Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. Have them read more challenging books and over time it should self correct.

People always say that and it's absolutely not been my experience. Our FCPS school doesn't teach spelling or basic rules. My DCs read non-stop and can't spell to save their lives. They have different strengths and weaknesses in other academic areas, but the spelling difficulties are shared.

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. Have them read more challenging books and over time it should self correct.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate rules (and I love grammar), too; however, in my opinion, the fact that they aren't learning it the way we did hasn't adversely impacted their ability to write. My older kids had to take a grammar quiz prior to the start of middle school and I was worried they would fail since they had never taken a formal grammar class; however, they aced it and now, as high schoolers, continue to write well.

Since you have high schoolers you have no idea what's happening in elementary schools right now. It has changed dramatically even in that short time frame.

Anonymous wrote:If you’re looking for a supplement and don’t mind Mennonite content, Rod and Staff publishes VERY thorough grammar books for grades 2-10. They are cheap (around $10) and really well done, covering things like writing from notes, outlining, poetry as well as diagramming, parts of speech, verb tenses, etc.

You can view samples and purchase at milestonebooks.com.

My kid is similar to yours and having explicit grammar instruction really helped because then I could say, “you need an active verb instead of a participle” and she would get it and make the change, rather than relying on “that doesn’t sound right, does it?” which did not always work for my kid.

Alternatively if you plan for your child to take an inflected language (Latin, Russian, Ancient Greek) in middle and high school, they will learn more than anyone ever wanted to know about grammar because all the words in the sentence change based on their role in the sentence - so that may help too if you want to wait a bit.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grammar and parts of speech are pretty easy to supplement with Khan Academy and Bee Star, if you are so inclined.

Yes, I will supplement, but that is not the point. This is the most basic thing that the school should be able to do.

The education industry follows whatever trend is fashionable, and the currently the trend is to not explicitly teach most of the basics. The idea is that is better for kids to pick things up naturally, through osmosis. From the school's perspective, this seems to work for many kids. Of course, behind the scenes, the kids for whom this is "working" are generally those whose parents are now either doing the explicit teaching at home or are driving them to one of the many tutoring centers that have opened up since the fad seized hold.

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. Have them read more challenging books and over time it should self correct.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grammar and parts of speech are pretty easy to supplement with Khan Academy and Bee Star, if you are so inclined.

Yes, I will supplement, but that is not the point. This is the most basic thing that the school should be able to do.

The education industry follows whatever trend is fashionable, and the currently the trend is to not explicitly teach most of the basics. The idea is that is better for kids to pick things up naturally, through osmosis. From the school's perspective, this seems to work for many kids. Of course, behind the scenes, the kids for whom this is "working" are generally those whose parents are now either doing the explicit teaching at home or are driving them to one of the many tutoring centers that have opened up since the fad seized hold.

This trend is pointless and contrary to how little kid brains work. Who comes up with this stuff? My kindergartener was being taught to guess at quote hard words like “cake” today. There’s an easy phonics rule for that - why guess? Meanwhile I’m sitting at home teaching phonics. Maddening.

Don’t even get me started on word study lists versus teaching spelling phonetically.

Which district is not teaching phonetics? My kid's at DCPS and they have had explicit phonics instruction all along, combined with sight words, from K into at least second grade.

Our FCPS doesn’t. Based on the wide flexibility given to principals in FCPS, other schools might.

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. Have them read more challenging books and over time it should self correct.

Anonymous wrote:This is a big reason we plan to pay for private school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grammar and parts of speech are pretty easy to supplement with Khan Academy and Bee Star, if you are so inclined.

Yes, I will supplement, but that is not the point. This is the most basic thing that the school should be able to do.

The education industry follows whatever trend is fashionable, and the currently the trend is to not explicitly teach most of the basics. The idea is that is better for kids to pick things up naturally, through osmosis. From the school's perspective, this seems to work for many kids. Of course, behind the scenes, the kids for whom this is "working" are generally those whose parents are now either doing the explicit teaching at home or are driving them to one of the many tutoring centers that have opened up since the fad seized hold.

This trend is pointless and contrary to how little kid brains work. Who comes up with this stuff? My kindergartener was being taught to guess at quote hard words like “cake” today. There’s an easy phonics rule for that - why guess? Meanwhile I’m sitting at home teaching phonics. Maddening.

Don’t even get me started on word study lists versus teaching spelling phonetically.

Which district is not teaching phonetics? My kid's at DCPS and they have had explicit phonics instruction all along, combined with sight words, from K into at least second grade.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grammar and parts of speech are pretty easy to supplement with Khan Academy and Bee Star, if you are so inclined.

Yes, I will supplement, but that is not the point. This is the most basic thing that the school should be able to do.

The education industry follows whatever trend is fashionable, and the currently the trend is to not explicitly teach most of the basics. The idea is that is better for kids to pick things up naturally, through osmosis. From the school's perspective, this seems to work for many kids. Of course, behind the scenes, the kids for whom this is "working" are generally those whose parents are now either doing the explicit teaching at home or are driving them to one of the many tutoring centers that have opened up since the fad seized hold.

This trend is pointless and contrary to how little kid brains work. Who comes up with this stuff? My kindergartener was being taught to guess at quote hard words like “cake” today. There’s an easy phonics rule for that - why guess? Meanwhile I’m sitting at home teaching phonics. Maddening.

Don’t even get me started on word study lists versus teaching spelling phonetically.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grammar and parts of speech are pretty easy to supplement with Khan Academy and Bee Star, if you are so inclined.

Yes, I will supplement, but that is not the point. This is the most basic thing that the school should be able to do.

The education industry follows whatever trend is fashionable, and the currently the trend is to not explicitly teach most of the basics. The idea is that is better for kids to pick things up naturally, through osmosis. From the school's perspective, this seems to work for many kids. Of course, behind the scenes, the kids for whom this is "working" are generally those whose parents are now either doing the explicit teaching at home or are driving them to one of the many tutoring centers that have opened up since the fad seized hold.