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Rethinking Math….
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I have been rethinking the way we do math for school. We use MUS and because my children are behind in math, I pushed really hard to get to where they should be. Needless to say, they are burnt out and we are using BKST math from SCM. The kids love it!! They get very excited when we do math after circle time.
I have been looking at the living math site and feel that this is the direction that I must go with all of my children. I am unsure how I can implent using that type of curriculum. Does anyone here use the living math.net curriculum?
My DD is in 10th grade and is still on prealgebra, DS is on Epsilon and DS Was a on alpha but I felt the nudge. The I needed to put him on primer and he is doing well. However, I feel like he needs more and so does he. My little tag along, wants to count everything. She wants a math book, she wants to count toward and backwards. DS, who is using primer, is starting to add and subtract mentally. For an example…he is getting 6 blocks and says ok, mommy I need 3 more to get 9 blocks. And I say hes you do. I have not taught him this, he is just doing this by himself.
Math scares me and I don’t know what to really do here. I want a math cirruculm, to be my crutch and at the same time I feel that this crutch would hinder my children if I am the slave of the curriculum.
I have bee thinking about using one or two of the following….
livingmath.net
Life of fred
Rod and staff
Continue using MUS
Singapore
Ray ‘s
With all that said, I would like to know other people ‘s experiance with the the curriculum above or other idea.
Also, how can I make pre -algebra and epsilon more “living” or more hands on?
Thank you in advance,
Sarai
We use Christian Light Education’s Maths. My girls are only in grades 5, 3, and 1, but that’s all we’ve used so far and we really like it. They are very reasonably priced, attractive (one color plus black, white, and gray), and the teacher’s manual is pretty good. CLE Math teaches the child – it writes out and draws the explanation. so, it’s possible that you’d have to explain it another way on occasion.
But we really like it.
I’m not a big math person, and tried many programs the past few years. I wanted to have a more living approach to math, but I don’t do well without a lot of structure. I tried Rays, which was ok for awhile but I wanted more of an all in one program. Life of Fred is a great supplement but several of my kids preferred Math U See for a main curriculum.
I bought Dr. WRIGHT’S kitchen Table Math as a guide for living math, but I rarely use it.
Right now I am using Math Lessons for a Living Education for younger grades and Math U See for pre algebra on up. I am going to try Paddy Paper Geometry later for my dd. I plan to try the Introduction to Algebra dvds also.
I try to add games several times a week.
We have used MUS a little before switching to RS. Now we are happy with CLE Sunrise light unit worktexts that Karen uses. But they still use the AL abacus and we sometimes play math card games. My son is now in grade 5 and he has also read elementary Life of Fred and enjoys those. He read them over the summer daily and now he reads them once a week and does CLE 4 days per week. I am happy to answer any further questions you may have about these. From what I have heard about Rod and Staff compared to Christian Light Education is that they are simliar, but CLE is spiral and R&S is mastery.
We are still LOVING our combination of Miquon (mastery based) & Christian Light Education (CLE) (spiral based). You can read all about it on this post…
My daughter 9yr old 4th grade loves Teaching Textbooks and my son 8 yr old 3rd grade loves Alpha Omega’s Horizon workbook. Now my daughter thought the Horizon workbook was cool, so she decided she would do that too…this is a voluntary math and so I just ask that she complete at least one problem from each section just so my money isn’t wasted on the workbook, but she usually does half or more of the worksheet daily. My son decided that he wanted to try out Teaching Textbooks and so he is working on that daily and sometimes he finishes a lesson, but most times he does half. Now what he does on TT3 is totally voluntary on his part. He just doesn’t want to be out done by his sister. I saw Life of Fred and really liked it and so I bought the first 4 books last year and we have been going through them as a family or group effort. I read the chapters and the kids laugh and giggle and ask lots of questions, so it is really a neat curriculum. We do two chapters a week usually.
I can recommend all three of these for sure. both of my kids were behind in math due to Public school fail and so I worked hard but gently to progress them into multiplication and division concepts….then school had terrified them of these concepts. I tried several different curriculums to see what worked best for them. I used Mammoth math and Ray’s and they did not work for us. HTH
If you really want to rethink math, look at mathinspirations.com. I heard a talk she gave and felt really inspired. The talk is availabe for $4 at familyeducationcoach.com. Look under Forum Recordings, 2014 Forum Recordings and this one is titled Making Math the Most Powerful Part of Your Homeschooling.
Something else is to look at mobiusnoodles.com. Definitely a place for living math ideas. This woman lives not far from me and at least the things I’ve look at/gotten, you can choose your own price.
About making pre-algebra more hands-on–I’ve heard great things about the DragonBox app. Supposedly it teaches algebra concepts in a very intuitive way, as a game. Been curious to try it out, but my kids are still young, so I haven’t felt the urgency (although supposedly even 6yo’s can learn with it).
I love R+S and won’t drop it. We tried using MUS, but it just wasn’t quite right. My dc have actually asked to go back to R+S! Even my older ds asked after starting BJU. You can do as much or as little of the problems as you need. I typically have them do half, and then the others are there if we ever need them. So far, we haven’t. It does only go up through 8th and they have a Bookkeeping program which I’ve heard incredible things about. I also know they are working on an Algebra, but it’s not ready at this point. So, you will still need something for Alg and up. (PreAlgebra is solidly covered w/ their 8th gr book.)
I was using MUS for HS but I think we’re going to go back to VT. One thing that has been a bit of a struggle is that there isn’t a textbook that I can give my dc w/ MUS. (It’s combined w/ the AK.) I have no qualms about using it, it’s just not seeming to be a good fit for my dc.
LoF is a great program to supplement at the elementary level. The upper ones would give them another way to look at something if the dc needed it.
Ray’s might be good for a main spine w/ LoF or some other books for supplementing but not because it’s incomplete. I’m thinking more for another aspect and color. Critical Thinking’s Mathematical Reasoning books are great. These would go well w/ another program, too, as well as being a stand-alone math. I personally would probably make sure to work on facts in some manner
RightStart (RS) is awesome, but requires you. That’s the hard part when I’m needing to work w/ 4 dc, one w/ LD’s in language areas so requires me for most everything.
Sometimes we just need to use something. It’s hard to do that w/ math, though, for the obvious drawbacks from switching around. From what you’ve shared, I would say R+S for most (wouldn’t be a huge difference from what they’ve been doing but enough different and has what you seem to be wanting). Your youngest might do better sticking w/ MUS, or using a combination of a couple of things. He seems to be grasping it well. R+S would be fine for him, but he might get a little bored w/ the repetition. Again, though, you can easily skp problems.
Any materials can be come a negative “crutch” when you let them rule you. That’s something you have to figure out, though. (And, I know it can be hard at times.)
K
Thanks for great ideas and inspiration. It made me remember I used to make Math games a real habit around here and somehow completely dropped them for reasons I don’t know. I’m afraid I don’t have much to offer in terms of using a Living Math model, both mine are in textbooks now. Not very CM is it?
Good thread. Something I’ve been thinking about lately.
I was looking up Shannon’s links and had trouble with Moebius Noodles until I realized it was missing a letter, so here it is if anyone else needs it:
http://www.moebiusnoodles.com/
I think maybe it’s spelled both ways (Mobius and Moebius) in English because I’m pretty sure it’s got that umlat in German. Gotta love a Moebius strip, right? 🙂
Thank you all for the great advice and websites!! I have a lot of research to do. I think the first thing I needto do is relax a bit and realize that the curriculum is a tool. From reading everyone ‘s posts, I feel good knowing that I ‘m not alone on this topic
For your older student, you might consider trying a Basic College Mathematics book, which goes over the prealgebra topics without seeming childish. There are a gazillion textbooks by various authors, so your best bet is to ask your local librarian to see how many different versions she can order for you. Then you and dd sit down to compare them and choose the author that seems the most user-friendly to her.
Then go to one of the online bookstores and search for the next-to-last edition of the text. For instance, our local community college used this book. The fifth edition costs about $100, as is typical for textbooks. The fourth edition is available used for $2 plus shipping:
Basic College MathematicsYou don’t normally need a teacher’s manual, as most textbooks have some answers in the back of the book (usually the odd numbered questions), or you can check your work with a calculator or with WolframAlpha. If you need alternative explanations for some topics, you might find math.com helpful.
You say that they are burnt out because you pushed them really hard in MUS. It seems that they were quite far behind and math had not been very consistent for them before that (sorry if I am wrong about that). If I were you I would not switch curriculum. I would stay with MUS and just not push as hard. Then I would suppliment with some more fun opptions. Not having a set curriculum might make things even worse if you are not careful to be super disciplined in making sure they are getting everything needed (especially for the upper grades). Switching might throw them off and take precious time for them to understand the new way. I have found, for me, since I am not very strong in math the key is being consistent and sticking with a curriculum. That way I am learning along with them and we are sure to get it done. JMO of course. Hope you figure out what will work best for your family.
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