Reply to At what point is supplementing no longer sufficient?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We moved to be in great public school district in Bethesda, and I still supplemented during elementary school. This is because ALL private and public primary schools have to cater to the lowest common denominator in math and reading, otherwise these kids can't do the rest of their schooling. There is some differentiation in MCPS late elementary, but usually not enough: my son was pulled into a fun advanced spelling group at his home school, and my daughter went to the CES for 4th and 5th, a kind of magnet for elementary kids.

Then by middle school my kids were in advanced tracks and I focused more on extra curricular activities, instead of reading/math/cursive. What PP is missing is that to get to these advanced tracks, some kids do need a bit of outside help... my son needed it, my daughter did not (but I still supplemented, just for her own edification).

So plan on supplementing for all their elementary school years. And before middle school, figure out whether and where you'd like to move for better secondary education. If I were you, I'd stick to public, to keep your powder dry for college. The price of college is exorbitant. My son's private uni is 65K a year total cost of attendance, and in-state public is 30-40K - when your kids get there, it will be much higher.
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Same here in VA.  Live in a top-ranked pyramid in FCPS.  The ES always brags about being one of the best in the state.  Among our kids, we needed to supplement at a minimum phonics/spelling rules, grammar, handwriting, typing skills, and drilling math facts in all 4 operations.  In later elementary and middle, we also had to teach them basic study skills like techniques for memorizing information, how to plan/outline for writing an essay or other paper, how to take notes by hand, etc.  Occasionally, we had to teach them other math when it brushed over too quickly at school.  We also taught them geography because that's completely absent until AP history classes in HS.  We never had to do any reading instruction other than some phonics (which for us was more for spelling) because we read a ton to them at home and established good print reading habits in them, not because the school were in any way stellar at that.  The good news is by the time you get to HS, if you've laid these foundations, they can lean heavily into AP classes in which they're likely to learn a lot of content and reinforce all the foundational and study skills you've taught them.  [/quote]

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