Is EEK (early entrance to kindergarten) getting harder?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My child is in the middle of 1st grade and the furthest they have gotten is adding/subtracting up to the sum of 6. She did that in preschool. They have not learned any time, money, fractions or simple geometry yet. It is all VERY basic adding/subtracting with number lines, groups etc.... It is extremely slow. My oldest was actually EEK in Sept and at that point they had math levels so she was in K and then moved to math2 in grade 1. So she was adding/subtracting into the thousands and doing fractions and some geometry. Time and money was taught in K. She finished 5th doing Math 7 and moved right to Algebra 1 in 6th grade. They no longer have those options. ALL kids learn math at the same pace in MCPS until grade 4-5 when they can possibly go into compact math.

You have posted this at least three times in the last few weeks.

According to the first-grade curriculum guide, she should have been doing the following during the second marking period:

Number and Operations in Base Ten: Place value and representation—decomposing and composing 2–digit numbers.
Operations and Algebraic Thinking: Meaning of equal sign; problem-solving strategies—1- and 2–digit addition and subtraction; adding three numbers—sums to 20.

Is she doing this? If she is not doing this, why haven't you talked to the teacher and principal about it?

Time (analog, digital, hour, half hour) is taught in the fourth marking period of first grade. Money is taught in the second marking period of second grade, after hundreds place value in the first marking period.

+1 I have a 1st grader as well and the homework at the moment is adding 3 numbers with sums up to 20. I think PP either isn't looking at her child's work or her child is in a slower math group for some reason (which is FINE).

I am the PP and the entire four classes in her school have fact tests each week. This week it is adding/subtracting up to 6. They have to get 20 right in 3 minutes. They are currently also adding sums of doubles while adding a smaller number so 6+6+3 is 12+3=15. If you think that is advanced work for kids this age, great. It is not for my child. I don't like that they teach to the lowest common denominator in the school. I am all for helping kids struggling but not at the expense of half the kids being bored. And because now they have tiny math groups, she gets about 10 minutes of accelerated math but the teachers are not allowed to send any work home on acceleration. Maybe you didn't have kids in elementary when they actually moved to a different math class based on ability but it work much better for all kids. Accelerated, on grade level, and below grade level. If you look at what the curriculum was before and now, you can easily tell the 1st graders are working at below grade concepts in 2.0

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are overcrowded, yes they will be more strict. It sucks but I recommend that you fight for it. The curriculum is so ridiculously slow and my child (an Aug birthday) is bored out of her mind.

I truly do not understand this. What is too slow? If the child is a precocious reader, is she not allowed to read at her level? In math, there are things like "make an addition fact family". That can be using 5+2=7 or 326+408=734. Right?

My child is in the middle of 1st grade and the furthest they have gotten is adding/subtracting up to the sum of 6. She did that in preschool. They have not learned any time, money, fractions or simple geometry yet. It is all VERY basic adding/subtracting with number lines, groups etc.... It is extremely slow. My oldest was actually EEK in Sept and at that point they had math levels so she was in K and then moved to math2 in grade 1. So she was adding/subtracting into the thousands and doing fractions and some geometry. Time and money was taught in K. She finished 5th doing Math 7 and moved right to Algebra 1 in 6th grade. They no longer have those options. ALL kids learn math at the same pace in MCPS until grade 4-5 when they can possibly go into compact math.

As far as reading, they do not encourage you to read past certain levels. So my 1st grade daughter already hit the end of 2nd grade reading level at M and is not allowed to advance past that until 2nd grade. Whereas my other daughter's reading group kept going and going and they even moved kids around in groups to keep them accelerating. 2.0 is about learning the basics. It helps kids that have had no prior learning but it seriously hinders kids that learned in preschool and learn at home.

That is completely different from how my child was taught in McPS in K. She was a level O in K and had peers in her class. Teacher did not cap her level. And in first grade they are adding and subtracting over 100. Of course only some are. Many are not, and that is fine too. Clearly different schools handle this differently!

NP here. How long ago was your child in K? We were told at back to school night this year that kids in K would never move past E level and they instead would work on comprehension and writing so they could advance in 1st grade. I would be royally pissed if other schools advance. I have a hard time believing that a public school kindergarten had a reading group level that was at a 3/4th grade level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My child is in the middle of 1st grade and the furthest they have gotten is adding/subtracting up to the sum of 6. She did that in preschool. They have not learned any time, money, fractions or simple geometry yet. It is all VERY basic adding/subtracting with number lines, groups etc.... It is extremely slow. My oldest was actually EEK in Sept and at that point they had math levels so she was in K and then moved to math2 in grade 1. So she was adding/subtracting into the thousands and doing fractions and some geometry. Time and money was taught in K. She finished 5th doing Math 7 and moved right to Algebra 1 in 6th grade. They no longer have those options. ALL kids learn math at the same pace in MCPS until grade 4-5 when they can possibly go into compact math.

You have posted this at least three times in the last few weeks.

According to the first-grade curriculum guide, she should have been doing the following during the second marking period:

Number and Operations in Base Ten: Place value and representation—decomposing and composing 2–digit numbers.
Operations and Algebraic Thinking: Meaning of equal sign; problem-solving strategies—1- and 2–digit addition and subtraction; adding three numbers—sums to 20.

Is she doing this? If she is not doing this, why haven't you talked to the teacher and principal about it?

Time (analog, digital, hour, half hour) is taught in the fourth marking period of first grade. Money is taught in the second marking period of second grade, after hundreds place value in the first marking period.

Money is not taught at all until 2nd grade? So a child wouldn't know what a quarter was worth until he was 8yrs old? I am new to this curriculum. Where can you get this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Call the school and ask. Ours was not very friendly so we didn't bother and we ended up going to a small private. If you do private for K and 1st, you can supposedly transfer to 2nd in public without an issue.

Not the OP, but thank you for that info! We had been wondering that. Our DS also has a Sept birthday and we're hoping to try for EEK, but good to know this might be an option. We'd be paying for an extra year of preschool anyway, so if we could get into a private K that'd be worth the expense.

PP, private kindergarten isn't enough. You have to do k and first to be guaranteed a spot in the class you want. If you do private k and transfer, your child transfers into public k. Then after about 6 weeks you can ask for an assessment to have your kid moved to first grade. But, there are no guarantees and you have to wait out the period of time until you can request the assessment and the decision is made, which is longer than 6 weeks in a lot of cases.

Thanks for clarifying. From the other post, I was thinking you can do Private K and Private 1st and then transfer back to public for 2nd grade. I'll obviously talk to the ES about this.

It's this, you do private for K and 1st and transfer in 2nd or later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are overcrowded, yes they will be more strict. It sucks but I recommend that you fight for it. The curriculum is so ridiculously slow and my child (an Aug birthday) is bored out of her mind.

I truly do not understand this. What is too slow? If the child is a precocious reader, is she not allowed to read at her level? In math, there are things like "make an addition fact family". That can be using 5+2=7 or 326+408=734. Right?

My child is in the middle of 1st grade and the furthest they have gotten is adding/subtracting up to the sum of 6. She did that in preschool. They have not learned any time, money, fractions or simple geometry yet. It is all VERY basic adding/subtracting with number lines, groups etc.... It is extremely slow. My oldest was actually EEK in Sept and at that point they had math levels so she was in K and then moved to math2 in grade 1. So she was adding/subtracting into the thousands and doing fractions and some geometry. Time and money was taught in K. She finished 5th doing Math 7 and moved right to Algebra 1 in 6th grade. They no longer have those options. ALL kids learn math at the same pace in MCPS until grade 4-5 when they can possibly go into compact math.

As far as reading, they do not encourage you to read past certain levels. So my 1st grade daughter already hit the end of 2nd grade reading level at M and is not allowed to advance past that until 2nd grade. Whereas my other daughter's reading group kept going and going and they even moved kids around in groups to keep them accelerating. 2.0 is about learning the basics. It helps kids that have had no prior learning but it seriously hinders kids that learned in preschool and learn at home.

That is completely different from how my child was taught in McPS in K. She was a level O in K and had peers in her class. Teacher did not cap her level. And in first grade they are adding and subtracting over 100. Of course only some are. Many are not, and that is fine too. Clearly different schools handle this differently!

Wow that is slow. Our private, where most kids are missed cut off kids are doing three digit addition and subtraction and they are working now on carrying over/larger numbers. All the kids are progressing well and getting it. That's way to slow.

What school? Because what you describe is not at all consistent with what I saw at Sidwell or Sheridan. They were behind what the kids in my kids mcps class were doing.

It's a tiny private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I am the PP and the entire four classes in her school have fact tests each week. This week it is adding/subtracting up to 6. They have to get 20 right in 3 minutes. They are currently also adding sums of doubles while adding a smaller number so 6+6+3 is 12+3=15. If you think that is advanced work for kids this age, great. It is not for my child. I don't like that they teach to the lowest common denominator in the school. I am all for helping kids struggling but not at the expense of half the kids being bored. And because now they have tiny math groups, she gets about 10 minutes of accelerated math but the teachers are not allowed to send any work home on acceleration. Maybe you didn't have kids in elementary when they actually moved to a different math class based on ability but it work much better for all kids. Accelerated, on grade level, and below grade level. If you look at what the curriculum was before and now, you can easily tell the 1st graders are working at below grade concepts in 2.0

Weekly math facts test =/= the first-grade math curriculum.

Also, here are the Common Core math standards, which Curriculum 2.0 is aligned to: http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Content/1/MD/

Not surprisingly, they look very similar to the Curriculum 2.0 first-grade math curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Money is not taught at all until 2nd grade? So a child wouldn't know what a quarter was worth until he was 8yrs old? I am new to this curriculum. Where can you get this

Since money depends on

a. fractions
b. hundreds
(c. decimals)

why would you teach money before you taught the things that money depends on?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are overcrowded, yes they will be more strict. It sucks but I recommend that you fight for it. The curriculum is so ridiculously slow and my child (an Aug birthday) is bored out of her mind.

I truly do not understand this. What is too slow? If the child is a precocious reader, is she not allowed to read at her level? In math, there are things like "make an addition fact family". That can be using 5+2=7 or 326+408=734. Right?

My child is in the middle of 1st grade and the furthest they have gotten is adding/subtracting up to the sum of 6. She did that in preschool. They have not learned any time, money, fractions or simple geometry yet. It is all VERY basic adding/subtracting with number lines, groups etc.... It is extremely slow. My oldest was actually EEK in Sept and at that point they had math levels so she was in K and then moved to math2 in grade 1. So she was adding/subtracting into the thousands and doing fractions and some geometry. Time and money was taught in K. She finished 5th doing Math 7 and moved right to Algebra 1 in 6th grade. They no longer have those options. ALL kids learn math at the same pace in MCPS until grade 4-5 when they can possibly go into compact math.

As far as reading, they do not encourage you to read past certain levels. So my 1st grade daughter already hit the end of 2nd grade reading level at M and is not allowed to advance past that until 2nd grade. Whereas my other daughter's reading group kept going and going and they even moved kids around in groups to keep them accelerating. 2.0 is about learning the basics. It helps kids that have had no prior learning but it seriously hinders kids that learned in preschool and learn at home.

That is completely different from how my child was taught in McPS in K. She was a level O in K and had peers in her class. Teacher did not cap her level. And in first grade they are adding and subtracting over 100. Of course only some are. Many are not, and that is fine too. Clearly different schools handle this differently!

NP here. How long ago was your child in K? We were told at back to school night this year that kids in K would never move past E level and they instead would work on comprehension and writing so they could advance in 1st grade. I would be royally pissed if other schools advance. I have a hard time believing that a public school kindergarten had a reading group level that was at a 3/4th grade level.

Last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are overcrowded, yes they will be more strict. It sucks but I recommend that you fight for it. The curriculum is so ridiculously slow and my child (an Aug birthday) is bored out of her mind.

I truly do not understand this. What is too slow? If the child is a precocious reader, is she not allowed to read at her level? In math, there are things like "make an addition fact family". That can be using 5+2=7 or 326+408=734. Right?

My child is in the middle of 1st grade and the furthest they have gotten is adding/subtracting up to the sum of 6. She did that in preschool. They have not learned any time, money, fractions or simple geometry yet. It is all VERY basic adding/subtracting with number lines, groups etc.... It is extremely slow. My oldest was actually EEK in Sept and at that point they had math levels so she was in K and then moved to math2 in grade 1. So she was adding/subtracting into the thousands and doing fractions and some geometry. Time and money was taught in K. She finished 5th doing Math 7 and moved right to Algebra 1 in 6th grade. They no longer have those options. ALL kids learn math at the same pace in MCPS until grade 4-5 when they can possibly go into compact math.

As far as reading, they do not encourage you to read past certain levels. So my 1st grade daughter already hit the end of 2nd grade reading level at M and is not allowed to advance past that until 2nd grade. Whereas my other daughter's reading group kept going and going and they even moved kids around in groups to keep them accelerating. 2.0 is about learning the basics. It helps kids that have had no prior learning but it seriously hinders kids that learned in preschool and learn at home.

That is completely different from how my child was taught in McPS in K. She was a level O in K and had peers in her class. Teacher did not cap her level. And in first grade they are adding and subtracting over 100. Of course only some are. Many are not, and that is fine too. Clearly different schools handle this differently!

Wow that is slow. Our private, where most kids are missed cut off kids are doing three digit addition and subtraction and they are working now on carrying over/larger numbers. All the kids are progressing well and getting it. That's way to slow.

What school? Because what you describe is not at all consistent with what I saw at Sidwell or Sheridan. They were behind what the kids in my kids mcps class were doing.

It's a tiny private.

Sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are overcrowded, yes they will be more strict. It sucks but I recommend that you fight for it. The curriculum is so ridiculously slow and my child (an Aug birthday) is bored out of her mind.

I truly do not understand this. What is too slow? If the child is a precocious reader, is she not allowed to read at her level? In math, there are things like "make an addition fact family". That can be using 5+2=7 or 326+408=734. Right?

My child is in the middle of 1st grade and the furthest they have gotten is adding/subtracting up to the sum of 6. She did that in preschool. They have not learned any time, money, fractions or simple geometry yet. It is all VERY basic adding/subtracting with number lines, groups etc.... It is extremely slow. My oldest was actually EEK in Sept and at that point they had math levels so she was in K and then moved to math2 in grade 1. So she was adding/subtracting into the thousands and doing fractions and some geometry. Time and money was taught in K. She finished 5th doing Math 7 and moved right to Algebra 1 in 6th grade. They no longer have those options. ALL kids learn math at the same pace in MCPS until grade 4-5 when they can possibly go into compact math.

As far as reading, they do not encourage you to read past certain levels. So my 1st grade daughter already hit the end of 2nd grade reading level at M and is not allowed to advance past that until 2nd grade. Whereas my other daughter's reading group kept going and going and they even moved kids around in groups to keep them accelerating. 2.0 is about learning the basics. It helps kids that have had no prior learning but it seriously hinders kids that learned in preschool and learn at home.

That is completely different from how my child was taught in McPS in K. She was a level O in K and had peers in her class. Teacher did not cap her level. And in first grade they are adding and subtracting over 100. Of course only some are. Many are not, and that is fine too. Clearly different schools handle this differently!

NP here. How long ago was your child in K? We were told at back to school night this year that kids in K would never move past E level and they instead would work on comprehension and writing so they could advance in 1st grade. I would be royally pissed if other schools advance. I have a hard time believing that a public school kindergarten had a reading group level that was at a 3/4th grade level.

Last year.

Oh and I'm sorry you've had such a different experience, but what I said was completely true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It's a tiny private.

Enrollment: 2 (twins, who missed the kindergarten cut-off).

[Anonymous]

Yes, private K + private 1st = 2nd Grade
Private K only = EE1st (the 6 week trial discussed by pp)

[Anonymous]

Yes it is stricter now b/c the requirements for K are harder. We petitioned for our DC and have been very happy. BTW our DC was accepted into immersion before being accepted into K. Went to K at age 4 not knowing how to read, but learning to read in Spanish has been wonderful

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes it is stricter now b/c the requirements for K are harder. We petitioned for our DC and have been very happy. BTW our DC was accepted into immersion before being accepted into K. Went to K at age 4 not knowing how to read, but learning to read in Spanish has been wonderful

The requirements for kindergarten are not harder now than they were 5 years ago.

[Anonymous]

"I am the PP and the entire four classes in her school have fact tests each week. This week it is adding/subtracting up to 6. They have to get 20 right in 3 minutes. They are currently also adding sums of doubles while adding a smaller number so 6+6+3 is 12+3=15. If you think that is advanced work for kids this age, great. It is not for my child. I don't like that they teach to the lowest common denominator in the school. I am all for helping kids struggling but not at the expense of half the kids being bored. And because now they have tiny math groups, she gets about 10 minutes of accelerated math but the teachers are not allowed to send any work home on acceleration. Maybe you didn't have kids in elementary when they actually moved to a different math class based on ability but it work much better for all kids. Accelerated, on grade level, and below grade level. If you look at what the curriculum was before and now, you can easily tell the 1st graders are working at below grade concepts in 2.0"


Being able to say 1+6 = 7 (preschool) and being tested on knowing them without time to think about it (1st grade) are two entirely different things. A timed test would not be appropriate for a 4 learning the skill but it is for a 6 who is very familiar with it. And your second example..no the math is not hard but training your self to dissect a problem into smaller parts is essential for doing math in your head quickly in the future. I think it is hard for some parents to discern what is actually being taught which is a lot more than 1+6.