(What does a sunflower picture have to do with math? I don't know, symmetry or something. I didn't have time to take a better picture.)
This year it became clear that we need to do something different for homeschool math.
Overall, I have been really satisfied with our math curriculum, Rightstart Math, up to this point. When my oldest was in kindergarten, a friend told me she was using Rightstart Math with her kindergartener because it included lots of games to help the kids retain the information. I knew that would be something we would enjoy, and when I did a little research on Rightstart I was very impressed. I could see that it would be a really thorough program, present the information in a variety of ways and help the student apply it through alot of manipulative use.
I also liked that it was a spiral program as opposed to mastery - meaning that instead of being stuck on the same type of math concept for weeks on end, it presents a math topic for a week or two, then moves on and circles back through the concepts, from different angles, throughout the year. I knew that would keep things a little more interesting for my kids and we wouldn’t get so bogged down in one concept, trying to “master” it before we could move on. The program would keep things moving, and I could rest assured we would come back to difficult concepts for more practice and review throughout the year.
In addition to all that, when I looked at how Rightstart emphasized teaching the student how to do math in their heads, it matched up with how I myself think about numbers. It was a perfect fit!
We have really enjoyed using Rightstart ever since 1st grade, and my kids haven’t struggled with grasping the math concepts. My kids have done really well with it, and can all do some pretty large math problems in their heads, which I think is a skill that will serve them well in life.
However, something shifted this past year, and we got to the point where it was taking one of my kids an excessively long time to finish math lessons. My child understood how to do the problems, and mostly got them right every time. However, Rightstart itself becomes much more intense as you get to higher levels. The worksheets become more complicated and require alot more abstract thinking. Though time expectations for math lessons obviously increase the older kids get, we really started to get bogged down in the complicated worksheets, and it was beginning to lead to alot of frustration on both my part and my child's.
When I started hearing "I hate math" on a daily basis, and it started to become something we both dreaded, I knew something probably needed to change. My main goal with my kids and math has always been to not push them ahead too fast - I never wanted them to get to the point where they either got frustrated and felt like they weren’t “good” at math, or ended up hating it. There is a certain level of struggle and frustration that comes with math anyway, and I don’t want to add into that unnecessarily.
Righstart is a pretty rigorous math program, and unfortunately I think we have fallen into that category of pushing too hard on math right now. So for this upcoming year, not all my kids will be doing Rightstart. I read once that around 4th-6th grade, alot of math programs end up merely repeating the same concepts in different ways, waiting until the kids’ brains catch up and grow enough to understand the more abstract concepts of algebra. So if there is a time to try something different for math, I think right now is it, before we start getting into higher math in the middle school years.
We decided to start with Teaching Textbooks for math this year, after doing their free trial for the last couple of weeks of school this past spring. It is a computer-based math program that has a tutorial for new concepts, practice problems, and periodic speed drills and review. My main thought on this is that even though it’s an “easier” program in some ways, a less intense program is actually what we need for math right now. I like how Teaching Textbooks doesn’t take all afternoon to complete. As my kids get older, other subjects are going to start to become more involved, and we don’t need to be getting so bogged down in math at this stage.
I also really like that Teaching Textbooks has built in speed drills and multiple practice problems, presented in an engaging and more lighthearted way. We are looking forward to getting through math a little quicker this year, and I think that will give us more time to grow in other areas. We may very well go back to Rightstart in the future, but for now, a less involved program is what we need! I think it will be great for us during this season.
Some of my children will continue with Rightstart Math, because I do think it provides such a great foundation of teaching kids mental math, which is something I think will serve them all well. But part of homeschooling is to know when to push ahead and when to ease up, and this is an easing up year for us. I’m looking forward to a hopefully more joy-filled homeschool year, in math and in general!
What do you use for math? Do you (and your kids) like it?
We’ve used Math U See. We switched for a few years and went back to it. Math U See has worked so well for my two kids. My daughter took college algebra & aced it. When she was young she was never “a math person” but was better in English/Writing skills. So I’m pretty happy with the results.
We love Math U See. We’ve used it for awhile, went to something else and back to it. My kids have enjoyed it and have learned easily from Math U See. My daughter who “struggled” with math initially, took College Algebra and aced it. So I’m pretty confident in Math U See.
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