Anonymous wrote:Incidentally, kids who excel at foreign language are forced to take 2nd languages at Deal, which stinks if you're not interested.

I'd much rather have my kid master the tough Asian language we speak at home (tested at AP level but not taught at an appropriate level at Deal) than to be crappy in Spanish, which Deal tried to force DC to take, and the tough Asian language.

We home school in the Asian language, a form of supplementing. We challenged over the 3rd language, were hassled a lot in return, but ultimately prevailed and were left alone to aspire to bilingualism vs. trilingualism.

Anonymous wrote:Bumping up again to raise the question of what people do to supplement. A poster on the Deal/DCI thread mentioned spending 10K/year on supplements, what do parents actually do to supplement?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Incidentally, kids who excel at foreign language are forced to take 2nd languages at Deal, which stinks if you're not interested.

I'd much rather have my kid master the tough Asian language we speak at home (tested at AP level but not taught at an appropriate level at Deal) than to be crappy in Spanish, which Deal tried to force DC to take, and the tough Asian language.

We home school in the Asian language, a form of supplementing. We challenged over the 3rd language, were hassled a lot in return, but ultimately prevailed and were left alone to aspire to bilingualism vs. trilingualism.

That is a tiny problem for a limited number of individuals, and they let you have your way. Yet you complain?

Yes, we got our way, after asking for help from the DCPS Chief Student Advocate and DC Public School Ombudman, fabulous ladies. The Deal admins and DCPS World Languages senior people we dealt with were total rednecks about language acquisition. Didn't have a clue what we were talking about, didn't care, and were truly obnoxious.

We should all complain about how poorly DCPS is run compared to the other school systems in our Metro area from time to time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Incidentally, kids who excel at foreign language are forced to take 2nd languages at Deal, which stinks if you're not interested.

I'd much rather have my kid master the tough Asian language we speak at home (tested at AP level but not taught at an appropriate level at Deal) than to be crappy in Spanish, which Deal tried to force DC to take, and the tough Asian language.

We home school in the Asian language, a form of supplementing. We challenged over the 3rd language, were hassled a lot in return, but ultimately prevailed and were left alone to aspire to bilingualism vs. trilingualism.

That is a tiny problem for a limited number of individuals, and they let you have your way. Yet you complain?

Yes, we got our way, after asking for help from the DCPS Chief Student Advocate and DC Public School Ombudman, fabulous ladies. The Deal admins and DCPS World Languages senior people we dealt with were total rednecks about language acquisition. Didn't have a clue what we were talking about, didn't care, and were truly obnoxious.

We should all complain about how poorly DCPS is run compared to the other school systems in our Metro area from time to time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yikes, I never realized I may need to supplement. My kids are EOTP in K and 2nd. They read every day on their own. We go to the library or book store often (more often the library now that they are reading more). We read to them (Roal Dahl, Harry Potter, graphic novels, etc) and listen to audiobooks in the car. We limit screen time (none on weekdays, limited on weekends). One kid take music lessons. They play sports. We play a ton of board games (Azul, Ticket to Ride, Catan, etc). Sometimes they do math workbooks if they want (I need to refresh our workbook supply). We do a lot of arts and crafts. We go to museums and hikes on weekends. We talk about the world around us and far away from us. I try to teach gratitude for what we have and how lucky we are.

Now that I've written that out, I feel at peace with not "supplementing" more.

Yes, because your kids are little and, presumably, attend a decent DCPS or charter EOTP.

Wait until 4th or 5th grade, when you can see that the curriculum isn't teaching them to write a grammatical and properly spelled and punctuated paragraph, or much at all in the way of social studies. It's common for UMC parents in DCPS to start to hire tutors and pay for academic camps in the upper grades, no matter what else is true.

My kids are at Deal. No supplementing here. They’re learning to read critically and write persuasively. They’re getting strong history/geography/world cultures instruction. They’re challenged in math. They get foreign language instruction every day. They have a reasonable amount of homework (and sometimes not much at all, which I love).

You're kidding yourself about some of this, PP. They definitely aren't getting strong social studies instruction at Deal. If they're challenged in math, they're not great at math. Foreign language instruction every day, I'll give you that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Incidentally, kids who excel at foreign language are forced to take 2nd languages at Deal, which stinks if you're not interested.

I'd much rather have my kid master the tough Asian language we speak at home (tested at AP level but not taught at an appropriate level at Deal) than to be crappy in Spanish, which Deal tried to force DC to take, and the tough Asian language.

We home school in the Asian language, a form of supplementing. We challenged over the 3rd language, were hassled a lot in return, but ultimately prevailed and were left alone to aspire to bilingualism vs. trilingualism.

That is a tiny problem for a limited number of individuals, and they let you have your way. Yet you complain?

This sounds a lot like the same smug tone of the YY hater (nope, don't have kids there, but have read the YY threads).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Incidentally, kids who excel at foreign language are forced to take 2nd languages at Deal, which stinks if you're not interested.

I'd much rather have my kid master the tough Asian language we speak at home (tested at AP level but not taught at an appropriate level at Deal) than to be crappy in Spanish, which Deal tried to force DC to take, and the tough Asian language.

We home school in the Asian language, a form of supplementing. We challenged over the 3rd language, were hassled a lot in return, but ultimately prevailed and were left alone to aspire to bilingualism vs. trilingualism.

That is a tiny problem for a limited number of individuals, and they let you have your way. Yet you complain?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Incidentally, kids who excel at foreign language are forced to take 2nd languages at Deal, which stinks if you're not interested.

I'd much rather have my kid master the tough Asian language we speak at home (tested at AP level but not taught at an appropriate level at Deal) than to be crappy in Spanish, which Deal tried to force DC to take, and the tough Asian language.

We home school in the Asian language, a form of supplementing. We challenged over the 3rd language, were hassled a lot in return, but ultimately prevailed and were left alone to aspire to bilingualism vs. trilingualism.

That is a tiny problem for a limited number of individuals, and they let you have your way. Yet you complain?

Anonymous wrote:Incidentally, kids who excel at foreign language are forced to take 2nd languages at Deal, which stinks if you're not interested.

I'd much rather have my kid master the tough Asian language we speak at home (tested at AP level but not taught at an appropriate level at Deal) than to be crappy in Spanish, which Deal tried to force DC to take, and the tough Asian language.

We home school in the Asian language, a form of supplementing. We challenged over the 3rd language, were hassled a lot in return, but ultimately prevailed and were left alone to aspire to bilingualism vs. trilingualism.