For many parents, it’s downright weird to have a fifth grader. Wasn’t it only yesterday that your kid was trembling at the kindergarten threshold? Suddenly, you’re the parent of a “senior” of elementary school. That means big gains in academics, and often growth spurts and hormone surges. Each kid moves at a different rate, and it can be a wild ride!

Fifth graders feel experienced and powerful, but confident as your child may seem, it’s important to take a good look at academic foundations. So what can you expect your child to study in fifth grade? For exact answers, look for academic standards on the website for your state’s department of education, and also inquire with your school. All public schools should comply with state standards; private schools often do as well, but have more variation in specific topics. As a general rule, though, you can expect the following:

One of the best parts of raising children is their love of exploration. And as children enter middle school, one of their favorite things to explore is power: who’s got it, how much do they have and how can I get some? Though this may be a difficult exploratory process for you and others in your household, it’s also a very important factor in your preteen’s social development.

Licensed clinical psychologist Erik Fisher has co-authored a book called “The Art of Empowered Parenting” which encourages parents to understand the power play going on between them and their children.

"When your child becomes an adolescent, they want to be able to express their own power, more so than they have in previous stages of development. They often feel frustrated with those in power around them, and their hormonal activity can decrease their abililty to manage and regulate their behaviors,” Fisher says.

Fisher says most of those power issues are based on perception, not just of your teen, but of the others around them.

Here are three of the most common ways children wish to be perceived by others:

Good: These children want to be accepted by people in charge.

Pros: They’re well-behaved.

Cons: They’re more likely to be coerced into dangerous situations, or to bury their emotions in order to please everyone.

Tip: Create an environment where your child knows it’s okay to think differently, and be themselves.

Right: These children believe that in almost any situation somebody has to be right and the other wrong.

Pros: They’re likely to challenge faulty systems.

Cons: They can appear arrogant, which is used to hide feelings of inadequacy behind their shield of righteousness.

Tip: Encourage your child to see failure as the ticket to learning and improvement.

Strong: Some kids, more likely boys, are born and/or socialized to look strong. Often, however, “good” kids who have lost faith and trust in those in authority will also switch over to wanting to appear strong more than good. This can come out of nowhere for some parents.

Pros: They may be more likely to assume a position of leadership and can be independent thinkers.

Cons: They start to directly challenge their parents and others in authority.

Tip: Don’t get hooked into a power struggle. Guide your child to use their power wisely, and use yours wisely too.

Fisher says parents should try to help their children stop looking at themselves in these black and white terms and instead encourage them to evaluate the spectrum of their power and emotions. Here’s how to do it:

Even though your preteen is gradually breaking away from your parental control, Fisher says, you’re continuing to build the relationship you’ll have for the rest of your life. And that’s priceless.

Remember back when your child was a toddler, and fourth graders looked so big? Well, as they move through school, only a year away from middle school, they’re starting to feel that way too. Early big leaps, like reading first books or mastering addition, are giving way to steady strides. Or so it seems.

In fact, fourth grade also contains another leap: toward independent work. Homework has started by now, but fourth grade is usually the first year in which it will take on big weight and include long, home-based projects. While some kids move right along, expect some stumbles. Don’t be surprised, for example, when you get a panicky look at the end of the day because a project you didn’t know about is due tomorrow and every glue stick in the house has vanished.

As you prepare for these surprises, it’s always good to have an idea of what’s coming up. For exact information, consult your state’s Department of Education website for state standards. Also check the school and class curriculum lists, which should be aligned with state requirements. As a general rule, however, here are the main areas covered in fourth grade across the country:

Reading: In a crucial shift that began as early as late second grade, your child is moving past early “learning to read” into a stage teachers call “reading to learn.” Fourth graders still work on mechanics like vocabulary, but look, as well, for strategies that boost understanding. Want to help? Now is a great time to talk about what your child is reading, to encourage reading time at home, and to model good reading habits yourself.

Writing: By now, expect your child to be writing often in cursive (but don’t be surprised if it loops and jiggles like mad). More importantly, expect more complex ideas: by the end of fourth grade, students should be able to write essays which use several kinds of sentence structures, express a relatively coherent thought, and use major punctuation correctly. This is one area in which computers can be very helpful. You can augment writing at school, for example, by having your child send regular email to a cousin, friend, or techno-savvy grandma.

Math: Building on previous concepts—such as place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, measurement and so on—fourth grade is a time of consolidation. Expect your child to make even better friends with fractions, decimals, long division, measurement and basic geometry like lines and angles. Are you building responsible home-chore patterns at home? This is a great time to invite your child to help tabulate allowances or calculate the percentage you’d save by buying by bulk at the grocery store.

Your child has scaled the cliffs of early reading, shot the rapids of adding and subtracting, and mined for gems in the world of writing. In other words, first and second grade are over. What could top all that?

Well, in fact there’s a giant step waiting in third grade. Kids will still read, write, and do math, of course; but the way they do them will start to shift. This year, and increasingly in fourth and fifth grades, kids move from “learning to read” to “reading to learn,” and from “learning to write” to “writing to communicate.” Teachers will still guide them closely, but they’ll be introducing another goal too: working independently. In most schools across the country, you’ll especially notice this change in new assignments coming home. Has your child had homework before? By third grade, you can generally expect it, and expect that it will count.

So how does this look in your child’s classroom? Specific details vary from state to state. To be sure what’s going on, check your state’s standards on the Department of Education website, and ask your teacher, as well, about the curriculum plan for the class and grade. For a general overview, however, here are some themes to expect:

Reading: Picture books—especially long ones—may still be on a few third grade classroom shelves, but “chapter books” are the rage now, especially when they come in series form, like the “A to Z Mysteries” or the “Magic Treehouse” books. This stage gets less attention than first grade reading, but it’s just as important. Having learned to go from pictures to the “code” of words, the task now is to go the other way: to read words and make mental pictures. Your best parenting strategies? Encourage your kids to read, read, read; and afterward to talk, talk, talk, about the stories. Don’t push on reading levels, however: it’s important that kids learn to read independently on their own, and an “easy” book still gives valuable practice. Harder stuff will come all too soon.

Writing: The third grade shift in reading runs directly parallel to a change in writing, as kids now expand their early skills into paragraphs, short essays and stories that make a point. Their “writing to communicate” may still take some wild birdwalks, but by the end of third grade, expect significant progress. One warning: if your child does not seem to grasp written sequence and is consistently confused and upset about this new level of difficulty, consult your teacher. This may be due to earlier gaps or it can be the result of problems with perception that have not appeared until now. Either way, you and your teacher can work together to keep progress smooth.

Math: Third grade takes off from first and second grade fundamentals, and it’s a marvelous time for most kids. During the year, expect that they will fully master addition and subtraction of numbers between 0 and 12; and that they will move on to understand and use multiplication, early fractions, and even some decimals. As you help kids move into these exciting new levels of abstraction, it’s especially helpful to anchor them in real-life materials and discovery exercises. Ordering pizza? Go wild dividing it into fractional pieces. Counting allowance? Multiply weekly amounts and start calculating monthly or even yearly income. You’ll certainly have fun—but you’ll be building lifelong intellectual connections as well.

Should be old hat, right? This may be called second grade, but really, counting kindergarten, it’s the third year of school. Your child has long ago mastered rugtime and lineup, recess and lunch. You’ve had the excitement of first grade reading and math, so now you’re probably looking forward to a steady, solid year.

Well, maybe. But don’t be shocked if your second grader also has up, down, and sideways days, the kind that make you wonder if kindergarten ever got done after all. It’s developmental: seven year olds tend to think in black and white but worry in Technicolor - all at a time when their academic and social worlds are growing broader by the day. It can be dizzying - but fortunately, teachers expect the ride to get bumpy sometimes, and they expect to help.

So what’s in store at school this year? For details, consult your state’s academic standards, found on the Department of Education website, and ask your teacher to provide the district and/or school curriculum outline. But in general, expect these themes:

Reading: Second graders continue from wherever first grade left off, and teachers expect a wide variety of levels. But as reading becomes easier and more natural, the focus will shift from sounding words out to reading long stories. Keep reading aloud at home - but also encourage your child to read to you. Before reading, try making predictions; and afterward, talk over the story together. What does it all mean? These conversations are usually fun for both kids and parents; they’re also great for second grade learning.

Writing: Having finished first grade, your child can write at least one sentence. Now, in second grade, it’s time for a whole lot more. Expect your teacher to focus on “early production” - writing lots and lots - but also to introduce early editing skills like correct spelling and punctuation. Does Cousin Fred like getting letters? Now is a great time to encourage a pen pal.

Math: This is a big year for young mathematicians, not because there’s so much new stuff but because it’s so important that the basics are solid. Expect lots of work with place value, adding, subtracting, measurement, money, and time. These are lifetime skills, and there’s no such thing as too much practice, in school or out. You can provide steady, easygoing support when you invite help with counting grocery bills, keeping time schedules, or “racing the clock” to remember addition and subtraction facts.

source : education.com

Kindergarten used to be all about developing social skills. These days, it’s more about learning to read and getting ready to tackle academic subjects in 1st grade.

Still, a primary intent of kindergarten is to teach children to work together, share, accept each other’s differences, solve problems by communicating, and enjoy playing with each other.

Luckily, these things come naturally for most 5-year-olds. “Children are so cheery at that age,” says Nancy Davenport, president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals. “They are bright, full of energy, and just love school.”

For some kids, it’s their first chance to interact with other children all day long and to be part of a learning community. It can be an adjustment, especially for children who are used to spending every day at home, whether with Mom or another caregiver. But most kids have had loads of school-like experience by the time they enter kindergarten.

Parents should expect occasional bumps in the road as their children adjust to the kindergarten classroom. Some kids might cry a little. Some might have a hard time sharing toys or understanding that the toys belong to the class as a whole, not just to them. But after a week or so, most kindergarten classrooms are humming along beautifully.

“Whenever a principal has a bad day, you go down and visit a kindergarten class,” Davenport says.

By now, you’ve probably heard the scary rumor: Kindergarten is nothing like the good old days. Back then, you probably went to school for just half a day. You learned to sit at rug-time, take turns at playtime, and handle blocks. In fact, you probably had a lot of fun.

Now, newspapers and magazines across the country are reporting that kindergarten is the new first grade—full of pressure and short on play. Is your five-year-old headed for some kind of academic lockup?

Not at all, say educators. In fact, the main goal of kindergarten is the same as ever: to build lifelong good feelings about learning and school. Chances are, you can expect to see familiar craft projects, painting, and little seeds in cups—and most likely, you will see your child bloom, too, with new friends and self-confidence.

But it’s also true that with the arrival of NCLB and standards-based education, kindergarten classrooms across the country now include new challenges that probably go beyond what you remember from your own school years. Specific curriculum varies somewhat, of course, so be sure you check your state’s academic standards on its Department of Education website. But the general trend is that kindergarten now includes some basics of early literacy and math which used to be covered in first grade. In some districts, kinders may even, like first graders, attend for a full day.

So what will your child do in school? In kindergarten, students begin very basic curriculum in all subjects, including science, social studies, and the arts; but the most important academic topics will be literacy (reading and writing) and math, which underly everything else to come.

This doesn’t mean you should expect your child to recite Chekhov and solve multiplication problems by the end of the year! At this stage, teachers want kids to explore all the building blocks that, in first grade, will make them versatile, fluent readers and mathematical problem-solvers.

Education is very important to both your personal and professional life, in a number of significant ways!

Depending on the level of success you’re seeking to achieve, the level of education may be relative, but the bottom line is, an education of some sort is often paramount to future success. Completing increasingly advanced levels of education shows that you have a drive and commitment to learn and apply information, ideas, theories, and formulas to achieve a variety of tasks and goals.

Subject Matters:

Probably the most obvious reason education is important is to acquire the subject matter and basic knowledge needed to get by in everyday life. For example:

The more you LEARN, the more you EARN:

Have you ever noticed that the word LEARN contains the word EARN? Perhaps that is because the higher level of education you achieve, the higher level of income you are likely to command as well.

Most accept students having a mathematics background either in high school (11th and 12th standards), or during graduation. But they require a 60% marks in graduation. Admissions are given on the basis of a written entrance test, Personal Interview and/or GD. There was centralized entrance of MCA in India at National level AIMCET (all India entrance of MCA, visit: fauxreal as well as each state has its own decentralized entrance.

Now a day’s admission is through entrance tests, which are conducted separately by different universities offering the course. The MCA entrance exams usually have questions based on higher mathematics (sometimes B.Sc. level) and reasoning. Most of the MCA entrance tests are purely objective in nature. But a few tests also have a mix of objective, short-answer, and long-answer types of questions.

The selection to most of the colleges in India , is through the written test only But for some colleges like DU, IMT, Symbiosis (MPIT), there is an interview/GD for the candidates short-listed after the written test. The tests are generally of 2-3 hours. Negative marking may or may not be there. The number of seats for the MCA program is very limited. For MCA Entrance Tests of different colleges, there are different syllabi. Hence, it is difficult to have an integrated approach while preparing for these.

The extremely competitive nature of the Entrance Tests necessitates a focused preparation supplemented by sustained practice over a long period of time and under competent guidance. One needs to be essentially good at higher mathematics, as most of the MCA Entrance Tests comprise Mathematics.