s/o How do you supplement?

[Anonymous]

What age did you get serious about supplementing- not because you wanted to give you kid experiences/travel opportunities, etc- but because you really saw a “gap” or “problem” in your kids education and you had to do something about it. Not just because you wanted them to be the best they could be- but because basic skills needed to be learned.

For instance, I know my kids won’t get religious education in school, so we “supplement” with religious Ed on weekends.

[Anonymous]

To PP, middle school. We got some math textbooks from Europe.
Here they are so big and colorful that I can spend a year looking at the picture alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For ELA/writing - we do Writopia Creative Writing workshops. The kids' writing improved tremendously from the author-instructor comments. We started while oldest was at Hardy and the only class in which there was any writing was Art, which had a research paper due each month on a different artist.

God those are expensive for strictly a topic that the school system should be responsible for! How disheartening.
We pay $25/class to learn swimming and dance and $50/class for private music instruction because the city doesn't offer any (where is the music/dance conservatory? ) or offers inadequate access (no swim in public school and DPR swim lessons fill up in seconds).

[Anonymous]

With formula. Pumping just wasn’t producing enough output.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For ELA/writing - we do Writopia Creative Writing workshops. The kids' writing improved tremendously from the author-instructor comments. We started while oldest was at Hardy and the only class in which there was any writing was Art, which had a research paper due each month on a different artist.

God those are expensive for strictly a topic that the school system should be responsible for! How disheartening.
We pay $25/class to learn swimming and dance and $50/class for private music instruction because the city doesn't offer any (where is the music/dance conservatory? ) or offers inadequate access (no swim in public school and DPR swim lessons fill up in seconds).

Writopia is about creative writing. My DC does for fun, not to supplement.

[Anonymous]

I have checked kimono wih my children and decided not to do it. They don’t do anything besides homework and read every night (and graphic novels are allowed, some of them are amazing).

[Anonymous]

Yikes, I never realized I may need to supplement. My kids are EOTP in K and 2nd. They read every day on their own. We go to the library or book store often (more often the library now that they are reading more). We read to them (Roal Dahl, Harry Potter, graphic novels, etc) and listen to audiobooks in the car. We limit screen time (none on weekdays, limited on weekends). One kid take music lessons. They play sports. We play a ton of board games (Azul, Ticket to Ride, Catan, etc). Sometimes they do math workbooks if they want (I need to refresh our workbook supply). We do a lot of arts and crafts. We go to museums and hikes on weekends. We talk about the world around us and far away from us. I try to teach gratitude for what we have and how lucky we are.

Now that I've written that out, I feel at peace with not "supplementing" more.

[Anonymous]

Has anybody used this website for writing? https://www.time4writing.com/middle-school/

If not, any other online options you'd recommend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With formula. Pumping just wasn’t producing enough output.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yikes, I never realized I may need to supplement. My kids are EOTP in K and 2nd. They read every day on their own. We go to the library or book store often (more often the library now that they are reading more). We read to them (Roal Dahl, Harry Potter, graphic novels, etc) and listen to audiobooks in the car. We limit screen time (none on weekdays, limited on weekends). One kid take music lessons. They play sports. We play a ton of board games (Azul, Ticket to Ride, Catan, etc). Sometimes they do math workbooks if they want (I need to refresh our workbook supply). We do a lot of arts and crafts. We go to museums and hikes on weekends. We talk about the world around us and far away from us. I try to teach gratitude for what we have and how lucky we are.

Now that I've written that out, I feel at peace with not "supplementing" more.

Yes, because your kids are little and, presumably, attend a decent DCPS or charter EOTP.

Wait until 4th or 5th grade, when you can see that the curriculum isn't teaching them to write a grammatical and properly spelled and punctuated paragraph, or much at all in the way of social studies. It's common for UMC parents in DCPS to start to hire tutors and pay for academic camps in the upper grades, no matter what else is true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes, I never realized I may need to supplement. My kids are EOTP in K and 2nd. They read every day on their own. We go to the library or book store often (more often the library now that they are reading more). We read to them (Roal Dahl, Harry Potter, graphic novels, etc) and listen to audiobooks in the car. We limit screen time (none on weekdays, limited on weekends). One kid take music lessons. They play sports. We play a ton of board games (Azul, Ticket to Ride, Catan, etc). Sometimes they do math workbooks if they want (I need to refresh our workbook supply). We do a lot of arts and crafts. We go to museums and hikes on weekends. We talk about the world around us and far away from us. I try to teach gratitude for what we have and how lucky we are.

Now that I've written that out, I feel at peace with not "supplementing" more.

Yes, because your kids are little and, presumably, attend a decent DCPS or charter EOTP.

Wait until 4th or 5th grade, when you can see that the curriculum isn't teaching them to write a grammatical and properly spelled and punctuated paragraph, or much at all in the way of social studies. It's common for UMC parents in DCPS to start to hire tutors and pay for academic camps in the upper grades, no matter what else is true.

My kids are at Deal. No supplementing here. They’re learning to read critically and write persuasively. They’re getting strong history/geography/world cultures instruction. They’re challenged in math. They get foreign language instruction every day. They have a reasonable amount of homework (and sometimes not much at all, which I love).

[Anonymous]

Mathnasium and a week or two of STEM focused camps in the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes, I never realized I may need to supplement. My kids are EOTP in K and 2nd. They read every day on their own. We go to the library or book store often (more often the library now that they are reading more). We read to them (Roal Dahl, Harry Potter, graphic novels, etc) and listen to audiobooks in the car. We limit screen time (none on weekdays, limited on weekends). One kid take music lessons. They play sports. We play a ton of board games (Azul, Ticket to Ride, Catan, etc). Sometimes they do math workbooks if they want (I need to refresh our workbook supply). We do a lot of arts and crafts. We go to museums and hikes on weekends. We talk about the world around us and far away from us. I try to teach gratitude for what we have and how lucky we are.

Now that I've written that out, I feel at peace with not "supplementing" more.

Yes, because your kids are little and, presumably, attend a decent DCPS or charter EOTP.

Wait until 4th or 5th grade, when you can see that the curriculum isn't teaching them to write a grammatical and properly spelled and punctuated paragraph, or much at all in the way of social studies. It's common for UMC parents in DCPS to start to hire tutors and pay for academic camps in the upper grades, no matter what else is true.

My kids are at Deal. No supplementing here. They’re learning to read critically and write persuasively. They’re getting strong history/geography/world cultures instruction. They’re challenged in math. They get foreign language instruction every day. They have a reasonable amount of homework (and sometimes not much at all, which I love).

You're kidding yourself about some of this, PP. They definitely aren't getting strong social studies instruction at Deal. If they're challenged in math, they're not great at math. Foreign language instruction every day, I'll give you that.

[Anonymous]

Incidentally, kids who excel at foreign language are forced to take 2nd languages at Deal, which stinks if you're not interested.

I'd much rather have my kid master the tough Asian language we speak at home (tested at AP level but not taught at an appropriate level at Deal) than to be crappy in Spanish, which Deal tried to force DC to take, and the tough Asian language.

We home school in the Asian language, a form of supplementing. We challenged over the 3rd language, were hassled a lot in return, but ultimately prevailed and were left alone to aspire to bilingualism vs. trilingualism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes, I never realized I may need to supplement. My kids are EOTP in K and 2nd. They read every day on their own. We go to the library or book store often (more often the library now that they are reading more). We read to them (Roal Dahl, Harry Potter, graphic novels, etc) and listen to audiobooks in the car. We limit screen time (none on weekdays, limited on weekends). One kid take music lessons. They play sports. We play a ton of board games (Azul, Ticket to Ride, Catan, etc). Sometimes they do math workbooks if they want (I need to refresh our workbook supply). We do a lot of arts and crafts. We go to museums and hikes on weekends. We talk about the world around us and far away from us. I try to teach gratitude for what we have and how lucky we are.

Now that I've written that out, I feel at peace with not "supplementing" more.

Yes, because your kids are little and, presumably, attend a decent DCPS or charter EOTP.

Wait until 4th or 5th grade, when you can see that the curriculum isn't teaching them to write a grammatical and properly spelled and punctuated paragraph, or much at all in the way of social studies. It's common for UMC parents in DCPS to start to hire tutors and pay for academic camps in the upper grades, no matter what else is true.

My kids are at Deal. No supplementing here. They’re learning to read critically and write persuasively. They’re getting strong history/geography/world cultures instruction. They’re challenged in math. They get foreign language instruction every day. They have a reasonable amount of homework (and sometimes not much at all, which I love).

You're kidding yourself about some of this, PP. They definitely aren't getting strong social studies instruction at Deal. If they're challenged in math, they're not great at math. Foreign language instruction every day, I'll give you that.

I'm a Deal parent and I complete agree with the PP. I'd like to know what in your opinion would be a strong middle school social studies curriculum if you think Deal's is weak (it isn't by the way). But let us know where you stand on what you think it should be.