APS middle school math and APS

[Anonymous]

DC is in fifth and headed to middle school next year. We have been supplementing elementary math with Russian School of Math (RSM) for 2 years which has been very effective, though DC would love to stop as the classes and homework interfere with life/ playtime. Based on conversations with the elm teacher and past test scores, I expect them to be placed in the highest math track when they go to middle school in the fall and I would love to drop the supplementing at that point (both for money and time). But I want to ensure their math foundation remains strong (it was very shaky in early elementary school which is why we started RSM).

Any posters out there with kids that did RSM in elementary? Did you continue in middle school or not? What would you advise? Thank you!!

[Anonymous]

Continue with RSM or switch to AoPS. APS middle school math instruction is abysmal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Continue with RSM or switch to AoPS. APS middle school math instruction is abysmal.

Yup. My son learns from iXL and other video clips his Math teachers post online for homework. I’ve also taught him or found good homeschooling lessons in YouTube.

[Anonymous]

What school? I was very impressed with the middle school math teachers at Gunston (much more so than the Wakefield math teachers - but that is another thread). We did Beast Academy up through Algebra and then stopped.

[Anonymous]

Were they in the honors level at RSM? if so, I would definitely drop it. You can always do tutoring if they are struggling with a particular concept it will be less time intensive, then an RSM

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Continue with RSM or switch to AoPS. APS middle school math instruction is abysmal.

Not our experience at all. I’d drop the supplementing and see how it goes. My kids have gotten good instruction (Gunston), and when they occasional don’t understand something, I go over it with them.

[Anonymous]

We stopped supplementing during the school year beginning in 6th grade. My kid's "pre-algebra for 6th graders" teacher assigned tons and tons of IXL homework so my kid was doing an hour plus of math every night, basically every IXL in the app that was available for 6th, 7th and 8th graders. That was as much math as my kid was willing to do and seemed to be enough practice.

For many of those IXLs, even if my kid knew how to do the problems, they still took a long time because there was lots of arithmetic to be done. Big numbers and lots of long division and fractions. So my kid knew how to do it but it took a while to crank through the problems. And if you make even one arithmetic mistake, your smart score drops, so then you have to do even more problems to get to 100%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Continue with RSM or switch to AoPS. APS middle school math instruction is abysmal.

What math level were your kids in and what school? Both my kids went into the most advanced track which is math 6-7-8 in 6th grade and Algebra Intensified in 7th. They didn't need extra enrichment beyond that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What school? I was very impressed with the middle school math teachers at Gunston (much more so than the Wakefield math teachers - but that is another thread). We did Beast Academy up through Algebra and then stopped.

Beast Academy Algebra doesn’t exist.

PP already suggested AoPS, who makes Beast Academy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Continue with RSM or switch to AoPS. APS middle school math instruction is abysmal.

Not our experience at all. I’d drop the supplementing and see how it goes. My kids have gotten good instruction (Gunston), and when they occasional don’t understand something, I go over it with them.

What curriculum did your child use at Gunston?

(IXL isn’t a curriculum, btw)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Continue with RSM or switch to AoPS. APS middle school math instruction is abysmal.

Not our experience at all. I’d drop the supplementing and see how it goes. My kids have gotten good instruction (Gunston), and when they occasional don’t understand something, I go over it with them.

What curriculum did your child use at Gunston?

(IXL isn’t a curriculum, btw)

APS doesn't use a curriculum. They do have IXL for practice problems.

[Anonymous]

My fourth grader has been doing AoPS/Beast Academy since second grade. I'm hoping she'll get into pre-algebra for sixth and we'll stop supplementing. It's hard to imagine that sixth grade pre-algebra wouldn't be rigorous enough for a normal-smart kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Continue with RSM or switch to AoPS. APS middle school math instruction is abysmal.

Not our experience at all. I’d drop the supplementing and see how it goes. My kids have gotten good instruction (Gunston), and when they occasional don’t understand something, I go over it with them.

What curriculum did your child use at Gunston?

(IXL isn’t a curriculum, btw)

APS doesn't use a curriculum. They do have IXL for practice problems.

Well, for geometry they used a physical textbook (I don’t recall the author), but not for pre-algebra & algebra. But it wasn’t/isn’t all IXL.. lots of stuff on paper, too.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you for the input. I don’t remember what the name of her RSM track is but they started in the lowest level last year, was recommended to move up mid last year and is now in that next level up. They aren’t doing the competition thing (don’t believe thy were invited but wouldn’t do it regardless).

Kid will be going to Swanson. For those suggestion AoPS, would you recommend the books/ self paced online version (believe this is Beast) or something with live (possibly virtual) instructor? We have a Beast subscription for younger DC but haven’t been using it consistently, so I don’t have a sense of how effective it can be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Continue with RSM or switch to AoPS. APS middle school math instruction is abysmal.

Not our experience at all. I’d drop the supplementing and see how it goes. My kids have gotten good instruction (Gunston), and when they occasional don’t understand something, I go over it with them.

What curriculum did your child use at Gunston?

(IXL isn’t a curriculum, btw)

APS doesn't use a curriculum. They do have IXL for practice problems.

Well, for geometry they used a physical textbook (I don’t recall the author), but not for pre-algebra & algebra. But it wasn’t/isn’t all IXL.. lots of stuff on paper, too.

Math education shouldn’t be a gamble — whether your child’s teacher found good resources from Teachers Pay Teachers (or not)