Helping Elementary DS in Areas Where FCPS Curriculum is Weak

[Anonymous]

My fourth grade DS has been preparing a report for school over break. In general, we have been happy with his FCPS elementary, but this has stressed to me
some areas that have been a concern before. I understand the limited attention paid to cursive, but I wish they would pay more attention to spelling and teach typing. I have asked about spelling before, and the teacher said it is not stressed. I am interested in supplementing in spelling (maybe an app?) and getting him a program to learn typing. If others have found solutions that work for them I would appreciate any advice. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Keyboarding is easy. Get an online program and have him do it 20 minutes a day in the summers.

[Anonymous]

I’m more concerned about why your DS is working on a report for school over break.

~ES Teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m more concerned about why your DS is working on a report for school over break.

~ES Teacher

My DS had homework over break and he is in 5th grade. I think he had some last winter break too. They have 12+ days off.

[Anonymous]

Welltrainedmind has reviewed a bunch of spelling curricula. See e.g. here https://welltrainedmind.com/a/spelling-power/

Handwriting Without Tears is probably the most popular handwriting remediation program. There are lots of others, though. Pentime (Amish), Cursive First, reprints of the old Spencerian workbooks (late 19th century, lots of exercises.)

I mention these because spelling is probably better learned by writing, not by typing.

Not sure on typing. Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing is still produced. I'm sure there's good stuff out there, but most of the apps I've seen are unimpressive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m more concerned about why your DS is working on a report for school over break.

~ES Teacher

My DS had homework over break and he is in 5th grade. I think he had some last winter break too. They have 12+ days off.

Wow! In FCPS the students have 10 days off. I thought that was a lot. We’ve been told to not assign he over breaks.

The report that the PP mentioned is somewhat surprising to me too since we aren’t supposed to grade hw in elementary (FCPS).

As far as typing practice, in the past we had used “Type To Learn”. The students seemed to enjoy it. I don’t know if it’s still available.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone! I should clarify DS became sick before break so he is finishing a project he became behind in. He did, however, have a longish pack over Winter break last year. It seems to depend on the teacher.

[Anonymous]

I second Type to Lean. I used to lead a before school “typing/spreadsheet club” at the school I taught at. The kids all did well and stuck with Type to Learn. I’m not sure that these types of clubs are popular anymore (heaven forbid I want to teach kids a foundational skill vs. a cool STEAM experience), but it might be worth seeing if you school offers something like this.

[Anonymous]

Spelling is not emphasized. It is learned through immersion, context, and sounding out. Reading is heavy to help kids self teach themselves spelling. Gone are the days of sending home vocab lists so a kid could write out each word 10x to memorize spelling.

Typing is also self taught. My kids hunt & peck on the keyboard and have become pretty fast at it..between typing up stories on wixie, playing roblux, and using my phone to text Dh, the kids have become fairly self sufficient in "typing".

Having said that, yes, I too have wanted a formal typing class, but it isnt offered in fcps ES. In this day and age, typing should be paramount in the lower levels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m more concerned about why your DS is working on a report for school over break.

~ES Teacher

My DS had homework over break and he is in 5th grade. I think he had some last winter break too. They have 12+ days off.

Someone needs to complain to the administrators. The teacher should not be assigning homework over break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m more concerned about why your DS is working on a report for school over break.

~ES Teacher

My DS had homework over break and he is in 5th grade. I think he had some last winter break too. They have 12+ days off.

Someone needs to complain to the administrators. The teacher should not be assigning homework over break.

Why would I complain? I like a little bit of homework over break. It forces him to use his brain for something other than Fortnite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m more concerned about why your DS is working on a report for school over break.

~ES Teacher

My DS had homework over break and he is in 5th grade. I think he had some last winter break too. They have 12+ days off.

Someone needs to complain to the administrators. The teacher should not be assigning homework over break.

Why would I complain? I like a little bit of homework over break. It forces him to use his brain for something other than Fortnite.

We just have out DS read to us for 15 minutes and do some other type of school work for 15 minutes.

[Anonymous]

We are not allowed to assign homework over break in FCPS in elementary. It’s a big deal that it’s not allowed. Typing is supposed to be taught somewhat but there just isn’t time. Same for cursive. Ask the teacher, because they should have Type to Learn at home. I still do spelling the traditional way, but a lot of schools do word study, which I hate. A lot of teachers do cursive after SOLs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are not allowed to assign homework over break in FCPS in elementary. It’s a big deal that it’s not allowed. Typing is supposed to be taught somewhat but there just isn’t time. Same for cursive. Ask the teacher, because they should have Type to Learn at home. I still do spelling the traditional way, but a lot of schools do word study, which I hate. A lot of teachers do cursive after SOLs.

If there is no time for cursive, typing, spelling or word study, why can't fcps just be up front about it. All of this is why I wish we had gone private. We just paid last summer to have someone teach our kids cursive and have had to sign our kids up for grammar and typing classes too. Days go by in school with no knowledge of what is being taught. No large class sizes either or special needs. Meanwhile the private schools fit all of this stuff into the school day. Makes me wonder.

[Anonymous]

There is Computer Solutions elective in middle school (FCPS). Part of the curriculum covers typing.