Posts by Jonathan Adams2

Honestly, both times I was pregnant, it drove me insane seeing women using hormones as an excuse for everything... some act like they’re dying instead of just being pregnant...
Usually, it was just pregnancy itself that pissed me off because once I actually got pregnant, I realized it's basically the same state as before, just with a different body...

I used to snap at comments I didn't like even when I wasn't pregnant.. so don't give me that "it's the hormones" crap now...

And yeah, I know I pissed you all off😂....

Just enjoy being pregnant and tune out everyone else...

Problem is, you can't always get ahead of those people. As soon as they see you're showing, they start chirping about how big you are, then they start judging you... people are just like that... always looking for a fight.

Austin Chavez5 said:Look, Dobrica, I’m 31, and honestly, my opinion doesn't even matter here. I'm just a parent. And as for the editors? It’s not their job to go around fixing every little typo on some random internet forum. But man, those mistakes you're making are jumping right out at me—and trust me, there are plenty more where those came from. Especially since you went out of your way to say you're a teacher.

Yeah, obviously there are typos... like, right now I started this sentence with a lowercase letter because I'm too lazy to fix it.😉

But honestly? I don't care. People love nitpicking, especially when they're gunning for teachers.👍They're just waiting for one slip-up.

I'm just typing whatever comes to mind because this forum is just a way to kill time and have some fun. I couldn't care less how people write... just like I don't care when my accountant messes up my paycheck, even though they've been doing it for 20 years.😉

Anyway, that's totally off-topic, so I'm done explaining myself or arguing. This thread has gone completely off the rails anyway.👎:clapping::clapping::clapping:

Peace.🙂

Austin Chavez5 said:Are you even a teacher? Sorry, but honestly, looks like you figured that out for yourself a long time ago. As for Tyler Reyes86, I don't give a damn whether they have an education degree or not 😉.

And you’re just some grammar nerd hunting for typos on a forum☕

I'm not apologizing for a typo😍 or for typing fast while holding a ten-month-old in my arms👍

Jason Ortiz5 said:I’m gonna jump in here with an off-topic thought. If the mods aren't cool with it, please feel free to move this to its own thread.

I’ve got a question for the experts and anyone else here who works with kids... My little girl is almost 5 now, but she’s already reading pretty smoothly. She tackles her little books all by herself—not just picture books, but actual storybooks and poems. Sometimes she’ll stop to ask me about a long word she doesn't recognize, but that's about it. She handles lowercase letters like a pro, and she can even make sense of my handwriting (I went to technical school, so my print is super neat). Writing is a bit more of a struggle; she knows her uppercase letters, but she still flips them around sometimes, though given her fine motor skills, I think it's totally fine. Occasionally, she’ll find a note I left for my husband on the table 😉 and try to copy down exactly what I wrote. No one has really done anything specific with her; if she asks me to show her how to do something, I will, but I haven't wanted to push her too hard since she's so young. It's the same with her grandparents, and even at her preschool, they say they teach reading, but they don't force it at this age. I think she was just naturally curious—she’s always been a total sponge—so she put in the work. I see the same thing happening with her English classes at preschool; she honestly just loves learning. Her school is pretty big on building study habits early, too. They have this preschool curriculum approved by the Department of Education that runs for maybe 250 hours. The kids actually get regular assignments, and the teachers grade them with smiley faces or frowny ones... 😍

So, what do I do? By September, I need to decide if I should enroll her in the advanced preschool track so I can request she starts kindergarten at 6. Or should I just let her be for another year and let her go through the process along with her friends from preschool? She’s still such a playful kid and has so many buddies in her group... But then again, she makes new friends easily, and hanging out with older kids isn't a big deal to her at all.

My fear is that if I wait until she's 7, she’ll just be bored in first grade. She might get restless or lose interest altogether... And I’d hate to see her lose that spark for learning if I don't absolutely have to.

I asked Jason Ortiz5 for her take since she's a teacher. She thinks I should wait until she's 7, saying kids like hers are easy to handle and I shouldn't worry. But honestly, how can I expect a woman managing a class of 25 kids to give special attention to just a few of them while ignoring the ones who actually need the extra academic challenge? It feels unrealistic to me. Plus, a friend of mine whose sister is also a teacher told me she totally regretted waiting until her son turned 7...

I feel like I'm losing it... So, I'm asking the pros for advice, comments, anything that could help me make this call. The teachers at the preschool promised to check if there are any maturity assessments for kids this age. I feel silly even thinking about going to the school psychologist, though. It feels like overkill. I already feel like I'm overthinking this and being a total nuisance...

Man, why didn't anyone warn me that being a parent is this hard? 😢

I wouldn't even hesitate—just leave the kid in daycare...

My daughter Tara was born April 1st, but the cutoff for school enrollment is March 31st, so she misses it by just one day....
I already know I’m not gonna push for early enrollment just to start her at 6 and a half. Nah. I'll let her play and enjoy being a kid until she hits 7, then she goes to school.....

Look, the elementary school curriculum is set. First graders have to learn both print and cursive... there's no debating that. Period.

Some teachers might drag out the print lessons into the second half of the year if the kids haven't nailed it yet, but they still gotta teach cursive too....

I see how it is. You guys love getting into arguments, and it’s pretty obvious who here is just some high-maintenance parent and who actually knows what they're talking about professionally..☕

It's blindingly obvious that some people here care more about grades just so they can brag to their neighbors and relatives about how smart or "advanced" their kid is...

[QUOTE=libetoži;24858033]I totally disagree with Jonathan Adams2. Today’s school curriculum is insane—it's way too much for them. Back when I was in elementary school, grades 1-4, I never actually "studied" at home; I just did my homework. Real studying didn't even start until 5th grade, and even then, not really. Serious studying only kicked in during high school and then college... My mom never sat down with me to teach me anything; I did everything myself. Meanwhile, my sister sits with my niece from the first grade onwards. It's not that my niece is any less smart than my sister and me, it's just that the curriculum is brutal. And it's not just her; it's all kids, some more than others. My niece is in 5th grade now and things have leveled out slightly, but she's still an honors student who spends all day studying. It's not normal to have to study that much in 5th grade, yet she's been doing it since 1st grade. All my sister's friends sit down and work with their kids. When I saw some facts in a 5th-grade history textbook, I couldn't believe it—stuff I didn't even touch until I was in law school taking a national history exam...

...basically, my takeaway is that if a kid hasn't learned to read before kindergarten, they're going to struggle to keep up in 1st grade. That was the case in my niece's class: kids who could already read before school started needed less help from parents, while those who couldn't had to spend all their time after school sitting at the table with their parents... bottom line, it's not fair. I couldn't read before school either and I learned it all in class... it's the teacher's job to teach us... today's curriculum is too fast, too heavy, packed with way more material and data, and if a kid can't read before starting school—parents, watch out—you're gonna be stuck sitting there working with them 😁 ☕[/QUOTE]

this kind of mindset is exactly why our kids turn out the way they do....

if I weren't a teacher, I'd be embarrassed to even say something like that....👎

does anyone actually think you shouldn't work with your kid???

you gotta work with them starting at age 4 if you want them reading and writing early... and as far as that goes... most of us back when I was in school already knew how to read and write by the start of 1st grade....

and then you guys complain about the grades????

no point arguing with you people because we're clearly on opposite sides....

I just want the best for everyone, but you HAVE to work with your kids.[/QUOTE]

urbanbison70 said:I completely disagree with Dobrica. Today’s elementary school curriculum is insane; it's way too much for these kids. Back when I was in grades 1 through 4, I never actually sat down to "study"—I just did my homework. Real studying didn't kick in until 5th grade, and even then, not really. It wasn't until high school and college that things got serious. My mom never sat me down to tutor me; I did everything on my own. Meanwhile, my sister spends all day drilling my niece since she was in 1st grade. My niece isn't any less intelligent than I was; the curriculum is just brutal. And it's not just her—it's happening to all kids, some more than others. My niece is in 5th grade now and it's supposedly "easier," but she's still studying all day long. It’s not normal for a 5th grader to have to grind like this. Every one of my sister's friends is constantly tutoring their kids. Honestly, looking at some of the facts in a 5th-grade history textbook left me speechless. I didn't even see half of that stuff until I was sitting for a national history exam in law school.

... basically, my takeaway is this: if a kid hasn't learned to read before kindergarten, they're going to struggle to keep up in 1st grade. That was the case in my niece's class. If the parents had already taught them to read, they didn't have to help much. But if the kids went in unable to read, the parents were stuck sitting at the kitchen table with them every single night after school. Bottom line? It’s not fair. I couldn't read before school either, and I learned it in class. That's the teacher's job. The current curriculum is too fast, too heavy, and packed with too many facts. Parents, take note: if your child can't read yet, you're going to be doing a lot of extra work at home. 😁 ☕

Give me one single example of something your niece is learning in first grade that you never had to learn.div>

silverpuma542 said:I wouldn't say that. Honestly, the amount of material is either the same or even less than before.
You probably didn't have access to a calculator in elementary school, right? Well, kids use them constantly now.

And as for logic... I have my dad's old textbook, my own, and my brother's... the cover colors might change from year to year, but the content inside remains exactly the same down to the last punctuation mark. 😁

Exactly!!!

Back in first grade, we all had to learn print and cursive, plus addition and subtraction up to 20... then second grade hit with multiplication tables, nouns, verbs, etc. Nowadays, nouns and verbs don't even show up until third grade... and back in our day, we even learned an extra script in third grade that's gone now... stuff like that.

Just thinking about learning the history of Washington, D.C. in third grade when I was a kid... Nat Turner, walking down Broadway east and west... peasant revolts... etc. Today kids only need to know some bits about Boston, Nat Turner, the Golden Bull, and some other trivia... we learned actual wonders.😲

The workload has actually shrunk in some areas, but you can't just cut certain things... they have to know how to add, subtract, multiply, divide, parts of speech, cases, sentence types, basic spelling...

I don't get why people claim there's more material than when we were kids...

The material is the same; it's just that back then we were students and didn't think the way parents do today. I think the real issue is that parents act like helicopter parents from birth, shielding their kids from everything, so when they hit school, they're totally helpless... meanwhile, parents are demanding and expect straight A's... no matter what, even if the teacher just gave them a passing grade out of pity.

The material is taught at the same pace as always. The length of a school year hasn't changed.

My advice to moms and dads... if your kid doesn't get an A, but you know they can do better, sit down with them and work through the problems and the material where they messed up... success will definitely follow.

And teach your kid to actually ask you for help.

School-aged kids need tons of time, understanding, patience, and tolerance.

Good luck everyone!!👍

Kimberly Nguyen said:I guess I'll probably take this off-topic now...

Yeah, I was the one who wrote that. And why did I do it? Because the person supervising them after class was—and remains—an absolute CATASTROPHE. I have no clue what she was actually doing with those kids... I can only go by what my son told me, which was basically that she isn't really there, and they are effectively left to their own devices. When she *is* around, she does nothing but yell. Constant yelling. I tried asking to speak with her several times to figure out where the breakdown was happening, but she never had "time," or she'd literally slam the door in my face because she was "too busy." I even complained to the classroom teacher, but she just shrugged her shoulders. I begged her to at least stay in the loop, to be present during these discussions, but I didn't manage to get any traction until second grade, when things finally boiled over into a massive confrontation. It got so bad that she actually had the audacity to claim my husband once wanted to hit her 😕. I think I posted about that somewhere else... in the end, I sent an email to the Principal, praying for some kind of change. We spoke a few times; he kept promising he would look into the "situation"... but by the time my son reached third grade, nothing had changed. Every single parent had an issue with her, but whenever it came time to actually step up or say something, everyone just backed down (out of fear of her 🙄) because they didn't want their kid to become a target...

There was this one time my mom went to pick him up halfway through the first semester of first grade... the whole class was out on the playground, but he was nowhere to be found 😲... she figured he was probably just in the classroom. So my mom goes into the room, and he's not there 😲... she thinks, "Well, maybe he already went home" 😲... at that point, my mother lost it. She practically brought the whole school to its knees because my son knew he only ever went home when someone actually showed up to get him. They eventually found him in the classroom, hiding behind a cabinet... can you believe that? They had been playing soccer, and some little kid had kicked him pretty hard in the leg; he started crying, and instead of helping him, this woman just shoved him into the classroom to shut him up...

That woman is still at the school, just in a different role, and you can't do a damn thing about her. I just hope that by the time my daughter starts school, she'll be gone, because if not, I am absolutely switching her class.

If this stuff happened at my school, that teacher would definitely get a formal warning before being fired. If I were a parent, I'd call the school board and file a complaint with the Department of Education... it's teachers like her that make everyone lump us all together...

And listen, moms, you can actually do something... there's the local school district that funds the after-school programs, the Department of Education, the state inspectors... these days, teachers aren't untouchable like they used to be.....

Michelle James13 said:We’ve been into the second semester for a little while now, and the grades have finally started rolling in—much to my profound disappointment 😁. One thing I’ve noticed lately is that the grading standards seem incredibly harsh; I certainly don't recall things being this rigid back when I was in school. In my son's class, everyone seems to be stuck with mediocre Cs and Ds, and Bs are apparently a rarity. To make matters worse, I hear that last year's group only had three students receive any kind of academic honors at all. Honestly, it feels excessive. In my day, almost everyone in my class cruised through the first two grades with high marks, and let's be clear, we weren't exactly Nobel laureates or child prodigies. If someone had told me back then that my child would come home with a C in reading today, I wouldn't have believed them. A C in first grade? It just feels wrong 😲. Look, I’m not going to obsess over every single letter on a report card—he'll learn to read eventually—but I can't help but wonder if there's a better way to handle this. Since they aren't allowed to bring tests home, I have no idea which specific concepts he's struggling with, which makes it nearly impossible to sit down and review the material with him effectively.
Anyway, that's my experience. How are things looking in your school districts?

I'm a teacher, and honestly, I've handed out plenty of D's in reading during first grade... I don't get why people think that's weird. Not every kid is going to pull an A in reading. Besides, the scale is 1-5... when a kid gets a 3, the parent needs to step up, work with them more, and practice reading so they actually succeed next time.

I never sent tests home and I don't plan to. Any parent can look over their child's specific tests during individual conferences to see exactly where they messed up. Plus, after every test, corrections are written right in the notebook, so parents can see exactly which types of problems need more practice.

The real issue here is the reading grade and the teacher, from what I can tell. There's a massive amount of material to cover in a short time, so teachers really need to spend more one-on-one time with the students.

Someone mentioned here that they helped their kid with homework while the kid was supposed to be in after-school care... that's insane to me. Why??? It's the teacher's job to work individually with students who are struggling so the work actually gets done at school (that's literally the whole point of after-school programs). These teachers aren't daycare workers or babysitters. Some kids are super restless and refuse to do work at school. A colleague of mine who runs the after-school program has zero tolerance for that... those kids stay late, and you wouldn't believe how fast they knock out their homework once they're forced to focus. Of course, that's all coordinated with the parents.

Stop stressing about the grades because you're just stressing out the kid. It creates massive pressure and frustration. Every grade is earned based on merit and knowledge, and besides, any grade can be improved later.

I've always been known as a pretty tough teacher. Parents from the last generation (before I was pregnant) were sometimes furious about my strict grading. When I ran into them later while I was on maternity leave, they were yelling at me, saying they regretted my strictness because my substitute was too soft. They claimed the kids totally checked out and lost their drive to learn or their curiosity because they knew they could just coast to an A.

You're only in first grade. Help your kid find their footing and make sure they experience school in the best possible light. School shouldn't be a nightmare unless we turn it into one.👍

how do I put a photo album under my signature, like if I'm trying to sell stuff???

just give me the easiest, fastest way to do it🙂

thanks

Chris Grant7 said:I’ve scrolled through enough similar threads to lose my mind, but I felt compelled to start my own because the sheer volume of existing posts is just overwhelming.
So, here’s the situation: my period is two weeks late. Given the symptoms I’m dealing with, I’m fairly certain I’m pregnant, but I have to ask—is it actually normal to deal with splitting headaches and a fever?
I haven't even taken a test yet, so there’s still that nagging doubt. Is it possible this isn't pregnancy at all, but just some random bug or illness? This is all brand new territory for me, so please, don't hold back on the advice—give it to me straight!
I did read that Clearblue tests are pretty reliable; has anyone here actually used one? 🤷🙏🙄🙂

I had a fever too, but no headache... everyone's body reacts differently.
Just grab a test tomorrow morning and stop guessing.👍