I'm ambivalent about the way some of the material's presented, though it is certainly not even close to the worst I've seen.
Do you have any recommendations for your favorite math curriculum? I thought we did Saxon math, but I was wrong -- they use something called "Real Math". They are going to send home the 1st and 2nd grade workbooks this summer, so we can make sure he isn't missing any topics (like measurement) before he moves into 3rd grade work.
They are also doing a "Think Outside the Box" program for the last period of the day, where the students get broken up to do more work on various topics that require critical/creative thinking (e.g. some topics are Odyssey of the Mind, Zoology, Functional Geography, Botany, Robotics, Math Lab, etc. They will have one section that is only for gifted students, although the gifted kids can choose a different topic if they would prefer.).
That sounds like a little slice of heaven!
I know!! I'm so excited about it.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed about our public elementary, as they seem receptive and willing to be creative so far, but we haven't achieved anything like that so far (though they already do some amount of ability grouping, by classroom and also within the classroom, and I have a generally high opinion of their methods in general, despite the lack of a GT program).
Well, this is in a private school... We do have to pay for the privilege of getting them to accomodate our kids. :-) And we will end up paying our "math mentor" for our son, since he's not ready to just go into the 3rd grade class... So it's a lot of expense, but we are very happy with their responsiveness. I have to say that we met with the principal of our public elementary school, and while we aren't ready to leave our private school (which we just love), he was very persuasive about their interest in meeting the real needs of each individual student. It's a place to keep in mind, for sure.
Good luck with your school, and thanks for your comments!
