Posted by Mom, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Mar 15, 2012 at 11:50 am

My daughter was recommended in second grade and is now in honors math. She went a few times to the Math Intervention and felt stupid going and thought the kids were not the brightest. I pulled her out because it was bad for her self-esteem to be there. There isn't much to elementary math but calculations and simple word problems. You can buy workbooks online, use math websites (aleks.com) or free ones, or go to Kumon (the one next to Ross is the best). I am not very involved in my childrens' academics and could never homeschool. You have a lot of easy solutions to bring your child up to speed.

The Everyday Math program is a really inferior program. They don't teach basic calculation drills. If your teacher is good, she can tweek it and supplement so the program isn't so terrible. We were victims of the Everyday Math program in another state (the real program, no supplementation) and my oldest got by doing Kumon in elementary school there and is now an "A" student in honors math at Paly.

Posted by Crescent Park Dad, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Mar 15, 2012 at 12:02 pm

We had a child go to the program over at Baron Park School. It was fine. The same child is now attending a great college and is doing just fine.

Posted by Mom, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Mar 19, 2012 at 12:37 pm

If it were my child, I would ask two questions first:

1) My child is not performing at grade level expectations, so when is the school district going to do an evaluation for learning differences?

2) It's only March...what additional support in math is my child going to get for the rest of this school year?

Posted by OhlonePar, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Mar 19, 2012 at 12:42 pm

What I've been told is that the kids recommended for math camp are not doing that poorly in math. The district wants the program to look successful so the kids recommended for it are those who are doing well enough that math camp will look effective.

I think, often, these kids are the ones whose parents don't put abnormal expectations on their kids about how "advanced" they need to be.

Posted by palo alto mom, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Mar 19, 2012 at 12:43 pm

Our daughter did the reading intervention at the end of 1st grade, total waste of time. She said they didn't do anything differently from her regular class, just more of the same. I would like more details on the actual curriculum of the summer program before you decide.

"Mom" has good questions. Why is you child behind and how are they going to help her from now until June?