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Lena1967

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Everything posted by Lena1967

  1. Our school district has a policy that taking away recess shall not be used as a punishment, although it is up to individual school principals to adopt the policy. My kids' school does not take away recess for a punishment, as far as I have heard. I am sure none of the K teachers would, as they know better than that (one of them told me: "Never use a punishment that will punish yourself!") I also feel that the "infraction" does not justify a punishment. In October of the kindergarten year, it's really more the parents' fault if something doesn't get returned. I feel my kids (1st and K) have an age-appropriate ability to remember what to bring in their backpacks each morning, but I do have to remind them about some things, and sometimes I forget too.
  2. Today my two 5-year-old kids and I had our first meeting with Tutor X. She is a native Chinese speaker with a masters from an American university in curriculum and instruction, and she is a Mandarin teacher in a well-regarded local elementary school. Also, a lovely person who was very kind to my kids. However, I wonder about her approach. She went over colors, numbers, and animals (colors and numbers were a review for my kids). She repeated the words many times but didn't require them to repeat them. She also handed them numerous worksheets to complete over the coming week. Then she pulled out the iPad and basically spent the rest of the time letting them play games about colors. This didn't require any speaking, just listening and manipulating the balloon (for ex.) to the right spot. One of the apps had a phrase you were supposed to repeat with your favorite color: "I like ___". But she didn't have them repeat it. She didn't speak to them in Mandarin at all other than repeating the names of objects, and didn't have them do any conversational Mandarin, not even Hello, Thank you, or Good-bye. She did spend some time in the beginning talking about China and showing them photos. In fairness, maybe she was trying to get them to warm up to her, as my son in particular was quite shy at first, and maybe she will impose more structure next time. My kids liked her and were quite engaged, but then, they do love iPad games. But I can get iPad apps for cheap, and she is quite expensive. I contacted her because of her credentials but am wondering if I should try someone else who would have the kids speaking more. Any advice from experienced language learners? Is her approach the best way to start for young children? Should I give her another chance? Thanks in advance!
  3. That does sound good. In our public school, there is one 30-minute recess, which is right after lunch. I do credit our principal for having the kids go outside as much as possible -- apparently, other principals in our area tend to keep the kids in for the slightest bit of unpleasant weather. There is also a 45-minute PE class once a week which is separate from recess, but to my knowledge it is never outside.
  4. I share the previous posters' view about this teacher being "out to get" your dd. She is probably being not capable of being neutral even if she tried. But I was surprised to hear that they are getting letter grades and number grades in first grade. I guess that is because it is a private school? Our school district just replaced the letter grades with Outstanding, Proficient, Needs improvement, or something along those lines, for all of elementary school. But even before that change, I don't think K-2nd got letter grades.
  5. I think in that circumstance, I would do something. I have been following your posts on here since I also have virtual twins via adoption, although my younger is the one for whom things don't come quite as easily, which I think may make it a little easier than being the slightly older (if I'm remembering your situation correctly.) I guess I'm saying I can see how it might not always be easy to be Miss Merit Roll, :001_smile: and I would want to give her some kind of special acknowledgement/encouragement for her accomplishment.
  6. I started my daughter on the Miquon Orange book last year when she was 4. I think it was excellent for her. You use Cuisenaire rods with it, and they concretely helped my daughter to see what adding really meant. I believe I got the Orange book and the Lab Sheet Annotations (teacher's manual to the whole series of Miquon books) from Sonlight, and the Cuisenaire rods from Amazon.
  7. Thanks everyone, for the ideas. Jenbrdsly, thanks for the links to your blog. Very impressive!
  8. So sorry to hear about this. I have an adopted DS myself and know that there are a lot of issues that can arise out of it. Is there a way to be in closer contact with the teacher, since she doesn't seem to be keeping you updated? My DD's teacher gave us her email address and seems to be pretty responsive. Maybe you could ask her to notify you about issues shortly after they happen. Hopefully, if the teacher knows you and your DD are working hard on your DD's behavior, she will be able to deal with that behavior a little better. (And hopefully she will not withhold recess as a punishment any more! - Talk about self-defeating . . .) Best of luck to you. Sounds like you've got a lot on your plate.
  9. Heigh Ho, thank you! Just spent a fun hour on Amazon and our public library's site.
  10. Thanks for the responses. She learned to read through a mish-mash of methods that I tried after she asked me to teach her -- mostly Hooked on Phonics until she became bored by it and just turned to reading beginning readers series that we picked together (Nora Gayaldo, Usborne). This was my thought, but I wanted to check with the experts. :) She reads out loud to herself -- is that still normal for this stage? I thought I remembered that reading aloud or moving your lips while reading can prevent you from becoming a faster reader.
  11. My DD just started K. She was tested last month and is reading at a level that is near the end of 1st grade, as I understand it. She is the only person in her reading group in class, and while I know her teacher tries to meet with her every day, I would guess she's the first "group" to get skipped if time is short. For after-schooling, we are focusing on math (for which there is no differentiation), piano, and Mandarin. I have her read aloud to me each day and we also read at bedtime but am not sure what else I should be doing. She is quite good at sounding out words she doesn't know. Is it enough to supply her with books at and just above her level that she finds interesting, or should I do something more formal? BTW, I just love this forum and am so glad I found it! I find it really supportive and helpful.
  12. I agree, these do look really cool! (Prohibitively priced for the home/after-schooler, unfortunately!) I don't think our school uses these, although we are only in K so I don't have much experience yet. I don't think there is a math textbook per se until 3rd grade -- not sure if there is a particular "brand" of curriculum materials before then either.
  13. Hi, I am new here as well although I've been lurking for awhile. Congratulations on all you and your son have achieved. That is very impressive!
  14. Our school has differentiated reading groups too (although some of them may work on the same book at the same time, just in different ways.) My daughter is in K, but the reading groups were formed at the beginning of October.
  15. I just volunteered in my daughter's classroom yesterday so I feel have a pretty good grasp of what they are doing. They do a couple of sight words a week. They are learning what sounds the letters make and how to sound out words. They are learning to write the letters in upper and lower case. They are expected to write (copy) words in worksheets that contain a simple sentence with a blank, such as "I see a ______." They also do a lot of drawing pictures on worksheets, for example to illustrate a story they just listened to. They did a six-page book about pumpkins, where they had to write a word in the blank on each page, and they also had to draw a pumpkin on each page! In math, they have done sorting and are now working on patterns -- creating them and recognizing them. They are learning to write the numerals and to match them with sets of objects.
  16. I've recently been wondering about this very topic for my pre-K and K kids. I have been reading an interesting book called "Raising Musical Kids" by Robert Cutietta that gives a lot of ideas on developing a young child's musicality. It also suggests when (around age 5) and how to start lessons, choose an instrument, etc. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Raising-Musical-Kids-Guide-Parents/dp/0195129237
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