Another perspective on “prepping” from a lower income mom

[Anonymous]

I have followed this board for a few months, and noticed quite a few comments from parents who are adamantly opposed to any sort of prep. We enrich or children, they say, but we would never prep! My DC is just naturally gifted. All we do is enroll them in Kumon, AoPS, or that Russia math program. Private piano lessons on Monday, cello on Wednesday, chess tutor on Friday. Then we take the kids to museums on the weekends, we teach them origami, read to them for hours, do logic puzzles, tutoring. We also take them to concerts. And just last month we took DC to see the Duomo in Florence so they could learn about Renaissance architecture! But a workbook? That’s cheating!

Well, my kid did prep, with a workbook, and I’ll tell you why. I work two jobs (home health aid and retail). I am also going to school part time. I work weekends, I often work nights. I am a single mom. My elderly mother, who can barely walk and doesn’t speak English, watches my kid after school. A few weeks before the test I ordered a CoGat workbook. I told my mom, before he turns on the TV, DC has to spend ten minutes going through the workbook. I wish I had the money to send my kid to math enrichment classes, or the time to take him to the Smithsonian. But I don’t. Please don’t write off all prep as cheating. Many people don’t have the resources to enrich their kids the old fashioned way. Suggestions for enrichment on shoestring budget are welcome btw.

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure what one has to do specifically with the other. Any kid who looks at anything cogat or nnat related outside of school is prepping which is considered cheating the system. You know that. Other kids whose families can afford the extras like you list aren’t cheating. It’s the very reason, however, that your child will have a leg up with college admissions and enrichment opportunities which are looking for low income or URM participants - possibly an URM (based on what you said about your mom) and definitely for being low income. That’s where the scale will tip much more in your child’s favor.

[Anonymous]

Check with programs like RSM and AoPS, they have scholarships for kids who are interested but might not be able to afford the programs. I don’t know how the scholarships work but they are there.

[Anonymous]

You could have spent the CogAT workbook money on Kumon workbooks or Singapore Math or any number of other educational tools. Those tools work on developing and solidifying kids understanding of specific academic skills. The CogAT workbook introduces kids to a specific test and does not work on developing specific academic skills. That is the difference between enrichment and prepping. Enrichment will help with test like the CogAT or SAT later on but is not geared towards that one test. Prepping is studying for a specific test.

[Anonymous]

Enrichment is obviously not cheating. I would LOVE to enrich my kid, but I simply don’t have the resources—namely time and money. My brothers and I were raised by a illiterate farmer in a despotic Middle Eastern country, but we are nonetheless counted as “white” in the census, so no URM points.

[Anonymous]

The point is that "enrichment" is you teaching your kid to get ahead of grade level. It's not a natural gift, it's education. Which is OK. But it doesn't make your kid superior to others and you KNOW it plays into how they test.

-sincerely, a mom who didn't even know people did prep for what i think is an elementary school test, hope my kid can still follow his dream of being a robot inventor!

[Anonymous]

A few ideas for free enrichment in the DC area:

Lots of free museums in the DC area.

A library card is free and offers the ability to both take out physical books from the library but also access tons of free books online. Libraries also have lots of free programs- you need the kids the website frequently to see what is scheduled.

Also, where I live, Fairfax County, a few parks have nature centers with free programs about the animals and plants in the park. I’ve lived other places where the parks have similar programs, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You could have spent the CogAT workbook money on Kumon workbooks or Singapore Math or any number of other educational tools. Those tools work on developing and solidifying kids understanding of specific academic skills. The CogAT workbook introduces kids to a specific test and does not work on developing specific academic skills. That is the difference between enrichment and prepping. Enrichment will help with test like the CogAT or SAT later on but is not geared towards that one test. Prepping is studying for a specific test.

But you cannot just hand a Singapore Math book to a kid and expect them to work through it on their own. For some of the content, the books will walk the students through the work, it's true, but at other points there are very difficult problems (especially word problems) that could be extremely difficult to expect any kid to work through solo. We homeschool and use Singapore Math as our math curriculum, and it requires A LOT of hands-on assistance and interaction from me and my husband. We use the associated Home Instructor's Guide for every book (there are Teachers' Guides for regular classroom use).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have followed this board for a few months, and noticed quite a few comments from parents who are adamantly opposed to any sort of prep. We enrich or children, they say, but we would never prep! My DC is just naturally gifted. All we do is enroll them in Kumon, AoPS, or that Russia math program. Private piano lessons on Monday, cello on Wednesday, chess tutor on Friday. Then we take the kids to museums on the weekends, we teach them origami, read to them for hours, do logic puzzles, tutoring. We also take them to concerts. And just last month we took DC to see the Duomo in Florence so they could learn about Renaissance architecture! But a workbook? That’s cheating!

Well, my kid did prep, with a workbook, and I’ll tell you why. I work two jobs (home health aid and retail). I am also going to school part time. I work weekends, I often work nights. I am a single mom. My elderly mother, who can barely walk and doesn’t speak English, watches my kid after school. A few weeks before the test I ordered a CoGat workbook. I told my mom, before he turns on the TV, DC has to spend ten minutes going through the workbook. I wish I had the money to send my kid to math enrichment classes, or the time to take him to the Smithsonian. But I don’t. Please don’t write off all prep as cheating. Many people don’t have the resources to enrich their kids the old fashioned way. Suggestions for enrichment on shoestring budget are welcome btw.

The funniest thing is in the end, all this angst means nothing.

— Dad of a 20 yo and 19 yo who both ended up in great colleges. One did AAP, the other did not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Enrichment is obviously not cheating. I would LOVE to enrich my kid, but I simply don’t have the resources—namely time and money. My brothers and I were raised by a illiterate farmer in a despotic Middle Eastern country, but we are nonetheless counted as “white” in the census, so no URM points.

Another reason race alone should not confer additional “points” in the AAP selection process. All stats being equal, an upper income, college educated family with a Spanish last name would get in over this kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Enrichment is obviously not cheating. I would LOVE to enrich my kid, but I simply don’t have the resources—namely time and money. My brothers and I were raised by a illiterate farmer in a despotic Middle Eastern country, but we are nonetheless counted as “white” in the census, so no URM points.

But it sounds like you might have been first generation? Low income?

[Anonymous]

We were 1st gen, non-White, low paid immigrants. You can call us the OVER REPRESENTED MINORITY aka Asian-Americans. Thank God, we were well educated when we came here.

You are fine if you prep or enrich your kids because then you are a good parent. It is a bad word only if you are Asian. If you are URM or White, it is a fantastic word and makes you an exceptional parent.

BTW, why do you care? Why are you getting triggered by what people say? I mean, how stupid someone has to be if others urge them not to educated their kids and they listen to them? You can discern good advice from bad advice, correct?

Low cost resources? There is a pinned post on the MCPS forum about curriculum PSA. Check it out.

[Anonymous]

Another lower income, divorced mom here. If there is a prep book - it’s fair game. You don’t owe anyone an apology or even an explanation. You do what you need to do to uplift your kid. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Enrichment is obviously not cheating. I would LOVE to enrich my kid, but I simply don’t have the resources—namely time and money. My brothers and I were raised by a illiterate farmer in a despotic Middle Eastern country, but we are nonetheless counted as “white” in the census, so no URM points.

What is this, a self pity fest?
-the lower income divorced mom from above

[Anonymous]

OP is right on all accounts.

--A PhD in education