Walking Therein

I Would Like Your Opinion on Math Resources

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2:45 PM, Wednesday, October 4, 2006 .. Posted by Amber

I use math u see, the thing I like about it is that if your child has mastered a lesson you can just skip and move onto the next lesson. My DC all love it!

Good luck, and I hope evrything is going well with you and the family.

God Bless,
Amber

PS~ ring ring...hint hint

saxon

4:09 PM, Wednesday, October 4, 2006 .. Posted by loydboyz

we have used saxon for years and years - my goal with math and other subjects is helping the boys (that's all we have) to become independent learners. i want them to be motivated to seek out what they want to know - if they can learn that they will be very far ahead in alot of areas of their lives. anyhow - when we come across repetition that is driving them nuts, i just go over their lessons and let them skip ahead a few lessons. as long as i am confident that they have grasped the concept and they have kept at their lessons, i reward them with being able to skip a few lessons until they run into new stuff. been homeschooling since 1986 and it's worked every time :-) on 5 sons.

Math

7:13 PM, Wednesday, October 4, 2006 .. Posted by HeartnSoul

Hi Jacque, thanks for the note.

I'm not sure I have too much good insight as this is only our 3rd year. We started with Saxon just because another hser was using it. I do like it, for the "self-educating" aspect, however I have to add a few more things to get through some of the tougher spots, usually online instruction on specific questions.

For ds-who is 5.5 I am using a workbook (gasp!) called Mind Building Math from The Critical Thinking Co (BM), which I am amazed that he enjoys doing 2-4 pages a day. He can't read all the words, but he can understand the math, which is not just adding but very interesting. He just naturally likes to learn, plays chess, matches cards, counts dice, etc. My SIL is sending me all her MUS so I hope to start him out on that. The older kids will use the MUS advanced math along with Saxon if needed.

blessings
Denise T

Okay, I "lurk" no more...

7:44 PM, Wednesday, October 4, 2006 .. Posted by Mommymezinda

Hi Jacque!

I am using Abeka with my 1ds14 and it is, umm, okay for now. I have to admit I am not excited about it. But so far, so good. We've used Math-U-See, Saxon and now, Abeka. I got straight A's in algebra in high school, but that was years ago... So, for now, we are going to stick with Abeka. I have a friend at church who is a High School algebra teacher and she told me she would help me out if we get stuck. Haven't needed to yet.

On another note, I hope you are feeling better these days and not so tired!!! Even though it has been many years since I was expecting, I do remember the mind-numbing weariness like it was yesterday. God bless you and your family this fall.

Live to bring Him glory,

Melinda

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10:40 PM, Wednesday, October 4, 2006 .. Posted by babymakers

OK you are going to think I am either crazy or wierd. You decide.

We started off with A Beka. I actually liked it and the children were excelling with it. However, just because you can do it on paper does not mean you can apply it to real life. It was also very time consuming and I could see the desire in my children to play (like children should) instead of doing school busy paper work. Using the public school way of teaching was ruining my childrens love for learning. My children could count change on paper but could not do it in real life. Sooooo, now we don't use curriculum at all. Nothing. I am making it up as we go. My children have more time and are using the math in real life as we learn it. This year I want my children to get a good grasp of fractions. We used counting music (they are learning piano) to understand fractions and also cutting cookies. We also double and triple recipes. That is easy to do with 7 people in the house. So, that covers addition and multiplication for fractions. Once we have an answer to say 3/4 Cup of milk * 2 than we have to convert it to proper fraction. To do this we might make it a fraction, mixed fraction, decimal ect... Who knows what part of math we will be using in the long run to get the answers we need. It is always a surprise.

I noticed since we only do "table time" 3 times a week that my children WANT to learn so they soak it up better. We are applying it to our lives throughout the week so we are grasping it better while taking less time. Within about two weeks of doing it this way my children could count money and MAKE CHANGE (unlike most clerks at the store nowdays). After a whole year of doing paper work the year before my children could not grasp these concepts very well in real life.

I am sure when we move onto Algebra or geometry we will do the same thing. I will find a reason to need to measure the height of a tree or our house using geometry. I will figure out something.

If I don't know how to do it I will get a college or highschool math book from a used book sale or borrow one and work through it myself so I know how to teach my children. That is what I am doing with English. I am slowly working through it and teaching it to my children as they write papers or blog. I don't make them do boring papers all day. They naturally WANT to write. It is working well. I have found that public school failed me and I am having to learn everything before I can teach my children. I did not even know what a pronoun really was until this last year. Whatever I am doing it is working because my daughters 3rd grade test (mandatory in Pa) showed her lowest level to be almost 4.5-5th grade level and her highest score was almost 10th grade in English.

So, what do you think? Crazy or just odd?

Comments

12:29 AM, Thursday, October 5, 2006 .. Posted by shine29

YAY! I can finally comment on your page now without waiting forever! I had dialup and it was so slow, some blogs loaded faster than others, but I had more trouble with the homeschool blogs.....anyway, we got DSL and it's FAST!

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12:47 PM, Friday, October 6, 2006 .. Posted by 6littlelambs

Making Math Meaningful by David Quine. I didn't really care for the kindergarten program but I really like the rest of it. Right now it goes through Algebra. He was working on Geometry. Not sure if it's done yet. His curriculum teaches how to think "algebraically" from the beginning.

Calculadder for math drill. They now have a cd rom and you print out the pages you need from it. You stay at a level until you master it. The only competition is yourself. They have drills clear through fractions

Fun with Figures This is a downloadable ebook(about $30- you get a lot of neat stuff). This book teaches really neat tricks for doing all kinds of mental math. Can't wait to delve into it more!

Life of Fred www.polkadotpublishing.com I haven't used this but it looks really cool! It is math from algebra through calculus and statistics. The books average around $30 a piece but would be nonconsummable I believe.

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2:03 PM, Friday, October 6, 2006 .. Posted by lindafay

Hi Jacque,

For kg and first grade we played games as you do. I think that just about any program will do for the elementary years if we tailor it to work for our particular children. I used the old Scott Foresman that Sonlight recommended for all the elementary years and we just drastically cut back on the problems. We kept math lessons short, but daily.

Algebra, however is different, in my opinion. It involves more than just arithmetic and so needs good explanation. I did a lot of research before I chose
teachingtextbooks.com
Frodo is using it this year and loves it. It is a self-teaching computer program with a lecture from a man who puts a blackboard on the computer screen. He explains and solves every problem so mom hardly ever has to be involved. His explanations are very clear. (much better than videotext algebra) It includes 8 CDs and a huge textbook that has everything that is on the CDs. The price is a little hefty, but I really wanted my children to have a good experience with algebra and I figure it will be used for all my children, so it isn't so expensive.

We have only used ...

4:19 PM, Friday, October 6, 2006 .. Posted by Canadagirl

Math U See in our HS adventure. I love how Steve Demmi teaches on the DVD's and you use the math manuipulatives in All levels and makes it real concrete teaching. They say if there is a math trick to be learned Steve Demmi has it and I agree ! We are about the start Algebra in the next SHORT while. 1ds is finishing up on his book and I need to order the next one. Wow trying to keep up ! God Bless.
In Him,

I've been meaning to post something,

8:54 PM, Friday, October 6, 2006 .. Posted by ThreeLittleLadies

but internet time has been limited this week.

Anyway, I've only been homeschooling 2 1/2 years, and we've been using Singapore Math. It is very visually attractive, and the pages aren't too full or overwhelming, and comes with text books for every age except preschool, that are at the kids' levels. It came highly recommended by Sonlight Curriculum. I also use Miquon Math, which is hands-on and teaches in a unique way. I do both most days, which usually means something easy, and something more challenging on most days, and seems to work fine. I can't say what we are going to do later, but we like this pretty well. I do get tempted to change to MUS, but that is when I read such high reviews from other bloggers. What I'm doing is inexpensive too, and I think MUS is higher.

Well, I guess that is it for this post. I'm looking forward to reading others' comments.

Carol

I use...

5:10 PM, Saturday, October 7, 2006 .. Posted by SuperAngel

Saxon Algebra. I like it better than the A Beka, but it still seems to repeat alot of the same things, and me being the organized control freak that I am, I cannot seem to skip any of the lessons or problems.
So I just keep doing everything.
I have a feeling that when I homeschool I will use Saxon.

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