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Math decision–your thoughts wanted
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Please help me decide which math to use next. This has been only our second year homeschooling so my older kids had prior math exposure in a private school.
My three sons have reached the end of the following three math texts:
Saxon 8/7 with pre-algebra (the 14yo)
Saxon 5/4 (the 11yo)
Saxon 3 (the 9yo)
We muscled through the books, shortening up the lessons to make them CM-friendly this past year. Our first year we participated in a Classical Conversations group and Saxon was what everyone seemed to be doing so we just went with that. Now I have had time to learn more about what I like (CM method, for instance instead of CC) and the various options out there with regard to so many subjects; it can be overwhelming!
I’m not feeling the love with Saxon. Saxon 3 had to be chopped to pieces to make it short and sweet enough and the other ones jump around so much by topic that I wonder if the boys are really gaining mastery, although there is a lot of that spiraling review…
I also have three daughters: one will be 7 in October, the other two will be turning 5 and 3 in August and November, respectively. Just trying to give you a picture of the season we are in at our house.
I have never taught math from square one before–just jumped into everything with the Saxon books mentioned above so I am a little nervous about how to get started with the almost-7yo once fall arrives. I have the SCM math book/DVD set and I have watched some of it and so far it looks like a nice (and inexpensive) way to get started.
Math U See looks like what I would consider to be a great gift to my children because it appears to really explain concepts in a meaningful way. It looks like high parent involvement, though, so that I could “get” what all those cute little blocks amd overlays are all about in case they have questions. I had hoped that my son would start Algebra 1 in the fall but yikes, his exposure to math has not been with MUS so far so would that be a tough transition?
Teaching Textbooks is the other math I am considering because it sounds rather hands-off for the mom. It sure would be nice to remove math from my plate with so many little ones running around but I don’t want to short-change the big kids, though, if they could be getting a better understanding of math overall from a different program, even if it means requiring more of my attention.
Please share your thoughts and experiences with me. I feel really settled in every other subject but math.
Thank you!
Melissa..
I am in same boat regarding math. Literally, same boat. I was involved in CC the last two years (not attending this next year and switching completely to CM) and used Saxon because everyone was using. (Can you private email me to discuss your switching to CM from CC. I would be really interested to get your journey with this (frog444[at]live[dot]com).
I only have one 6 year old currently in Saxon. He did well, but I was feeling it was really boring him and could see it really depleting his love for math. So, I shortened it. It seems to be MUCH better now, but he really does dread the worksheets. (Even though he does really well)
I am torn, because he really is learning and I feel it is a good program. I have looked at MUS, Math textbooks (I think he would LOVE this), SCM Math, and so many others mentioned here on SCM and AO.
I came full circle, because I am leaning towards still sticking with Saxon. I am just thinking of really shortening the lessons. IF, I were to move, I think I would choose Teaching Textbooks. (For some reason MUS doesn’t resonate with me…I just don’t think like it teaches. So, it confuses me. I really wanted to like it! )
Anyway, not sure this helps. I am so new to CM and pretty new to home schooling. (I have 5 year old girl and another 3 year old boy)
I do know that Saxon is a great program. I almost feel that switching it up might get us out of our ‘groove’ that we have come to know and do well in.
So helpful, hugh?
You are not alone. I would love to hear what some others say…
Renee
I don’t consider Math U See as teacher intensive unless you have a struggling math student. We used it for years with littles around. My older kids still use it.
We switched to Christian Light because I teach better from a traditional math curriculum, and my dd was struggling. I couldn’t bear taking another struggling math student through Gamma ( the multiplication book ). It is a tough book for many.
My dds like the spiral in CLE. It is not as tight of a spiral as Saxon.
My oldest struggled with Saxon, but did well with Math-U-See.
Math-U-See also has online classes.
You may find that each child prefers something different, so you have the choice of tweaking the curriculum that you teach best from, or allowing each child to choose from a few acceptable choices.
Math curriculum choices are difficult, and many students struggle with math. There are several different math teaching philosophies out today. We have tried a lot, and come back to traditional with CLE.
Teaching Textbooks for us is a last resort, because we prefer books and sometimes dvds.
Math U See is what we use so I can share a few thoughts on that. I’ve got 9 kids and in the fall they will be 10th, 6th, 5th, 3rd, 2nd, K, with 3 little boys below that.
First, switching to MUS at Algebra 1: I think it would be doable BUT you as the mom are going to want to work over the summer personally to watch the dvd lessons and work some problems yourself just to get comfortable with it. ( I think this is true with any Algebra 1 though, you really need to have recently been exposed to the topics so you can help your teen as needed). We’ve been doing Algebra 1 this year with my oldest and I needed that refresher of the dvd. Yes, the teacher’s manual explains things too, but on some lessons it explains things in way to much detail and it was overwhelming to me. So I figured out to start with the dvd lesson for this particular level.
In general, at all levels, this is how I do MUS:
Day 1 – Teach the new lesson to the child and work through part of the A worksheet with them, then turn them loose to finish it. Usually this goes well.
Day 2 – Do 1 problem hands on with the blocks, then one on the B worksheet with them. Depending on how they are doing turn them loose, they can come to me with questions.
Day 3 – They do the C worksheet without me unless they have questions.
Up to this point in the week every problem is about the new concept. (A, B, C worksheet pages.) After this point you have 3 more worksheets you can use that are mixed problems (new concept and old concepts to keep things fresh). We rarely use all 3 of these. Instead we do ONE of these on Day 4. If they have grasped the new concept really well on Day 2 then we might jump right to these mixed problem pages on Day 3 and 4 instead of just day 4.
Day 5 they generally take the test.
So if you look over that, the only day that truly takes me investing my time is the first day of the new lesson. After that it’s just a minute here and there if they have questions.
At one point I even started kids on the new lesson on different days of the week so I only worked with one math kid per day. They just all ended up taking their test on different days of the week instead of all on Friday.
I have used a couple of different math programs, and I always come back to Saxon. I know it’s not exciting or beautiful, but it gets the job done. With one caveat…. I don’t use Saxon in the lower grades. The lower grade math was written by someone else and it is very teacher intensive, in my experience.
I used Teaching Textbooks for my middle daughter for the past couple of years, mostly because she struggled in reading, and the program reads the problems to you. But she began getting frustrated, so when I asked her to try the Saxon 5/4 book, I had to put her all the way back to the beginning of the book, and she was more than halfway through TT5. Most people recommend 5/4 for 4th grade, so I expected her to be able to do the problems much farther on in the book. I don’t feel like TT is really up to grade level, and I know it doesn’t do as much review as Saxon.
My youngest is in 1st grade, and we have used the Critical Thinking Company Mathematical Reasoning with him, and he and I have both really liked it. I don’t know if they even have books for the higher grades though. I expect to use this program until 4th grade and put him into Saxon 5/4.
It’s funny though, because I was homeschooled, and we used Saxon Math umpteen million years ago. (I think my mom still has some of the first edition books we used!) Maybe that’s why I like it… I know how it works and can explain things to them if they get stuck. But I turned out to be an accountant, and my brother is a math teacher in a public school, so I would swear by the fact that Saxon is a good program.
Thank you so much, everyone, for your helpful replies!
Renee, yes, I will email you.
I hadn’t heard of a couple of the math curricula mentioned in these responses–so many options! I’ll take a peek at them. Actually, I wonder if the Critical Thinking one the same thing as CTC Math. We briefly gave that a try last year but decided to stick to the Saxon because we’d already bought all of the books.
That’s the other thing–my kids tend to prefer pushing the pencil and using actual paper books than making entries into a computer so that could be an issue.
Tristan, the way you broke that down for me–really appreciated. The big family size is an important factor to consider. That makes good sense the way you structure your week.
We use MUS and I do not consider it teacher intensive at all. This year, I have one in Gamma and one in Alpha and two smaller ones. We added Times Tales to the Gamma and it has worked really well.
I feel like I wasted time switching curriculum with math thinking an approach would be better then another (it really did put us behind with my oldest).
What I found through this experience was that sometimes kids just need to spend more time on something before they really get it. It is not always about the approach.
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