Something interesting I thought I'd share... You all know that I began hsing a few weeks ago. Things are going great. Yesterday I received my dd's progress report from school. She had all A's except in math....where she had a 60% average. I find it laughable and sad (for the school) that my 7 year old second grader was failing math!!! She is a very intelligent girl. She just didn't understand the concepts how they were being presented. Since she's been home, she earns all A's in her classwork and on 4 tests she's gotten 3 A's and 1 B. What workbook do I use? The one from her classroom that was sent home with her!!! Still, I am thankful for having them home. Their behavior has improved so much. I have my loving girls back.
Sounds to me like the math teacher failed his/her job. A good teacher would have recognized that the child wasn't getting the concepts and intervened. At the lower grades, there really is no excuse for this, IMHO.
sure glad you brought her home, if she was having that kind of trouble. Isn't it wonderful when you can see them get it. Way to go.
Further proof that no one has your children's "educational back", the way you do and will. No one is going to care as much as you do. And kick-butt job, MOM!
That's wonderful they are doing so well! I will have to say behavior is the first thing I noticed. Before school started in the fall I had this happy, strongwilled but nonargumentative and non whiney child. By the 2nd month of school I had this arguementative, whiney, baby talking 5 yo. Drove us insane. SHe wouldn't listen, she used this snotty tone of voice- think of an out of control teenager at 5yo and the tone of voice lol. Anyhow, our first week of homeschooling we met with a bunch of homeschoolers at the park. Dd is VERY high energy to begin with, always been very social, vocal, ect. We get there and she got so upset because nobody would play with her or do what she wanted them to do. She was crying, throwing fits, yelling at the other kids- that didn't go undisciplined of course. By the 3rd week of meeting with this same group she had calmed down so much, and no looks forward to meeting her friends every week. I've even had a couple of the mom's mention how much she has calmed down since the first time we met. After dealing with her school I came to the conclusion that they don't believe in discipline, and they don't believe in education. They believe in dumbing down so all kids are at the same level. They teach to the lower average student- this point in the year curriculum wise they are only counting to 10. Homeschooling has been so amazing thus far depsite fight for control lol. I love that we can work at the level she is at and if she's really not into it we can move on to something else and come back to it. Last night she spent the night on base with hubby. She was up till 11pm watching a movies and eating popcorn with him lol.
QG, intervening isn't that easy. When you got 30 kids, many with behavior problems, and testing to do, you can't take the time for intervention. It gets to the place where you just have to move on, and those who can't, simply can't. You can't hold the others up because of them. I know, not the way it should be, but there's no other way to go about it. The teachers hate it, too, but their hands are tied. And yes, it IS one of the reasons we homeschool!
Jackie, I understand the problem of teachers being overworked. However, intervention may be nothing more than informing the parents so they can help. It doesn't take a lot of time to write an email or a short letter and send home. This is what I mean by "inexcusable". It doesn't appear that the teacher did such in this case. I'm a firm believer in "no surprises" on report cards.
That's very true. And usually parents of younger kids are much quicker to do something. My DH spends quite a lot of time each night calling parents, and it does little to no good. Well, at least they can't say they didn't know!
Thanks for the words of encouragement. Her teacher is a very sweet person. When I brought her home, I went in to the school and she had a very positive attitude about my bringing her home (said it was admirable). I knew she was struggling in some areas. I have been tutoring her in grammar all year (she received a '0' out of 100 on a test because of simply not understanding what the word plural meant) I just couldn't see sending her to school for 7 hours a day and tutoring her for an hour each night plus homework! This was a big selling point for my dh to bring her home. Thank God, because we love making our own schedule and dh has a positive attitude about it. However, I did not realize that she was failing so miserably in math. If she doesn't understand basic math, she's doomed all through school! Again, thanks everyone for your support. It makes a world of difference.
Angie, I am POSITIVE your daughter is going to do better now. I would have done the same. Hang in there!
I just wanted to chime in here about the attitude change. I pulled my dd out of her private Kindergarten at Christmas break. In the few short months of school she had gone from completely sweet and obedient to having a serious attitude, rolling her eyes at me and throwing fits like I had never seen. After only 3 weeks or so we were back to our sweet daughter, just like you. YAY for homeschooling!!!!!!
I don't doubt the teachers were not doing their job well. When I was in HS, I had a math teacher that just wrote the page number on the board. He sat at his desk the entire time. Since I transfered in the middle of the year, I had to ask what everyone was working on. They all just walk in, sit down, open books, and start working. Weird. Good thing at my old school, we had already finished the book. I never did learn anything new that year.
And having her home you are able to go back to whatever level she is at, and start from there, to make sure she has the basics before moving on! It's interesting homeschooling kids, because you realize, more than ever before, that kids aren't cookie cutter images. You can't take 30 kids and give them all the same material and expect them all to learn well, becuase it won't happen! At home, you can get whatever level your child needs and work through it until they get it, THEN move on! No pressure, just learn it well in the time you need to get it! I have my ds13 who is highschool level in science and history, on level (8th grade) for math, and doing 5th grade English. English just doesn't click with him, and he needs to work back a ways to make sure he gets the basics well! So, level-wise, he's all over the board, and that's okay! I can work with that!
