Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AoPs looks amazing. But how do you find time for so much outside enrichment?? On top of sports and other activities. This cannot be healthy for our kids

Of course! Something has to give.

We do one sport per season, one instrument and AoPS. Works well for us, but I understand other families have other priorities. I am flabbergasted that people have this kids wake up to get to swim practice at 6:00am! That would never fly at our house. Some people love Scouts. Not my cup of tea, but I can see the appeal. AoPS has worked well for us and it was worth the money/time required. Plus, my kids was a willing participant, which also helps. She enjoys Math and enjoys being good at it.

We do it at home because we don't have time to go to a physical center with other activities. We do about 30 minutes of AoPS a day, plus 30 minutes of reading. We also wake up to get to sports practice at 6 in the morning. And yet my kid has time for about 30 minutes of gaming every day (though he wishes it was 4 hours) and sees friends socially on the weekend. It's really not that hard when kids are young. I expect we'll drop math enrichment by high school, but we've had no problems through middle school.

I’ll argue that AoPS is actually great for high school if you can keep it in your schedule. My kid did it Freshman year and it was a lifesaver. She commented that lots of other kids seemed super confused but AoPS helped her make sense of the material much better than what MCPS offered. But I get it, it’s hard to fit everything in, for sure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AoPs looks amazing. But how do you find time for so much outside enrichment?? On top of sports and other activities. This cannot be healthy for our kids

Of course! Something has to give.

We do one sport per season, one instrument and AoPS. Works well for us, but I understand other families have other priorities. I am flabbergasted that people have this kids wake up to get to swim practice at 6:00am! That would never fly at our house. Some people love Scouts. Not my cup of tea, but I can see the appeal. AoPS has worked well for us and it was worth the money/time required. Plus, my kids was a willing participant, which also helps. She enjoys Math and enjoys being good at it.

We do it at home because we don't have time to go to a physical center with other activities. We do about 30 minutes of AoPS a day, plus 30 minutes of reading. We also wake up to get to sports practice at 6 in the morning. And yet my kid has time for about 30 minutes of gaming every day (though he wishes it was 4 hours) and sees friends socially on the weekend. It's really not that hard when kids are young. I expect we'll drop math enrichment by high school, but we've had no problems through middle school.

Anonymous wrote:AoPs looks amazing. But how do you find time for so much outside enrichment?? On top of sports and other activities. This cannot be healthy for our kids

Of course! Something has to give.

We do one sport per season, one instrument and AoPS. Works well for us, but I understand other families have other priorities. I am flabbergasted that people have this kids wake up to get to swim practice at 6:00am! That would never fly at our house. Some people love Scouts. Not my cup of tea, but I can see the appeal. AoPS has worked well for us and it was worth the money/time required. Plus, my kids was a willing participant, which also helps. She enjoys Math and enjoys being good at it.

AoPs looks amazing. But how do you find time for so much outside enrichment?? On top of sports and other activities. This cannot be healthy for our kids

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For gifted child that school has no resources for them due to young age, is mcps tutoring beneficial or are there outside enrichment resources that we can seek after?

Just get some workbooks and work with them 20-30 minutes a few times a week.

Perhaps the PP isn't an expert in math or teaching math. Kids also learn differently when taught by people who are not their parents. I don't think this should just be up to the parents and, in particular, parents with resources for RSM or AoPS (speaking as someone whose kids are both in RSM due to our resources.)

I wasn't an expert and now that my kids are in advanced higher level math cannot do it but most people can do the basics in K-5.

Same. I had a bad math education growing up but did Beast alongside my 5th grader and learned a lot of good stuff. More than anything, it highlighted how poor our experience with math education has been in both public and private schools. If you are trying to manage finite resources and have a gifted student, I think you're best off in public schools + AoPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For gifted child that school has no resources for them due to young age, is mcps tutoring beneficial or are there outside enrichment resources that we can seek after?

Just get some workbooks and work with them 20-30 minutes a few times a week.

Perhaps the PP isn't an expert in math or teaching math. Kids also learn differently when taught by people who are not their parents. I don't think this should just be up to the parents and, in particular, parents with resources for RSM or AoPS (speaking as someone whose kids are both in RSM due to our resources.)

I wasn't an expert and now that my kids are in advanced higher level math cannot do it but most people can do the basics in K-5.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For gifted child that school has no resources for them due to young age, is mcps tutoring beneficial or are there outside enrichment resources that we can seek after?

Just get some workbooks and work with them 20-30 minutes a few times a week.

Perhaps the PP isn't an expert in math or teaching math. Kids also learn differently when taught by people who are not their parents. I don't think this should just be up to the parents and, in particular, parents with resources for RSM or AoPS (speaking as someone whose kids are both in RSM due to our resources.)

It wasn't an option in our home. We did it in the ES years but some of it was due to costs. Of course it should be up to the parents and plenty of free resources right now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:>I know lots of families (ours included) that turn to outside enrichment classes for both ELA and math.

What kind of outside enrichment classes are available for ELA? I am trying to find one, so could you please share? TIA!

AoPS had ELA enrichment. We are doing it online (Gaithersburg is closest location) and it is excellent so far.

Looked at their website- looks great, but makes me sad mcps has nothing like this until maybe HS. Really sad to think how much time they spend in school not really learning.

In ES, any kid who is above grade level spends an insane amount of wasted time. Truly, I think some parents have no idea. There is no differentiation in ELA in K-3 and the teacher needs to get the kids who are below level up to speed.

Changing demographics in Montgomery County mean that there are more and more kids who are below grade level.

The hyper-focus on the Achievement Gap means that there is little incentive for MCPS to offer enrichment in ES.

We have not done AoPs for ELA, but their Math is WONDERFUL for any kid who enjoys and excels at Math.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For gifted child that school has no resources for them due to young age, is mcps tutoring beneficial or are there outside enrichment resources that we can seek after?

Just get some workbooks and work with them 20-30 minutes a few times a week.

Perhaps the PP isn't an expert in math or teaching math. Kids also learn differently when taught by people who are not their parents. I don't think this should just be up to the parents and, in particular, parents with resources for RSM or AoPS (speaking as someone whose kids are both in RSM due to our resources.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:>I know lots of families (ours included) that turn to outside enrichment classes for both ELA and math.

What kind of outside enrichment classes are available for ELA? I am trying to find one, so could you please share? TIA!

AoPS had ELA enrichment. We are doing it online (Gaithersburg is closest location) and it is excellent so far.

Looked at their website- looks great, but makes me sad mcps has nothing like this until maybe HS. Really sad to think how much time they spend in school not really learning.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP - just wanted to add that as a PSA that I used to work at one of those cram schools and it really is not difficult to diy.

It depends on the age of the child. In Elementary, its far easier to tutor your own kids if you are willing and able, but in higher grades if you don't know the subject material its very hard.

I agree. Have been thinking it’d be great to have a coop where parents teach in the area they are strong in, and this would be the exchange. I could easily tutor extra students in my specialty for example in addition to my own, but the logistics

Anonymous wrote:>I know lots of families (ours included) that turn to outside enrichment classes for both ELA and math.

What kind of outside enrichment classes are available for ELA? I am trying to find one, so could you please share? TIA!

AoPS had ELA enrichment. We are doing it online (Gaithersburg is closest location) and it is excellent so far.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes quite a few kids enrolled in rsm at our W feeder elementary school

Which RSM location? I am trying to find one but the ratings aren’t great for the ones near our w feeder school.

Chevy Chase is opening soon but current classes are in N Bethesda — ChevybChase expected to open by end of calendar year

Anonymous wrote:For gifted child that school has no resources for them due to young age, is mcps tutoring beneficial or are there outside enrichment resources that we can seek after?

Just get some workbooks and work with them 20-30 minutes a few times a week.

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP - just wanted to add that as a PSA that I used to work at one of those cram schools and it really is not difficult to diy.

It depends on the age of the child. In Elementary, its far easier to tutor your own kids if you are willing and able, but in higher grades if you don't know the subject material its very hard.