Bees in the hole

[angerona]

Ah, the Russian School of Mathematics, where the problems are as mathematically challenging as they are grammatically so.

Here's the latest, but not the worst, example:

Comments

[ykats]

And it should be a Bear, not a Cat :)

[angerona]

I think they are in the Alice in Wonderland theme this month :)

[plus25c]

я за переводить, по крайней мере поначалу. а наchallengиться дети всегда успеют. можно хотя бы попробовать читать вместе по частям: When Cat started to climb the tree - понятно? понятно. дальше "157 bees flew out of the hole" - понятно? и т.д.

[zapiens]

"65 more bees than the first time flew out."

A где здесь подлежащее в придаточном предложении?

[angerona]

"bees"

[ochame]

написано - "русская школа", а задачки не по-русски. это обман! false advertising :)

[angerona]

имеется в виду тип программы, а не язык обучения :)

[olisko]

I have a question for you. Since G is taking math at Russian school, he is probably ahead of his peers in math just due to that (I'm not taking into account his natural talents). How do you guys reconcile that with the fact that he will have to spend hundreds of hours in math classes in the future being - possibly - totally bored?

here's the reason I'm asking. My oldest Nicholas is due to start school this fall and most schools offer English as a foreign language, at least the ones we are considering. We are concerned about him being bored in English classes, doesn't seem fair, since he is fluent. Do you have any advice/opinions?

[angerona]

Good question. As far as math goes, I have no problem with him being ahead of school math -- in fact, I want that; I want him to have an identity of someone who's "good at math" and is ahead of school math. They don't have classes yet per se, it's exercises done here and there, and I think repetition can always be useful, as well as alternative approaches.

As far as English as a Second language goes in your case, I'm not sure -- but it probably wouldn't be terrible to both see how other kids are learning and also maybe for him to get some extra work from the teachers. E.g. maybe you should buy some age-appropriate workbooks for him in English and bring those to the teacher to assign to him while his classmates are doing other work.

[olisko]

That's an idea, actually. We may be able to work with the teacher like that.

My concern is that he'll be bored (not fair to him) and perhaps it wouldn't also be fair to other kids. After all, they have foreign language here starting grade 3 (regular schools) and grade 1 (gymnasiums), so that's a LOT of hours of class time spent being bored. I also don't want him to develop any kind of superiority complex LOL

[merilisa]

Thanks for raising this question! My son is 14 months old but I have already been thinking about doing something like the Russian School or Kumon and this has been my looming question: I want him to be ahead, confident and able, but not bored. I was so bored in school with the English stuff and my teachers didn't bother challenging me or allowing me to pick more challenging books, and I wouldn't want Jax to have the same frustration I did!