Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We pay $$$ for the McLean summer reading and writing intensives. They also offer a math intensive, but even their “learning leaps” camps are enough to avoid the summer slide but a HUGE step above the MCPS summer offerings for elementary.

We also pay for private instrument lessons since 30 minutes a week at school is barely enough time to learn anything.

Lastly, we supplement with a lot of outside physical activities since McPS doesn’t even meet the state required minimum for PE. Swimming, karate, gymnastics, etc are what my kid enjoys

Activities and music are not supplementing.

They mean workbooks, online stuff, tutoring, etc.

Anonymous wrote:My kids both needed a Math tutor. We were told when they were in 3rd grade at Bradley Hills ES that every kid in the class had one. My math skills are next to zero and my husband works long hours. We needed someone to help with homework and go over the concepts that had been more challenging, that I definitely could not comment on.

Both kids are graduating HS this year. Both are straight A students with offers for top colleges in hand.

Anonymous wrote:We pay $$$ for the McLean summer reading and writing intensives. They also offer a math intensive, but even their “learning leaps” camps are enough to avoid the summer slide but a HUGE step above the MCPS summer offerings for elementary.

We also pay for private instrument lessons since 30 minutes a week at school is barely enough time to learn anything.

Lastly, we supplement with a lot of outside physical activities since McPS doesn’t even meet the state required minimum for PE. Swimming, karate, gymnastics, etc are what my kid enjoys

Anonymous wrote:Supplement by exploring the world, not with workbooks and apps, and encourage reading.

Interested in Space? Visit the Smithsonian Air and Soace Museum and plan a trip to Cape Canaveral. Interested in History? Visit Gettysburg and some historic homes. Dinosaurs? Natural History Museum and go fossil hunting (there's a place in MD, am blanking on the name). When you travel, don't just visit the hotel pool, visit cultural sites.

We have 1 out of college and 2 in college, all successful/on the road to success and we never did workbooks or allowed apps. In fact, limit technology as much as you can without impinging on their social life as they get older. We never allowed and still never allow phones during a meal, and all phones and computers and all electronic devices were not allowed in bedrooms overnight.

Anonymous wrote:I know that lots of families supplement at home. It has never been a priority for us but I'm curious to hear and think about the arguments for why to do it.

Also, how does supplementing actually typically work? Are there ways to do it that are actually fun for kids who don't find academics inherently interesting, or is it just a matter of pushing them to do it like you would tell them to do their chores?

(In our case, my 3rd grader is bright but not highly gifted. Test scores generally fluctuate in the 65th-85th percentile range... my gut is that she has the capacity to be consistently in the high 80s/low 90s if she was continuously exposed to new, challenging content. She is not very interested in academics (although she does love to read and write) so I expect it would be a struggle to get her to do more math/etc unless I can find her really fun apps/games with learning built in or something similar. This is top of mind a little more as we head towards the ELC and compacted math selection process, and I'm wondering whether our lack of supplementing might mean she misses out on those due to her MAP scores even if she might benefit from them, and whether a lot of the other families in the grade are likely to be supplementing while we're not...)