The only people I know who have tutors have learning disabilities/are struggling.

Anonymous wrote:Kids in HGC and Middle School
magnet, and nope- no tutor. Ridiculous!

+1.
I can see hiring a tutor if your child has a learning disability you are not qualified to help her with or if she is having a lot of trouble in one specific subject (Math, a foreign language) or if it is a high school level class but it sounds like the OP's kid is young and the parents are highly educated. Perhaps they don't have the time and they have the resources to hire a tutor.
The other possibility is that with some of the C2 Math courses, they don't have textbooks this year. DS takes Algebra next year and I am really hoping they will have a textbook by then. He brought a textbook home for 4th, 5th and now for 6th grade IM and I'm sure that helps. It might be difficult for some students who are learning Algebra this year without textbooks and with teachers who are teaching the new curriculum for the first time.
He is in a magnet middle school and I do not help unless he asks for help. I always offer to help to look over the writing assignments or listen to the presentations but he does not usually like me to help. I always ask what he is working on everyday and check to make sure homework is completed etc. but I don't usually look at the work myself unless he wants me to.

No tutors but me and my husband feel we are educated enough to tackle the basics (I agree that I don't understand some of the schemes for solving problems but figure at this point, it is about learning and understanding the concepts).

We have done a bunch of things and have switched it up to make it interesting. Started with Kumon and the old Jumpstart games. Kumon was too repetitive and jumpstart games are now more play than learn. Moved on to mathsplash on the iphone and and Math Whizz (heard IXL was focused on drills). Husband has a science background so he does manipulatives with them once a week (like base 10 blocks or practice with money).

For reading, we just read with them a lot which I think is no different than other parents. When they were young, we did the bob books and we are now trying this Teach Your Child to Read with the younger one that is working well. Writing, we have the older one write a short paragraph a week on a topic of his choice.

Basically, some type of extra lesson every few days plus reading at night. The computer games are fun so they ask for them and it keeps the screen time somewhat educational!

I think our children would be fine without the lessons but we don't see that they hurt. Both kids are ahead and if we didn't do the lessons, they would just slide back to the on-grade level learning so we feel that since they are ready and absorbing, we should keep it going.

OP, can you tell us--what is the school OR neighborhood OR cluster where every one has a tutor?

Maybe I need to hire a tutor to find out?

Anonymous wrote:No on I know has a tutor and yes we are in MCPS

That should say "no one"

No on I know has a tutor and yes we are in MCPS

For those who can't figure out the Common Core, Khan Academy could be a good place to do some drilling on how to support their kids...for free.

https://www.khanacademy.org/commoncore/#map

Hadn't even heard of IXL before this thread (we have checked out Khan Academy but don't push it on the kid).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope, two students in elementary school in MCPS and no tutors. So we don't ALL require tutors. And no, I don't wish we had tutors. On the other hand, if $80/hour is the going rate, maybe I'll start tutoring.

You're only marketable if you know the curriculum inside out... in other words, you're an MCPS employee.

Nah, I'll just advertise my bargain rate of $70/hour.

But OP, really? You pay a MCPS teacher $80/hour to teach your son handwriting, math facts, and spelling?

Yes, in addition to deciphering the curriculum-based HW assignments and helping him prepare for quizzes. Some of my friends pay $100/hr. I think I'm getting a pretty good deal.

*jaw drops*

OP, do you live in Bethesda/Potomac? Bethesda/Potomac is not representative of the rest of the county.

Oh just wait until SAT time comes. Parents she'll out $200-$300 for private tutors.

Just going to the zoo is not enrichment. Neither is watching Sesame Street. These are healthy and fun activities but they are not the same type of enrichment which basically replaces what the school should be doing but isn't.

Every single student who is doing well at school, is doing so because there is enrichment at home.

It could be a parent teaching, Kumon, a tutor, other enrichment opportunities - trips to museum, exposed to parents occupation, camps, trips, vacations, etc.

Even if you are subscribing to magazines for kids or taking them to the zoo - it is enrichment.

Those who do not have the time or the expertise - hire tutors.


I do not believe that MCPS is doing a poor job as compared to other school districts, but I do believe that having highly educated parents, high HHI and high SES, a large number if expats in this area, has resulted in more academic enrichment/imtervention in this area.

The weekend foreign school programs cover writing in the child's native language which is important. Speaking the language at home is not enough. They also include math using the method of the home country which considering the US is 31st in math, are superior.

IXL or Singapore is great for math and cheap. Writing is better done by a tutor but you need to find a very good tutor. I agree with the PP that said the MCPS teachers don't ask much of the students. Did they write 3 sentences? Yep, check mark its a P. There is very little substantive feedback or guidance on improving their writing. The only goal is to make sure that the majority of the class included the basic 3 elements that they were presented per 2.0 guidelines.

I don't think parents are shortchanging their kids but MCPS is shortchanging them.

I can't believe people are paying $80-100/hr for tutors. Seriously, can I get in on that? Or is this just one of those threads engineered to make other parents feel inadequate? If your kid needs extra help, then it's great you can afford to hire it. But I don't think there's any need to suggest to parents they're shortchanging their kids if they don't shell out. I have two HGC kids, no tutors besides me, and we live in Bethesda. No Kumon or "prep" courses either. IXL is cheap at $99/year, and Khan Academy is free.

Anonymous wrote:

^^^and I can think of a lot of ways to get children interested in learning for its own sake, that aren't "all day foreign language school program on the weekends that are really "day long courses in math, writing, and other subjects using the child's native language".

(Plus, "the child's native language"? It seems to me that "the parent's native language" would be more accurate, in most cases.)

This post is offensive. It is the child's native language and retaining cultural heritage or being able to converse with extended family members is very important to many first generation families. Americans are short sighted toward the need to be bi-lingual.

These school programs offer challenging work not found in the schools and children feel pride when they accomplish something after working for it. Children do not respect skating by or doing nothing in school.

But this has nothing to do with the need to be bilingual. In fact, as it happens, I grew up bilingual, in the US. The question is: if a child is born in the US and grows up speaking Hindi/Korean/Mandarin/Finnish/Hebrew/Spanish at home and English almost everywhere else, what is the child's native language?