Anonymous wrote:I think supporting your kids in learning to read, and developing a love of reading, is a parent's job. I don't think that means you have to use a formal curriculum before or during K. Reading with your kids and practicing sounding words out will get most kids there eventually. It's important to make reading enjoyable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but most people do it before K. So then in K they can pick up whatever the school does teach.

My oldest was a covid K kid, and we homeschooled and then went to private for 1st and 2nd. He could read at age 4. Started my second in public K, but had learned to teach her before then. So, I can say that private schools are generally much better at teaching reading than public, but in both cases you should do it at home before starting K.

MOST people do NOT do this before K. You must live in some crazy DCUM bubble.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid goes to a "top public" and I consider myself basically at 30-50% homeschool. I taught him to read in K, supplemented with math over 1st grade summer, and now have had to add some spelling book work into the mix. He goes to outside math now, since his 2nd grade teacher shared a curriculum link that explained that they are only expected to add within 20 by the end of the year, and "recognize" three digit numbers. At some point we will have to add writing. I assume most other parents have not read the curriculum details, because many are not doing additional math. I am horrified, and I went to a crappy public.

We were in a similar situation, and after years of saving our kids are now at private. It's not even a top private, and the difference is night and day. My kids were in advanced math and the math in public is the only thing that is close to the regular track our private offers (and our private also offers some math acceleration, though probably not enough for the most advanced kids).

At one point my H said, "If we just send them to private, will you stop supplementing so much?" and I was like "YES!" and it has been true.

I would love to know what workbooks or resources they use in private. Do they use Chromebooks/iPads in elementary school?

No regular Chromebook or iPad useage. Typing during library (sometimes, many weeks they do a readaloud) and there is a computer cart that comes around sometimes for a special occasion, but that's not really different than when I was in elementary in the 90s and trips to the library to play Oregon Trail were a big deal. There is some computer use they suggest you do at home. The recommended computer usage is for typing practice. They also somewhat encourage websites for math fact practice (either Xtramath or Math Fact Lab) at home, but for math facts they also say you can do flashcards or a non-computer review option instead.

Spelling comes from Houghton Mifflin, as does vocabulary. Grammar is Easy Grammar (and the joke is that Easy Grammar is far from easy) and the related Daily Grams. Since my kids are too old for learn-to-read type curricula I don't know what they use for that. Upper elementary reading is a whole class novel study with pretty impressive comprehension and analysis done afterwards. Writing is different units, but there's much more formal instruction on how to do different types of writing than we're used to from public and also a lot more five paragraph essay type work. I don't know if there's a base curriculum - I don't see one if there is. Math is Singapore. Science has possibly been the biggest positive surprise - they do a ton of hands on labs! No idea where the science teacher gets them from, unfortunately. They aren't different than the kinds of things you can find on Pinterest, it's just that now my kids do them during the school day instead of over the summer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid goes to a "top public" and I consider myself basically at 30-50% homeschool. I taught him to read in K, supplemented with math over 1st grade summer, and now have had to add some spelling book work into the mix. He goes to outside math now, since his 2nd grade teacher shared a curriculum link that explained that they are only expected to add within 20 by the end of the year, and "recognize" three digit numbers. At some point we will have to add writing. I assume most other parents have not read the curriculum details, because many are not doing additional math. I am horrified, and I went to a crappy public.

We were in a similar situation, and after years of saving our kids are now at private. It's not even a top private, and the difference is night and day. My kids were in advanced math and the math in public is the only thing that is close to the regular track our private offers (and our private also offers some math acceleration, though probably not enough for the most advanced kids).

At one point my H said, "If we just send them to private, will you stop supplementing so much?" and I was like "YES!" and it has been true.

I would love to know what workbooks or resources they use in private. Do they use Chromebooks/iPads in elementary school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid goes to a "top public" and I consider myself basically at 30-50% homeschool. I taught him to read in K, supplemented with math over 1st grade summer, and now have had to add some spelling book work into the mix. He goes to outside math now, since his 2nd grade teacher shared a curriculum link that explained that they are only expected to add within 20 by the end of the year, and "recognize" three digit numbers. At some point we will have to add writing. I assume most other parents have not read the curriculum details, because many are not doing additional math. I am horrified, and I went to a crappy public.

We were in a similar situation, and after years of saving our kids are now at private. It's not even a top private, and the difference is night and day. My kids were in advanced math and the math in public is the only thing that is close to the regular track our private offers (and our private also offers some math acceleration, though probably not enough for the most advanced kids).

At one point my H said, "If we just send them to private, will you stop supplementing so much?" and I was like "YES!" and it has been true.

I would love to know what workbooks or resources they use in private. Do they use Chromebooks/iPads in elementary school?

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but most people do it before K. So then in K they can pick up whatever the school does teach.

My oldest was a covid K kid, and we homeschooled and then went to private for 1st and 2nd. He could read at age 4. Started my second in public K, but had learned to teach her before then. So, I can say that private schools are generally much better at teaching reading than public, but in both cases you should do it at home before starting K.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid goes to a "top public" and I consider myself basically at 30-50% homeschool. I taught him to read in K, supplemented with math over 1st grade summer, and now have had to add some spelling book work into the mix. He goes to outside math now, since his 2nd grade teacher shared a curriculum link that explained that they are only expected to add within 20 by the end of the year, and "recognize" three digit numbers. At some point we will have to add writing. I assume most other parents have not read the curriculum details, because many are not doing additional math. I am horrified, and I went to a crappy public.

We were in a similar situation, and after years of saving our kids are now at private. It's not even a top private, and the difference is night and day. My kids were in advanced math and the math in public is the only thing that is close to the regular track our private offers (and our private also offers some math acceleration, though probably not enough for the most advanced kids).

At one point my H said, "If we just send them to private, will you stop supplementing so much?" and I was like "YES!" and it has been true.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid goes to a "top public" and I consider myself basically at 30-50% homeschool. I taught him to read in K, supplemented with math over 1st grade summer, and now have had to add some spelling book work into the mix. He goes to outside math now, since his 2nd grade teacher shared a curriculum link that explained that they are only expected to add within 20 by the end of the year, and "recognize" three digit numbers. At some point we will have to add writing. I assume most other parents have not read the curriculum details, because many are not doing additional math. I am horrified, and I went to a crappy public.

We were in a similar situation, and after years of saving our kids are now at private. It's not even a top private, and the difference is night and day. My kids were in advanced math and the math in public is the only thing that is close to the regular track our private offers (and our private also offers some math acceleration, though probably not enough for the most advanced kids).

At one point my H said, "If we just send them to private, will you stop supplementing so much?" and I was like "YES!" and it has been true.

Anonymous wrote:My kid goes to a "top public" and I consider myself basically at 30-50% homeschool. I taught him to read in K, supplemented with math over 1st grade summer, and now have had to add some spelling book work into the mix. He goes to outside math now, since his 2nd grade teacher shared a curriculum link that explained that they are only expected to add within 20 by the end of the year, and "recognize" three digit numbers. At some point we will have to add writing. I assume most other parents have not read the curriculum details, because many are not doing additional math. I am horrified, and I went to a crappy public.

Anonymous wrote:Our MCPS 3rd grader got phonics in kindergarten, but they never sent anything home about it; they just covered it at school. We never did any formal reading instruction at home, and our kid learned to read just fine and is a very good (and avid) reader now. I wouldn't assume you need to do more than read to your kid and model reading as a pastime.

Anonymous wrote:Former teacher and MCPS parent. I had to teach my third grader to read myself and bought a bunch of phonics books and drilled it into her in kindergarten, first and second because their old curriculum (Benchmark) was total crap. It taught the kids to guess words based on the picture and other garbage strategies to learn to read that are not grounded in evidence. My kid entered K knowing all letters and their sounds and some sight words and learned nothing from the Benchmark curriculum. It was a joke - instead of simple Bob type books to learn to sound out words she would come home with complex stories and paragraphs they expected the kindergarteners to guess read.

Half way through the kindergarten year I took control and got her additional support in school through the reading specialist who uses RGR and did nightly sessions with her that she cried through sometimes, but she is reading very well now. It’s absolutely ridiculous that MCPS ever used the Benchmark literacy curriculum and they screwed a generation of kids whose parents did not have the resources I did to teach their child.

I’m somewhat pleased about CKLA but the texts in 3rd are super dry, old fashioned, and boring. And they don’t read long form texts or books as a group from what I can gather which is also problematic, but at least they are using phonics now.

Anonymous wrote:We worked on it, but could not do it on our own.

Luckily, DD goes to a private school with a phonics-based program and goes to tutoring 3 times a week. She has dyslexia.

For the 10-20% of kids with dyslexia, parents can’t just teach them.