Prepping is what other parents do to get their borderline children into the AAP/GT programs. Good parenting is what I do because my child is naturally gifted.

NP:

Good parenting is what other parents do to prepare and prep their children for the long haul. But, prepping at the eleventh hour will not garner your mediocre children a place in AAP/GT.

Prepping is what other parents do to get their borderline children into the AAP/GT programs. Good parenting is what I do because my child is naturally gifted.

Prepping is only what we can catch the other parents and children doing even while we and our children prep undercover hoping we don't get caught so we can look and appear smart -- no sweat.

a prepped kid is typically a boring, not particularly creative child, from the one's I've met. the word "stepford" typically springs to mind.

Some of the most creative individuals I have met were well prepped and prepared!

Prepping is engaging in activities that have no intrinsic value beyond getting a certain score. Taking your kiddo to children's theater in Alexandria, to see the Nutcracker at Christmas, taking music lessons, pottery, building, etc. is not prepping because the kid gets an experience that makes them a more well-rounded person. THe same cannot be said for spending a summer day inside doing workbooks.

Prepped kids end up less interesting and the group as a whole suffers since they contribute less to a classroom environment in terms of ideas, enthusiasm, etc. The little girl who makes up a song is contributing in class in a way that the boy who recites the multiplication tables to impress the teacher, while not being able to tell you which number is larger -- 35 or 42 -- does not. But we all know who will get into the gifted program.

I specifically prepped for my music exam to get a good grade by going to see the Nutcracker at christmas. I correctly anticipated the music test would cover this work. It did and I aced the test. i am glad I prepped for this.

I don't think "prepping" is the issue. I think it's how you do it and the impact it has on your kid.

We don't do workbooks, but we do prep quite a bit. We play a ton of games, sing a lot of songs and read for meaning - while covering the same items in a workbook.

Yesterday, I handed my child her play shopping card and asked her to fill the cart with items that start with the letter "s". I was surprised at how many items she found - one's I hadn't even considered. Her cart was overflowing, I had moved on to something else, and she was still searching for "S" items.

Then we played a game where I started to write a letter on her blackboard and she had to guess what letter it was before I finished. Then she did the same and I guessed the letter.

I also encourage her to draw and "write" (letter to Grandma, picture of what she did that day, etc). She "signs" (writes) her name on her artwork and writes alphabet letters in her letter to Grandma.

So, we cover the same things as a workbook just in a different way. My daughter loves it and begs for another "game" (lesson).

Baloney. Children have different skill sets and strengths. The manner in which we learn and interrogate and interact with the outside world is highly variable...as is our individual senses. Some of us are more visual, audio centric, tactile, and verbal than others. Some of us are literally blind, deaf, or dumb. While workbooks work for some, shopping carts may work for others, online computing for others, and audio lessons for yet others. Some use a combination of a variety of methods to optimize learning. The key is to learn with approaches that work best with you.

Why should you worry about the learning style or methods of others if your approach is working for your own child? Workbooks (however you define this reading material) have worked effectively for many? I suspect with the digital age kids will even be using their computers as eWorkbooks for learning exercises and simulation for learning purposes!

Don't be too rigid. The plastic brain isn't...only the adult skull.

Why

OP here. We are Asian-American. I know I am not a Tiger Mom. We do spend time teaching my child how to read and write. Some of those materials include workbooks. I'm thinking other people will think that I prep my children.

DH and I are both ivy league educated. We studied for our SATs, GMATs and MCATs. Don't think our parents prepped us for tests to get us into honors classes. I was always on an advanced math track but don't think I had honors classes until middle school. We are from out of state.

In court, one can usually smell a lie a mile away from those whose lives were devoted to prep from an early stage!

...A Judge

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As is obvious from the variations in the PP there is no definition. Even Urban Dictionary does not try. Peruse the posts.....

Kumon: Yes and no
Workbooks: Yes and no.
Music lessons: Yes and no
Supplementing: Yes and no.
Tutors: Yes and No.
Tiger Moms & Dads: Oh Yes, Yes, Yes (whatever that means either.

The term barely exists outside DCUM.

Basically, since no one wants to be labeled racist, it's code for high achieving minorities (mostly Asian, but it helps rationalize Ben Carson, Herman Cain and similar others too).

Best definition so far....

OP here. We are Asian-American. I know I am not a Tiger Mom. We do spend time teaching my child how to read and write. Some of those materials include workbooks. I'm thinking other people will think that I prep my children.

DH and I are both ivy league educated. We studied for our SATs, GMATs and MCATs. Don't think our parents prepped us for tests to get us into honors classes. I was always on an advanced math track but don't think I had honors classes until middle school. We are from out of state.

Anonymous wrote:As is obvious from the variations in the PP there is no definition. Even Urban Dictionary does not try. Peruse the posts.....

Kumon: Yes and no
Workbooks: Yes and no.
Music lessons: Yes and no
Supplementing: Yes and no.
Tutors: Yes and No.
Tiger Moms & Dads: Oh Yes, Yes, Yes (whatever that means either.

The term barely exists outside DCUM.

Basically, since no one wants to be labeled racist, it's code for high achieving minorities (mostly Asian, but it helps rationalize Ben Carson, Herman Cain and similar others too).

Best definition so far....

Anonymous wrote:I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description "prepped", and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so.

But I know it when I see it.

And you matter?

I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description "prepped", and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so.

But I know it when I see it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my kid's kindergarten class, on the free writing exercise on Mondays, there are kids whose parents have taught them three specific sentences and who have spent the weekend practicing those sentences. It defeats the point of the exercise which is for kids to sound out words and try to write them down, to struggle a bit, etc.

Wow. Are parents really doing this? That is messed up.

Would not surprise me. I have a brother who has drilled his kids so much in writing: "Write 5 sentences before you can play on vacation," etc., that I'm quite sure he's in danger of making them hate it. I'm constantly amazed at what some parents will do to keep their kids from ever struggling to work anything out themselves.

The two examples seem materially different. I personally require my kids from first grade on to do at least a few minutes (5-10) of writing several times a week unless they have a lot of homework, and most days in the summer, because I'm dissatisfied with how the school teaches writing. But I wouldn't prepare my kindergarten child's free writing sentences -- that defeats the entire point and it's at least somewhat dishonest.

Do you require them to do 5-10 minutes of art as well? I'm a writer and my husband is a writer and we would never force our kids to write anything. It ain't math and forced practice is a very good way to give your kids hang-ups about writing, not make them better writers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who cares if a parent is taking their child to Kumon and having them practice an instrument? Are you really outraged on behalf of that child or are you just upset because it doesn't align with the childhood you're giving your own child. It shouldn't matter to you.

+1.

Sending kids to Kumon is not prepping/cheating on the exams.

OP here. I did plan on sending my kid to kumon or similar at some point. He is only 5 now. Maybe when he is 6 or 7.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly, you are right. All of the education theorists have no idea what they are talking about and surely as a parent you know
more than all of them do:
http://www.teacherlibrarian.com/2014/06/18/educational-makerspaces/

You can listen to education theorists .......... or you can examine the results achieved by involved parents who devote the time and effort to be actively involved in the education of their children without delegating the task in its entirety to teachers, schools and everyone except themselves.

Be involved in your children's education, provide structure, maintain expectations commensurate with a child's ability, provide structure and the odds are your children will do very well.

The best quote in the entire thread......

Anonymous wrote:Clearly, you are right. All of the education theorists have no idea what they are talking about and surely as a parent you know
more than all of them do:
http://www.teacherlibrarian.com/2014/06/18/educational-makerspaces/

You can listen to education theorists .......... or you can examine the results achieved by involved parents who devote the time and effort to be actively involved in the education of their children without delegating the task in its entirety to teachers, schools and everyone except themselves.

Be involved in your children's education, provide structure, maintain expectations commensurate with a child's ability, provide structure and the odds are your children will do very well.

Anonymous wrote:Clearly, you are right. All of the education theorists have no idea what they are talking about and surely as a parent you know
more than all of them do:
http://www.teacherlibrarian.com/2014/06/18/educational-makerspaces/

Not the PP but if the article you referenced is not from the Onion, then yeah, I know more than they do. Maybe not all, but surely the authors. Bizarre.