A new experiment in math

Yes, I’ve read that article.  Very interesting!  I’m sure it would work, but for me I need something prepared.  Originally I was planning on doing that, but it ended up being too stressful for me.  (and I now have about 20 living math books I want to sell, if you’re interested!)  I’m not confident that I would do enough games etc with my kids, and it would hang over my head.  I think it is a problem with *me* and not the idea itself.  If you want, I say go for it!!  I’d love to hear the results!

Let’s see if I can give a cohesive response to this. Currently we are not introducing math to our 7 yr old. First, he has learning delays so our approach has had to be less than a traditional track of studies… Our older child, was on track with everything and things went awry with math by gr.3. which resulted in us having to back off altogether… (we had been using a very popular program that was not very traditional) she is now in 8th gr. and we are using “systematic mathematics ” to restore the years the locusts had eaten away” About a year ago I found the article of this experiment mentioned (by the way we live near Ithaca NY, where this exp. began and I never heard about it living nearby) When I took that info and thought about our experiences it really made sense to us. And thinking about how there is so much to introduce to a typical child to begin with to get them reading/writing etc. why would we want to overload them with something so abstract as math…Hence we have become advocates of this by default due to my 7 yr olds delays , but it would also be choice because it makes so much sense. Meanwhile we play dominoes, read many books involving numbers, we have piles of polished rocks and take them out and I lay down a pile of 3 and just say “how many is this and he says 3 w/o counting them individually, then I make another pile , say of 2, and repeat the question, then I group them together and say, “watch this, here is 3 +2 and it is 5” then we start taking some away from the pile etc etc etc. I consider his chore of putting away the silverware , setting the table for meals (figuring out how many family members are home for the meal) measuring cups of flour when we bake, etc etc etc as math skills .. When we begin “formal” math, I intend to use the Strayer Upton series, it isn’t quite as archaic language as others, but using the same word problem/thinking format…Hope this is helpful.. KK P.S. Systematic Mathematics has this above article on their website and he also has a theory about how children start out fine with math and then things going awry , interestingly for me , my older child fit the exact timeframe of that happening …

Kainklan – I plan to use Systematic Mathematics when dd10 is ready. I like Strayer-Upton, too, but we were already familiar with Ray’s and their similar, so we’re sticking to it until ready for SM. The SM approach makes much sense to me too.

I’m wondering if either of you ladies who have made you own scope and sequence would like to share. It would be really nice to see what you’ve come up with.

Couldn’t edit that but just wanted to clarify that the Google doc is not “An Easy Start in Arithmetic” but an article from a homeschool journal and includes a simplified S&S.

R

Sorry, let’s see if this works.

Thanks for the details. I’m starting to work on my own s&s. I read the arithmetic portion of Vol 1 today and Benezet’s article last night. I found it very interesting to compare their thoughts. They both emphasized understanding math rather than doing complicated problems and mindless drill. I’m still feeling a bit unsure about not using a pre-made math curriculum, but I really do like the idea.