Get Your Kids Into Cambridge, AICE & More With the Help of Khan Academy - Free Math Help, SAT Prep and More

 

 

I have secret to share with all of you fellow West Augustine parents.

I hate math....

...but I love Khan Academy. 

There are a lot of educational programs available for students online, but the vast majority of these charge a fee. Khan Academy is in a class of its own, because not only is it free, it is innovative and thanks to backers such as Bill Gates, it has been developed to surpass any other program out there.

If you are wondering what a math program feature is doing on a West Augustine news site, keep on reading. 

I am a mother of five children, and I want my children and your children to get the best possible academic start in life, and I want all of our children to be able to go to college. Not many of us can afford the outrageous tuition at local, state and out-of-state colleges, which is why we as parents need to prepare our children for the rigorous classes that these schools demand in order to get to be competitive for merit-based scholarships, and we have to start early.

Even if your student is aiming to get a sports scholarship, they still need to be able to get good scores on the SATs, ACTs, and they need to be able to succeed in high school and in college, so that they can take advantage of a full ride by using their free college to get them, where they want to be in life.

The St. Johns County school system is the number one school district in the state, and at R. J. Murray Middle School, we have a Cambridge program available to our students. It is a top-notch program, where our students can be prepared for the rigorous AICE program at St. Augustine High or the I.B. program at Pedro Menendez High School, so that they can earn free college credit and scholarships.

Students flock to this program from all over the county, but in order to be eligible for the Cambridge program at Murray Middle School, out-of-zone students have to be a part of the Arts program. 

Not our students. Our West Augustine students are eligible, just because we are zoned for MMS. So why is it that the majority of the students in the Cambridge program come from outside of the school zone?

1. Parents in our community don't know enough about the Cambridge program or how to get their students accepted.
2. There's a myth going around that you have to be in the gifted program to be accepted
3. Our students are taught to pass the FSAs with a 3 or more, but unless a student has a gifted IEP in elementary school, our students are taught from the same materials no matter the level that they are at. 
4. If our students are struggling, they may be offered tutoring or summer school. However, there is no program in place to move student who scores a 3 up to a 4 or a 5. 
5. Most of the money follows the bottom quartile students, so that's where the school system's focus will be.
   
6. To be accepted into the Cambridge program, our students need to have 4s and 5s on their FSAs, get As and Bs, and have a teacher's recommendation.
7. We get a lot of new teachers at The Webster School, and many of these teachers do not know enough about the Cambridge program until it is time to make those teacher recommendations.
8. Our students are not being informed about the Cambridge program until it is time to apply to middle school.

This means that we as parents have to encourage our children to seek knowledge outside of school, we need to show them the way and maybe push a little. In essence, we need to differentiate our children's learning in a way that their teachers would, if they were in a gifted program, where their education would be tailored to their level all while challenging them to reach higher.

Khan Academy has been around for a long time, and the program has only improved over the years while still remaining free. When our older boys first started using Khan Academy more than 10 years ago, it was a simple math program taught by the founder, and it was used in some California schools, but then Bill Gates got involved and now you can learn science, history, reading, language arts and more. You can even learn economics, computer programming and life skills. One of my favorite sections is the test prep section, because Khan Academy has excellent free ACT and SAT prep courses.

 

At Khan Academy students (of all ages) can work at their own pace, they will not move forward unless they master a skill. The best part is that we as parents do not need be mathematicians in order to use Khan Academy, because the program comes with video tutorials and instructions that will teach our children if they get stuck on a problem.

How to get started at Khan Academy:

1. Set up a parent account
2. Then set up an account for each of your students under you 
3. If your child is struggling at school, then start them off at a lower grade level, and let them work their way up to the current grade level. In math it is so important to know the basics, because if you don't get the foundation, then it is impossible to keep on moving up without struggling.
   
4. Figure out how to make the program work for you. How long do you want your kids to be on it? How often do you wan to use it? 
5. Give incentives!
   
6. In our family no elementary school or middle school child gets on the computer, unless they do something educational first, and school vacations also means gaining knowledge you would not be able to at school. This might not work for your family, but come up with a metod that works for your family. The most important thing is to get started.
   

 

Now, if you feel as if your child is great at a subject don't hesitate to ask their teachers, if they would be willing to challenge the student in the classroom. They might not agree to, because let's face it our teachers are overburdened with red tape and out-of-classroom work already, but it never hurts to ask. 

Also, if you have a rising fifth grade student, I encourage you to talk to the teacher about whether your student might be a potential Cambridge student. Not all students have to start out in full Cambridge, but just getting a foot in the door helps, and you can start out with just one or two Cambridge classes. 

 

 

 

Khan Academy is just one tool that we parents have in our tool belt. If you stick with me here at the West Augustine News Connection, I promise you to reveal a lot more secrets and to share my knowledge with all of you, so that your children will be prepared for all of the great programs available at the middle school and high school level. 

Check out all of our other favorite Free Educational Services and Resources here, and you can also check out the College Help tab in the sidebar for more tips and tricks on how to prepare your students for debt-free college. 

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out.

 

 

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