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How many of your DCs are doing EPGY in a public school during the school day? If you are, how did you pitch it to the school? My DS6 is in Kindergarten and we just started EPGY at the beginning for math. He thinks school is boring although he gets pull outs for reading and math. We are hoping to bring this up next week, after he works through all of K this weekend. Just started last night and are already halfway. He likes it although it is easy. Another suggestion I have seen is working on EPGY worksheets/homework during math class. Does EPGY have worksheets for 1st grade? If so, where would I find them?

My DS5 is in K and we just do EPGY at home. He goes to 1/2 day K so there isn't that much time in his day to be able to do it there (and I'm not sure they'd let him anyways). In fact he still has to do his K homework even though they know he is doing 2nd/3rd grade math at home. (He's into 3rd grade in EPGY - he started at K lvl mid Oct)

I'd love to hear if anyone has been successful with using it at school. Even though I think his only option would be during computer lab time (1/week) it might be better than nothing.

I'd like to hear about EPGY being used at school too. I'm interested in DS9 doing the computer at home and then doing paper work at school. Any experience with sharing EPGY assessments with school so they know it is going well. Does your child test out of units to do this?

We have had moderate success at public school. It has been a process and will continue to be a process over time. DS7 attended the public school in K (1/2 day) when he was 5, the K teacher noticed his math level and arranged with a 2nd grade teacher to have him go to her room for additional math, at home we used Singapore workbooks for fun. We did meet with the principal and later the district to speak about future accommodations. Nothing was decided but the school and the district became aware of the issue�s. In 1st he attended a Private HG school; they moved him to Rm 2 for math which is somewhat like 3rd grade level. This sort of worked (He processing speed was to slow to move on to higher level). We had him tested him with the WJ III achievement test, his math score was very high. Because of distance issues we came back to the public school for 2nd grade. We approached the school in June of last year with his IQ and achievement test, a letter from his current teacher, and examples of some of his work. We asked for an overall grade skip, and that he be moved to 4th or 5th grade for math, or allow him to use EPGY in the classroom (At that point we had not started the courses). The school agreed to the skip, and would see what they could do with the math. We started the EPGY about one month before school, and DS7 liked it. The school moved him to 4th grade math, but this has created a scheduling problem, 3rd and 4th do not do math at the same time. DS7s teacher has agreed to allow him to do EPGY instead of 3rd grade math during 3rd Grade math time. The problem has been that he has to catch up on what he missed when he is in the 4th grade class, during his 3rd grade (EPGY) math time. So overall the school has agreed, but they use it to augment what they go over, and they still give him some 3rd grade worksheets. Also his overall time completing EPGY since September has been less then a quarter of what he did in three weeks at home during the summer. I will be arranging another meeting to see if he can just do EPGY and only test out of 3rd and 4th grade math. He recently completed the SCAT test and scored well on math, hopefully this will work. It has not been a great fit, but is much better the keeping him in 2nd doing 2nd grade math. I have also started a math club at school for 4th and 5th graders doing the math Olympiad program. This has been very challenging for DS7, the other students, and me. The good thing is that the school sees my effort, and hopefully they will work with us on these future changes.

does Sigapore Math go beyond the usual basic Math with things like logic and reason. Is Sigapore Math a everday cirriculium or enrichment? Do you show this work to the school? Is the SCAT test could to show Math placement and holes in Math? If a parent wants to start a Math Club does it usually take a Math Professional? Or a teaching certificate? Was this difficult to get the school to you teaching a Math club?

We used the basic work books from Signapour math. They do offer more then just the mechanics of math, they have logic and reasoning. DS7 liked the workbooks. In California Signapour is offered as an everyday cirriculium, however our public school does not use it. Each district is different on what they decide to use. We did bring the workbook with us during our first meeting. The Achievment test along with the IQ test seemed to help the most. The SCAT test is to short to show holes, it is just another test results, that can be added to the overall picture. The math club (Math Olympiad) does not require ay profesional teaching degree or certfication. Our public school also did not require anything in the way of certification or credentials. (This was good because I don't have any, no degrees, and I am only OK at math, I am a Realtor not a Math wiz) The program comes with worksheets, answers and how to arrive at them. The Math Olympiad program does ask that a teacher help proctor the 5 contests (One a month). The school was very receptive, it did take some time to start but has gone well. I will hopefully run it again next year and will make some changes. It is a learning experance for me also. The Math Olympiad is dificult (In my opinon). The 5 problems given each month for the contest have a range of dificulty. The school is a K-5 with arround 600 children. The contest is for 4-6 grade. I started with about 50+ students (Next time I will limit it to 15-20 with some sort of test). I am now at around 20, of which maybe 10 are doing ok. No one has answered all 5 contest questions correct. Most can only answer 1 question, a few can answer 2, and only about 3 can answer 3. (DS7 is one of them). I do not teach math, I try to teach problem solving. I also try to keep it fun with mental math tricks. In regards to the school, I just asked and pushed a little and they agreed, its been kind of like learning to swim by jumping in the deep end of the pool.

Our DS8 has been using EPGY in the classroom as a full replacement for math since Dec. (He started the year using ALEKS.)

The school agreed to his using ALEKS when he passed the 4th Grade year-end assessment right after school started. He used ALEKS for 5th, passed the school's test and then started EPGY for 6th because we all felt it would better prepare him for the EPGY pre-algebra.

One problem I have with EPGY is that it is not possible for the child to bail on a topic if he gets stuck. This has resulted in several says of yucky scores for EPGY, as our son can't always expect the teacher to drop everything & come help.

In ALEKS, the student can exit out of a topic and choose something else. Then, after school, we could cover whatever topic(s) he skipped. This worked PERFECTLY.

So while I am very pleased with the caliber of EPGY, I really, really wish they had a similar feature.

As for the ultimate approval from the school, it was actually OK'd at the district level a few years ago and is on their official list of approved curriculum. That was nice... no waiting! (Maybe check with your district's curriculum office?)

We did have some arm-wrestling with the previous teacher about generating homework & quizzes, which was fine under ALEKS. With EPGY, though, there is no quiz function so we ultimately got him a pass on that. For homework, I just produced worksheets based on whatever topic required additional practice. EPGY provided its own homework, but it didn't focus on the problem areas -- just a bunch of busy work.

He'll be done with EPGY 6th grade in a few more weeks or so, and I am very curious to see how he does on the EPGY final exam AND the school's own 6th grade year-end stuff. I have a 6th grade math book from the school, so will be able to cover anything that he doesn't hit in EPGY.

Dandy,
Have you tried the "give up" option?

Yes. But the "give up" only exits that particular question, counts it as wrong, and then follows with another problem in the same topic. If he "gives up" enough times, EPGY will revisit an earlier concept for review and then land back in the same troublesome topic, generally with the same exercises.

The repeating of exact problems is frustrating as well (for me), because he'll eventually "know" the correct answers from memory -- supplied by EPGY after each error -- without really understanding the solution. In contrast, ALEKS generates its questions on-the-fly, almost never repeating an exact problem.)

With ALEKS, he can leave a topic and isn't forced into it until he needs it to advance to a higher level topic in the same category... and by then he's been able to discuss the concept with either the teacher or me.

When he's working on EPGY @ home, I'm available for any questions and can provide additional explanation where Grandpa EPGY falls short (or due to technical issues, stops prematurely). I understand that the dynamics of the classroom don't permit a similar availability from the teacher, but it is still frustrating.

So far, I have very few complaints about EPGY... and these in particular wouldn't be so bad had we not experienced ALEKS in advance.

This is interesting information. We are still trying to decide if we should switch dd to EPGY next year instead of an accelerated version of school cirruculm that she is receiving now. Everything I have heard about EPGY has been so positive its nice to hear that there are some hiccups too.

DD loves Aleks, but we only did it for a 2 weeks. I didn't feel like it was hard enough, or deep enough. Maybe I didn't place her high enough.