Should I send my kids to mathnasium?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD completed math program at Kumon McLean. She breezed through Algebras and skipped Calculus - because of Kumon.

Is this doublespeak for "Took AP stats" ?

McLean High told her she can take AP stats in 9th grade, but she got into TJ and is on a different math path now.

OP here. I suspect these kids who do the extra math are TJ bound. Would you say most kids in middle school who went on to TJ did these outside math programs?

My kids are bright. I'm sure they wouldn't mind going to mathnasium. They get barely any math homework. 3rd grader gets 1 math worksheet per day and not even everyday. I don't think my 5th grader gets any homework or he finishes it during free time at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t need any of those math extracurriculars. It’s a waste of money and time.

False.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD completed math program at Kumon McLean. She breezed through Algebras and skipped Calculus - because of Kumon.

So if my child was sitting in same algebra class with your child, my child would appear to be struggling since your child already learned or at least had exposure to material being taught in class.

I will take my kids to visit mathnasium. Guess it can’t hurt.

Well, it can hurt in that they are in school almost 7 hours per day. Why MORE school if they get 4s in Math already? Assuming any other extracurricular activities, I am guessing your kids don’t have a ton of free time. Mine don’t. No way would I send my kids to an academic extracurricular when th et are already in school for so much of the day.

We have times when they are super busy but they have lots of free time. We try to keep weekends free to relax or for them to play. Besides a sports game, we don't do activities on weekends.

For most of December and January, they've been doing nothing but playing. There is no shortage of play in our house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD completed math program at Kumon McLean. She breezed through Algebras and skipped Calculus - because of Kumon.

Is this doublespeak for "Took AP stats" ?

McLean High told her she can take AP stats in 9th grade, but she got into TJ and is on a different math path now.

OP here. I suspect these kids who do the extra math are TJ bound. Would you say most kids in middle school who went on to TJ did these outside math programs?

My kids are bright. I'm sure they wouldn't mind going to mathnasium. They get barely any math homework. 3rd grader gets 1 math worksheet per day and not even everyday. I don't think my 5th grader gets any homework or he finishes it during free time at school.

Sounds like there is a confidence problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don’t need any of those math extracurriculars. It’s a waste of money and time.

So what would you instead suggest the OP and many (most?) others in the pyramid should be doing instead? Picketing the front office? Boycotting the school events until the admins decide to focus on actually teaching?

But who said OP’s kid isn’t being taught. He’s just upset because he does poorly on the pre-assessments. They are doing assessments BEFORE teaching the unit to see where kids are. Mathnasium kids are axing those because they’ve been taught. OP’s kid isn’t. Then he is taught the material at school and gets a 4 on the post-unit assessment. As it should be.

[Anonymous]

Maybe McLean wasn’t the right idea....

[Anonymous]

Where can I get a copy of the AAP pacing guide?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don’t need any of those math extracurriculars. It’s a waste of money and time.

So what would you instead suggest the OP and many (most?) others in the pyramid should be doing instead? Picketing the front office? Boycotting the school events until the admins decide to focus on actually teaching?

But who said OP’s kid isn’t being taught. He’s just upset because he does poorly on the pre-assessments. They are doing assessments BEFORE teaching the unit to see where kids are. Mathnasium kids are axing those because they’ve been taught. OP’s kid isn’t. Then he is taught the material at school and gets a 4 on the post-unit assessment. As it should be.

To me it sounds more like it's a teaching problem, as the OP described both kids in different grades having issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What does mathnasium charge?

It depends on the length of the contract you sign, but we pay in the range of $250/mo. They’re franchises, so I assume charges, hours, etc. may vary by location.

Not sure how much of it is the prizes and how much is the math but DD really loves to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD completed math program at Kumon McLean. She breezed through Algebras and skipped Calculus - because of Kumon.

Is this doublespeak for "Took AP stats" ?

McLean High told her she can take AP stats in 9th grade, but she got into TJ and is on a different math path now.

Nice that it worked out well, but I don't think ppl should get the idea that Kumon => TJ. I've heard many stories of Kumon being worksheet drilling on crack and sucking any life out of math and making bored kids more bored, is this true? If so, it wouldn't work for many TJ bound kids since it could them off to math before they have a chance to realize it's actually interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don’t need any of those math extracurriculars. It’s a waste of money and time.

So what would you instead suggest the OP and many (most?) others in the pyramid should be doing instead? Picketing the front office? Boycotting the school events until the admins decide to focus on actually teaching?

But who said OP’s kid isn’t being taught. He’s just upset because he does poorly on the pre-assessments. They are doing assessments BEFORE teaching the unit to see where kids are. Mathnasium kids are axing those because they’ve been taught. OP’s kid isn’t. Then he is taught the material at school and gets a 4 on the post-unit assessment. As it should be.

To me it sounds more like it's a teaching problem, as the OP described both kids in different grades having issues.

No she really doesn’t. She doesn’t say much about the 5th grader at all. Just that he third graders does poorly on pretests and is on the lowest AAP math group. Big deal.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure I understand the problem. Is it that OP's kids aren't being taught the math they're supposed to learn for that grade, or is it that they feel bad because other kids are more advanced?

If it's the former, take it up with the school. There's a set of standards for each grade level that they should be following. If it's the latter, that's a very poor reason for doing math tutoring. If your kids are behind, do tutoring. If they love math and want more, do tutoring. Don't do it just to keep up with the Joneses. The bottom group that your kids are in is apparently the group of kids who haven't been pre-taught all of the grade level math. There's nothing wrong with being placed in that group and then learning the material that they're supposed to be learning.

[Anonymous]

How are these math programs for a child with a learning disability in math?

[Anonymous]

I have been struggling with the same question/issue as it seems like our AAP center has many children going to these places to get ahead. But that’s exactly what you need to tell your children- they are doing great if they are getting 4s and doing well learning the material in class. It’s about confidence.

Our AAP center calls the math divisions- “most exposed”, “middle exposure,” and “least exposed”. I love this terminology because the teachers make it clear at BTSN that they give they pre-tests to group the kids accordingly but there is nothing wrong with NOT being exposed to what they are about to be taught yet. Honestly, the class that is most exposed are always the kids I know that have been doing Kumon every day since Kindergarten. That doesn’t impress me and makes me feel sorry for the child when my kid never has, learns the material in the classroom, and still gets a 4 on the same test as the “most exposed” group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure I understand the problem. Is it that OP's kids aren't being taught the math they're supposed to learn for that grade, or is it that they feel bad because other kids are more advanced?

If it's the former, take it up with the school. There's a set of standards for each grade level that they should be following. If it's the latter, that's a very poor reason for doing math tutoring. If your kids are behind, do tutoring. If they love math and want more, do tutoring. Don't do it just to keep up with the Joneses. The bottom group that your kids are in is apparently the group of kids who haven't been pre-taught all of the grade level math. There's nothing wrong with being placed in that group and then learning the material that they're supposed to be learning.

I agree, OP needs to give us more specific info in terms of what is the problem with both kids, if they want a better assessment of what they should do.