Should I send my kids to mathnasium?

[Anonymous]

I have 2 kids in 3rd and 5th grade AAP. I’ve recently realized that many of their classmates go to kumon or mathnasium. My 3rd grader seems to especially feel behind as he feels his classmates are more advanced than he is in math. Some kids claim to be doing algebra in 3rd grade. We recently moved to Mclean. I didn’t even know what mathnasium was until we moved here.

My 5th grader told me he is in the lowest AAP math group. He said his group is the one who did the worst in pre assessments. At open house, teachers were purposely vague about differentiation within AAP math. We have never prepped or done any outside math with our children. I’m beginning to think we should be doing something.

My 3rd grader recently took another pre assessment and he said he was dumb. He said he got only 4 questions right out of 20 while others were getting everything right. I told him this was for the teacher to see where everyone was at and DS said he was the dumbest kid in the class.

Both my kids scored 99th percentile in their math Cogat and have always received 4s in math.

Should I be sending my kids to mathnasium or similar?

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Is your school not following the AAP pacing guide? If your school is following the AAP pacing guide, then the math isn't that fast or complicated. Any bright child should be fine without mathnasium or kumon.

If they aren't following the pacing guide, I'd be asking them why?

[Anonymous]

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

Kumon let your child skip Calculus?wha?

[Anonymous]

The more math the better, if you can afford it. Kumon and Mathnasium are very different programs from one another. You’re going to have to pick one do it asap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Kumon let your child skip Calculus?wha?

Yeah...i’m curious about that too.

[Anonymous]

Mathnasium has been hugely helpful for our child. I can’t say enough good things about it.

Despite the time commitment, I’ve found that it makes school less less stressful. They learn the material on their own and at their own pace, which eventually means that the kids get quite ahead. Then, when the material shows up in class, they end up flying through it with no trouble. Mathnasium is always assessing them and looking for knowledge gaps they might have, so the kids end up with a much stronger foundation than they otherwise would have.

[Anonymous]

Much less stressful - sorry, typing on phone

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Kumon let your child skip Calculus?wha?

She learned Calculus at Kumon. Took AP exam, and her high school let her skip it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The more math the better, if you can afford it. Kumon and Mathnasium are very different programs from one another. You’re going to have to pick one do it asap.

Money is non-factor. It may be annoying to drive my kids to yet another activity.

Our kids already do a lot - sports, chess, Science Olympiad and piano.

[Anonymous]

For what it's worth, I recently asked my 17 year old niece whether she, in hindsight, thought that the Kumon she had done in elementary school had been helpful and she said that she really appreciated that it had given her a much better understanding of math than her classmates. That she was never confused, was able to understand what was going on, and it helped with homework and testing. This is all coming, by the way, from a teenager who is currently at a performing arts high school and plans to do that as a career. She doesn't need math at all, but she's glad she has the skills.

[Anonymous]

This is the most NoVa post I’ve ever seen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the most NoVa post I’ve ever seen.

+1

I've wondered what we're missing by going to a different pyramid than McLean. Now I know.