I've had to say, "just say the sounds and you'll hear the word" or "there's no guessing in reading," I'd be very rich! My personal opinion FWIW, is that it's an age/stage thing that will get better as long as you stay on top of it. I have an 8 year old who moved through that over a year, and an almost 6 year old who is going through it now. I even had to cover up the pictures in the Sam readers with both kids to curtail the guessing. Try pulling AAR out again. The fluency pages definitely can cause crying, but take them in small chunks, and the fluency will definitely come. We used both AAR and I See Sam together until we finished AAR1, and then the kids were good to go. I'd also recommend working on vowel sounds separately. The AAR exercises with the word ladders will help to get at that as well. We used a lap-sized white board and just kept changing one letter at a time to show how easy it was to mix up the sounds if you're not reading carefully. The kids didn't like the tiles, but they liked erasing and changing the letters on the whiteboard and it stuck for them that way. Also, are you going with the rule that she has to read a Sam book perfectly twice before you'll move on to the next one? That also helps to slow them down. Good luck!
  9. After a conference with the school principal about math pacing, we've been given the option to let DS accelerate his class math work next year to earn time to work on whatever we send from home. We were planning to use Beast Academy 3 next year, so we're thinking we can send that with him, and he likes the idea. He'll have to do it without help and save his questions for home, but I like making it independent learning for him - he needs the challenge. Has anyone tried this type of "learning contract" arrangement where you get to send in different work to be done once they finish the school's work with agreed-upon acceptable accuracy?
  10. Athena's looks great, but he's still in school during the live class. It's so much cheaper than CTY, though - how much value do you think there is in watching the recorded classes and doing the online discussions vs. being able to attend the live portions?
  11. We got our SCAT scores this morning, and DS qualified on verbal but just barely missed on math. We wanted verbal the most, so we are very happy. The Young Readers classes start Monday for the summer session, and it looks like we can still get him in. Has anyone tried them? They are expensive, but we'll do it if we think it's worth it. According to his teacher (he's in a private brick and mortar school), DS needs to work more on getting past the text and looking for deeper ideas in books. The school just discontinued Jr. Great Books, and she recommended that we look for a replacement. We can't find a book club locally and were queued up to do W&M Journeys & Destinations at home this summer. Young Readers would have to replace that in our summer schedule. Any thoughts on the CTY Young Readers courses?
  12. I second the recommendation for the dice games that are in the HIG for 2B. My son has gotten much better at mental math with those, especially learning to use the near-hundred and near-fifty amounts to do his calculations more quickly.
  13. Yes, this! I grew up in NJ, and we had that projector with the SRA reading system, too. It had a little rectangular space that skimmed across each line of text and you had to keep up with it. It got faster and faster each week and we had to take comprehension tests each time. I hated that thing! I did learn to read very quickly and can skim for relevant information very well now, but my comprehension is trashed and I have no ability to enjoy a novel any more. I loved reading as a child and was in the top group. My older brother was also top group but did not have this training, and his comprehension is amazing. He can't read as fast as I can, but he remembers everything. I am very against speed reading training.
  14. Oh, yes, the episode where Albert comes back and is addicted to morphine is a bad one, too. I can't watch that one where he's going through withdrawal - it's very graphic.
  15. That's right. Alice Garvey was trying to get the baby out of the building and got trapped by the fire. She went to the window and was trying to break the glass with her elbow/shoulder so they could get out. They both died in the fire, which was caused by Albert carelessly experimenting with smoking a pipe in the basement. Other than this one and the rape episode, the show is pretty tame, especially in the early seasons. My family watched it together from the very beginning every week, including the controversial ones. We just talked about them afterwards.
  16. If you have not already, please have Celiac testing done before you go gluten free. If she improves on a gluten-free diet, you will not want to go back, which will leave you never knowing. She would have to go back to a gluten diet for 4-8 weeks to have Celiac testing done. DS went gluten free after negative celiac testing and improved greatly, so we know it's gluten sensitivity and not Celiac. We were grateful that we got the advice to test first, because with sensitivity you don't have to be as scrupulous about possible cross-contamination. For meals, we have found that it's easiest to just eliminate breads completely rather than using GF substitutes. We stick with fresh foods and use a meat/vegetable/salad combo most nights. We don't find it hard, except when we want to eat out or have pizza.
  17. We used AAR for afterschooling. I looked into LOE Foundations and Essentials carefully last year. I agree they are very shiny and beautiful, and I really wanted to try it! I ended up deciding that it would be too much. We may get Essentials a little later and use parts of it during the summers, but I was very concerned about causing confusion with it during the school year, and it looked like a lot of work (for both of us).
  18. Which alarm is it, and how are you hooking it up? We used a Chummie alarm and had some issues at first. We could not get it to work right with underwear. It was a dream when we started cutting slits in GoodNites and taping it into place. Some of them are too sensitive and will go off if your child sweats, and some of them like the Chummie need to be a little more wet to go off, which is why having it on the underwear made it go off too late. I agree with the poster who suggested testing it with water. Try to see how sensitive it is and how wet it needs to be to go off. Then look at how you have it hooked up and consider whether there might be an adjustment you can make.
  19. It might sound silly, but with both kids, we used a napkin to cover the illustrations until after they read the text. DD is too good at using picture cues, so it's absolutely necessary for her. When we started covering the pictures, we found out where she truly was on her decoding skills.
  20. If the interim reports are intended by the teacher to be read by the student, I wouldn't care if they were sealed. At our school, in the younger grades, however, they are written to the parent, not the student, so we have to actively screen them, and they are sealed for that reason. Report cards are also sealed. We have had teachers try to use DS to manipulate things, letting him see and read communications that were inappropriate, and it has made him feel like he has to take sides at times. So I'm sure we're more sensitive than most about what primary grade students at least should be reading without parental interpretation on hand. We learned the hard way that we can't trust the teachers to write criticism in a way that a 7-year old can understand without being hurt, so we will keep screening for another year or two. When they move to letter grades, we will give DS more direct responsibility to interpret the comments and make course corrections mid-term. Until then, if the test grades are good and there are no behavior red flags coming home, we try to just roll with it.
  21. Oh, that would make me furious about them not being sealed. We had something similar happen last year, and the teacher got a polite but strongly worded note about how inappropriate it was to put DS in the middle and that all communications had better be only in sealed envelopes from then on. Sometimes teachers need a stern reminder about who the parent is.
  22. You can also do it this way. You can move the entire (2x + 5) expression to avoid having to distribute the negative. -40 - (2x + 5) = -61 -40 = -61 + (2x + 5) -40 + 61 = (2x +5) 21 = 2x + 5 21 - 5 = 2x 16 = 2x 8 = x
  23. DD4 and DS7 like being a pair. Last year, they were Batman and Robin, and this year, they are going to be the Kratt brothers from the Wild Kratts. They got their costumes this week and have been wearing them all the time, making up stories and games. I'm not big on Halloween and never have been, but we make it special because it's also DD's birthday. It has been so much fun seeing their imaginations run wild this year!
  24. I would also file that one away and not share it. We screen the interims, and if they have comments that match up (good or bad) with areas we've been openly working on, we share the comments with DS. This term, he finally got great improvement comments from his teachers, and we handed him the interims to read himself. Up until then, we just summarized them to reinforce the message we were giving every day.
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