Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Math education in the US is awful. I don’t know what happened but yes, you need to supplement.

What’s the point then, if isn’t necessary to succeed here?

Everyone needs basic math. The kids who excel at math will probably be in a field where they use it.

Anonymous wrote:Do you mean a page out of a workbook a day at home, or going to Kumon twice a week?

You go to Kumon twice a week but you also are given work the other 5 days a week to do at home, so it ends up being a program that is 365 days out of the year. So the student who is doing 15-30 minutes a day of extra math from Kumon for 3-4 years is going to get ahead regardless of intelligence.

So let's say an average of 20 minutes x 360 days a year (5 days off for holidays) = 120 hours a year, which is probably how much math instruction a student gets at school in a year. So a student can conceivably advance twice as fast in math.

I am not Asian but grew up in CA and had many Korean friends. They almost all supplemented in math. I was in the highest math classes and did well but they all did better. I finally realized in high school that they just put in more hours into getting better at math. Several of them were required by their parents to do the upcoming math textbook in the summer with other Korean kids at a Korean tutoring place, so when the new school year arrived and the rest of us were learning math, they were reviewing math. . This of course makes it much easier to do well in the class.

So when I had my kids I signed them up when they turned 5 for Kumon. They did it until the end of second grade, then we moved on to a different math program for a couple of years, then Kumon for a couple of years, then other math. The value of being fast AND accurate is underestimated by many math educators in the US. Being solid in math calculations makes it so much easier to problem solve. They could finish all their school math in class in 1/3 of the time other kids did and finish their school math homework at school, so there was plenty of time to do math enrichment at home.

Anonymous wrote:Math education in the US is awful. I don’t know what happened but yes, you need to supplement.

What’s the point then, if isn’t necessary to succeed here?

Anonymous wrote:We are not in nova although I grew up here and was in Fairfax county public GT as a kid.

We do RSM because our schools math is weak. Our school is doing IB which sounds great but is super weak with math. It’s these units of inquiry and you can see how reading and writing fit in but math is sort of left out. Our child has done well there with writing etc and likes math and has said the school math is what she learned in kindergarten (we had a great k teacher who kinda bucked the system bit and tried some more advanced concepts with my kid).

Anyway second grade math ar school is adding within 100 and at RSM they are beginning algebra.

Pre-algebra starts when the basics have been learned. It’s not impressive that the school is claiming pre-algebra for kids in their second year of school. They first need to memorize the times table, subtract and add 4 digit numbers, division, basic geometry shapes, percentages, word problems, adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators, decimals, brackets, parentheses with learning PEMDAS for for long equations.

Unless they taught all of that in first grade to kids with photographic memories they couldn’t start learning algebra in 2nd grade.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asians rule

Between the math competitions, spelling bees, and computer science competitions- Asians are definitely the majority of representation. Not all wealthy either-putting education as a high priority is cultural. Wish more families did

BUT, we don’t need everyone excelling in math and high tech work. Most careers don’t involved very advanced math. But students aiming for a STEM career need to prioritize it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are not in nova although I grew up here and was in Fairfax county public GT as a kid.

We do RSM because our schools math is weak. Our school is doing IB which sounds great but is super weak with math. It’s these units of inquiry and you can see how reading and writing fit in but math is sort of left out. Our child has done well there with writing etc and likes math and has said the school math is what she learned in kindergarten (we had a great k teacher who kinda bucked the system bit and tried some more advanced concepts with my kid).

Anyway second grade math ar school is adding within 100 and at RSM they are beginning algebra.

This is so misleading. No, the 2nd graders at RSM are not learning algebra. They are being introduced to what RSM calls “algebraic thinking,” which is not the same as algebra.

Tee-hee.

Anonymous wrote:We are not in nova although I grew up here and was in Fairfax county public GT as a kid.

We do RSM because our schools math is weak. Our school is doing IB which sounds great but is super weak with math. It’s these units of inquiry and you can see how reading and writing fit in but math is sort of left out. Our child has done well there with writing etc and likes math and has said the school math is what she learned in kindergarten (we had a great k teacher who kinda bucked the system bit and tried some more advanced concepts with my kid).

Anyway second grade math ar school is adding within 100 and at RSM they are beginning algebra.

This is so misleading. No, the 2nd graders at RSM are not learning algebra. They are being introduced to what RSM calls “algebraic thinking,” which is not the same as algebra.

We are not in nova although I grew up here and was in Fairfax county public GT as a kid.

We do RSM because our schools math is weak. Our school is doing IB which sounds great but is super weak with math. It’s these units of inquiry and you can see how reading and writing fit in but math is sort of left out. Our child has done well there with writing etc and likes math and has said the school math is what she learned in kindergarten (we had a great k teacher who kinda bucked the system bit and tried some more advanced concepts with my kid).

Anyway second grade math ar school is adding within 100 and at RSM they are beginning algebra.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in public but I've always known it's up to me as the parent to is till the work ethic. Kids do the daily hw and I check into make sure it's correct and they understand what they did and they redo the incorrect parts. They turn it in fridays but my kids say not everyone turns in. I don't care, in my hour we do the homework and learn. The tests that come home are close to the homework so relevance is fine. We haven't supplemented formally but do a lot of math games at home for fun.

lol OK good luck when they transition to all online and no homework when they are no longer that young. Stop being so smug. My kid hasn’t had paper homework to do at home in years and years, and forget about tests coming home!

My kid went to public school for 6th grade. Not a single scrap of paper came home. No homework, no tests, no textbooks, nothing. All math work was done on Zearn and apps. Luckily my child already knew all the content and we left after that year, but if a kid did struggle it would very hard for a parent to see what is going on. There was nothing tangible to see. You’d have to start giving your kid your own worksheets to see what was going on

+100000. It makes it impossible to help your kid.

+100000000

I’m contemplating asking for paper based tests for my kid for next year, so I can see the work, but realize it might be months before they’re sent home.

Your kid’s teacher may not even be able to grade it, unless there’s an answer key.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in public but I've always known it's up to me as the parent to is till the work ethic. Kids do the daily hw and I check into make sure it's correct and they understand what they did and they redo the incorrect parts. They turn it in fridays but my kids say not everyone turns in. I don't care, in my hour we do the homework and learn. The tests that come home are close to the homework so relevance is fine. We haven't supplemented formally but do a lot of math games at home for fun.

lol OK good luck when they transition to all online and no homework when they are no longer that young. Stop being so smug. My kid hasn’t had paper homework to do at home in years and years, and forget about tests coming home!

My kid went to public school for 6th grade. Not a single scrap of paper came home. No homework, no tests, no textbooks, nothing. All math work was done on Zearn and apps. Luckily my child already knew all the content and we left after that year, but if a kid did struggle it would very hard for a parent to see what is going on. There was nothing tangible to see. You’d have to start giving your kid your own worksheets to see what was going on

+100000. It makes it impossible to help your kid.

+100000000

I’m contemplating asking for paper based tests for my kid for next year, so I can see the work, but realize it might be months before they’re sent home.

They REALLY need to move back to text books, even if just for math. This way parents can see what kids are working on, see their completed homework and problems, read what methods they are supposed to be using. The new tech has completely cut parents out of their kids’ education

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're in public but I've always known it's up to me as the parent to is till the work ethic. Kids do the daily hw and I check into make sure it's correct and they understand what they did and they redo the incorrect parts. They turn it in fridays but my kids say not everyone turns in. I don't care, in my hour we do the homework and learn. The tests that come home are close to the homework so relevance is fine. We haven't supplemented formally but do a lot of math games at home for fun.

lol OK good luck when they transition to all online and no homework when they are no longer that young. Stop being so smug. My kid hasn’t had paper homework to do at home in years and years, and forget about tests coming home!

My kid went to public school for 6th grade. Not a single scrap of paper came home. No homework, no tests, no textbooks, nothing. All math work was done on Zearn and apps. Luckily my child already knew all the content and we left after that year, but if a kid did struggle it would very hard for a parent to see what is going on. There was nothing tangible to see. You’d have to start giving your kid your own worksheets to see what was going on

+100000. It makes it impossible to help your kid.

+100000000

I’m contemplating asking for paper based tests for my kid for next year, so I can see the work, but realize it might be months before they’re sent home.

I have several years of math workbooks from the old country. Several math teachers there told me to follow the books and workbooks.
DC finds math easy, but I just want to see what kids abroad are learning at the same time.

Anonymous wrote:Asians rule

Between the math competitions, spelling bees, and computer science competitions- Asians are definitely the majority of representation. Not all wealthy either-putting education as a high priority is cultural. Wish more families did

Sigh. You should have done your homework before paying high prices for private school, OP. My kids stayed in a well-regarded public and we paid for tutors. It was cheaper than private. In my wealthy neighborhood, everyone pays for tutors at some point for their kids, whether they go to public or private. Some of it is remedial, but a lot of the time, it's to stay ahead, so that kids can get on to the advanced track, stay in the advanced tracks, and get a leg up for college admissions.

Asians rule