No textbook for kids in Montgomery County?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think no textbooks is a reason why American students are failing in Math. Because if they have a bad teacher, there is no way they can review it themselves or have parents explain.

As for cost, don't get me started on those big fat tedious ones. Singapore math is slim and does not teach less math.

+1 million Mom of an MCPS 6th grader

Can I add another million? Or as my four year old would say one million thousand?

I am in a science field and still work heavily with math. Every time my younger kids have a question, I try to teach them only to be meet with squeals of "that's not the way they taught us to do it". Problem is the kids don't remember and there is not a sample problem on the worksheet. It usually just involves drawing dots.

Exactly. Just saw this bump from old post and realized I'm the +1 million poster. So flash forward a year later and my kid finally has books. He's now in private school. I wish MCPS would revert to some of the tried and true educational techniques: text books, movement & recess & PE daily; breaks; and small class sizes. That & better lunch is why most families pay for private.

[Anonymous]

I almost did an experiment this year based on my son's 4th grade experience last year. Collect and save every single paper and worksheet that came home (photocopied reading materiels, school work and home work). Put it in a pile. By the end of the year it probably would have gone from floor to ceiling. No exaggeration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Exactly. Just saw this bump from old post and realized I'm the +1 million poster. So flash forward a year later and my kid finally has books. He's now in private school. I wish MCPS would revert to some of the tried and true educational techniques: text books, movement & recess & PE daily; breaks; and small class sizes. That & better lunch is why most families pay for private.

Revert to tried and true educational techniques like small class sizes? When I was in elementary school (not in MCPS), my classes routinely had 30+ students.

Also it seems to me that there are more cost-effective ways to get your child a good school lunch than paying ~$20,000 a year to a private school.

[Anonymous]

Everybody does what is best for their situation (private/public, tutor/no tutor etc).

I routinely use the pre-2.0 textbooks to teach my kids, though I am thinking that I should probably also add the Singapore Math into the mix as well. My kids do very well in Math, but if Singapore Math can give them an edge - why not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everybody does what is best for their situation (private/public, tutor/no tutor etc).

I routinely use the pre-2.0 textbooks to teach my kids, though I am thinking that I should probably also add the Singapore Math into the mix as well. My kids do very well in Math, but if Singapore Math can give them an edge - why not?

The Singapore Math books are much better than the pre-2.0 textbooks. I have a low opinion of the pre-2.0 textbooks, and I was not sad to see them go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think no textbooks is a reason why American students are failing in Math. Because if they have a bad teacher, there is no way they can review it themselves or have parents explain.

As for cost, don't get me started on those big fat tedious ones. Singapore math is slim and does not teach less math.

+1 million Mom of an MCPS 6th grader

Can I add another million? Or as my four year old would say one million thousand?

I am in a science field and still work heavily with math. Every time my younger kids have a question, I try to teach them only to be meet with squeals of "that's not the way they taught us to do it". Problem is the kids don't remember and there is not a sample problem on the worksheet. It usually just involves drawing dots.

the trick is to teach your kids ahead of what they cover in school. Even if you may do it differently, as long as they understand the concepts, they are more likely to follow whatever their teacher wants them to do.

[Anonymous]

Its funny my ES was part of an MCPS pilot of singapore math 5-10 years ago. The test scores dropped and the pilot as well. Maybe it will come back

[Anonymous]

Why would you want your 6yo carrying around a textbook?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Exactly. Just saw this bump from old post and realized I'm the +1 million poster. So flash forward a year later and my kid finally has books. He's now in private school. I wish MCPS would revert to some of the tried and true educational techniques: text books, movement & recess & PE daily; breaks; and small class sizes. That & better lunch is why most families pay for private.

Revert to tried and true educational techniques like small class sizes? When I was in elementary school (not in MCPS), my classes routinely had 30+ students.

Also it seems to me that there are more cost-effective ways to get your child a good school lunch than paying ~$20,000 a year to a private school.

Yes, but likely you did not have 30+ kids of widely varying abilities. It was a more homogenous group, even allowing for 30% non-college bound. Now you've got more special needs, more Non native English speakers, perhaps more truly accelerated kids, and more kids in poverty. Impossible to meet everyone's needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would you want your 6yo carrying around a textbook?

I keep the textbook at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

the trick is to teach your kids ahead of what they cover in school. Even if you may do it differently, as long as they understand the concepts, they are more likely to follow whatever their teacher wants them to do.

Agreed. This is what I do, and my kids know the concepts.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like parent guides/handbooks are needed for the helicopters.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Howard County in the 70's. We didn't get textbooks until Middle School.
We did lots of 'packets'!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Howard County in the 70's. We didn't get textbooks until Middle School.
We did lots of 'packets'!

Same for me, in the Midwest in the 1970s.

[Anonymous]

My DC went to school in CA for early ES a few years ago. DC had not textbooks either. All handouts and packets. I'm fine with that.