Aug. 7, 2007
Curriculum, the flavor of the month
Most of you have already chosen your curricula for the year. Thebrown boxes have arive and you are giddy from the new book smell! Some of you are certain "this is the ONLY curricula you will have to buy for six year and if will work for all of your chidren. It is also what you thought last year and then :Sarah" didn't enjoy getting messy and "Tony" htes listening to read a louds. This is so normal. If you have more than one child you will discover one size fits all usually doesn't. the good news is you can tweak them to make them work for all the children. After you read the story you can act it out or paper mache' your science project , Make lap books (why didn't I know about lap books?) or make dioramas (because we made dioramas of course). what works for one family may not work for you, but thanks to Blogland you are just a plea for help away and tons of suggestions will follow!
I shared some of what we are using already. But I thought I would tell you why I love some more than others.
First Math. Since I began with Christian Liberty Academy we began with Abeka Math. It was Christian based and that was what I wanted. Now when I discovered Saxon Math I poo-pooed it because I wanted EVERYTHING to be Bible based including our word problems. I also only started at 3rd and 4th grade way back then so it wasn't available to me yet.
Let me share my mistakes and then tell you what I loved. Once I left the safety net of CLA, I thought I knew what I wanted. First I went the Ray's Arithmetic it came with my Mc'Guffey's Readers so that saved me money and had that one room school house feel for which I was searching . Heatherlee had a love hate relationship with it, Matthew never took to it. What I didn't realize until Heatherlee had written out every problem by hand, it was suppose to be used for Oral math. "Whoops, sorry baby!" Matthew was doing Math-it at that time having fun with Math (and staying away from Fractions)
Then I discovered Rod and Staff. I Love Rod and Staff. Because they are so affordable I would reccommend every family have a copy just for the story problems! They are the best! "Johnny went over to his grandma's house to help her in the garden." If this is the only book you use I would suggest you do the word problems diligently and maybe every other line on the drills. There is a lot of work on those pages.
When I was Homeschooling Rod and Staff had had a horrible fire that destroyed their warehouse. My children always seemed to be a year ahead of the year restored so we changed Math again. Somewhere between Abeka and Bob Jones I gave up on their poor explanations (yes Heatherlee I know you had to struggle through them which is why I changed!) and listened to my wonderful friends and borrowed Saxon Math. YES I borrowed it. If you have good friends in your life that have books you think you might want to use, BORROW them. And I fell in love again. Jr High Math for Matthew was not a tug of war or a tear fest . Algebra was a breeze. WHY BECAUSE THEY EXPLAIN EVEYTHING IN DETAIL! Thank you intelligent person that designed these books for the child to learn and not so the child is frustrated!
With all the choices out there and with HSB available at your finger tips to ask each other for help, praise God and use it! When someone has a different experience with something you hated find out why it worked for them. It may be like Ray's Arithmetic, they did it orally! (AGAIN I am REALLY REALLY SORRY, Heatherlee! But look how good you are at math! )
What Math Book do you love and why?
Comments
Aug. 7, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by floridasunsets
I loved your opening! Who hasn't fallen for this? "This curriculm will work for ALL of your children forever and ever, Amen!" Yeah, right! Lol! My daughter is starting 9th grade this year, and my son is starting 3rd. Talk about miles apart! What worked great for my daughter does nothing for my son. Thanks for your insights on your curriculum. It's always good to hear from the voices of experience.
Betty
Titus 2
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Aug. 7, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by 2peter318
I haven't found one I love, and this year we are trying Saxon math. I'm praying it will work for us because we have heard such good things about it. I guess we'll see this year. ;)
JoAnn
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Aug. 7, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by sahmto4orMore
I am personally awaiting the brown box containing my new math curriculum.........
Teaching Textbooks Math 6
Talk about explaining everything. The computer CD explains the lesson for my son. He still does work in a workbook then it will explain to him why he missed the practice problems he did during the computer lesson time. I am thinking this will be the pinnacle of math curriculums for us. It will be a wonderful blessing while i am nursing a new baby. I just hope it is as good as it sounds.
Other than that, we've like Horizons Math quite well.
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Aug. 8, 2007 - Thank you...
Posted by 4evrHischild
You are such a blessing to me. Thanks for your prayerful comment on my blog, some of what has come out of this all is that after 23 years, I feel like I'm falling in love with my husband all over again and it's such an amazing feeling.
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Aug. 8, 2007 - Hello :)
Posted by ShayC
We are Saxon "mathers". It presents such gradual learning...I REALLY love that!
Also, thanks for your comment on what counts as a school day...and the tip on breaking up your week is GRAND!!!
Your Friend In Christ,
Shay
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Aug. 8, 2007 - Howdy!
Posted by SongOfTheSagebrush
I just wanted to swing by and say hello...I've gotten way behind in blog time...hardly any time to read or comment these days. Thanks for commenting on my poem...it actually sat in my files for several years, and as I worked on another one, the two went together well...based on the parable of the good samaritan!
Hopefully, I'll have more time to keep up with my blogging friends when fall comes...right now, garden and kids are keeping things busy!
Blessings,
Anne-Marie
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Aug. 8, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Tiany
Wow I have missed a few of your posts, need to get my tush over here and get reading!
can you believe 200 participants!!! I m amazed really! You have been so encouraging and uplifting through this whole process, thank you!!!
I am going to post about your sweet donation can you tell me what you will be donating, I will link folks back to you and your bookstore!
Thank you Bobbie for everything!!!
hugs~
Tiany
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Aug. 8, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Canadagirl
Love your posts as ALWAYS ! [0; I was just thinking I need to do a post on why I like Math U See. [0= I a have to do that SOON.
God Bless you my SSiC and twin in Christ.
In Him<><
-Mary
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Aug. 8, 2007 - You're right: One size does not fit all, but we can stretch.
Posted by EEEEMommy
I'm a Saxon girl, I even used it myself when I was homeschooled in Jr. High. I still love it for the older grades (Math 54 and up), but I have a love hate relationship with it for the younger grades K-3 and for that reason have a hard time recommending it. It's just SO time consuming and it's hard to move ahead if your child really grasps something and doesn't need all the review. But I enjoy the manipulatives and the practical way they teach REAL math...like I said LOVE/HATE. :)
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Aug. 8, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by kaysmarmey
Just stopping by to say hello, thank you for reading my open house post and leaving a comment. Thank you also for sharing from your experiences so we can have some help along the way.
Melissa
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Aug. 9, 2007 - Hi Bobbie,
Posted by Kristee
We used BJ for our 1st 2yrs hsing. I had it growing up and my kids had it at their school before we began hsing. It was a comfort zone for us. However, it became dry and boring. I just switched to MUS. I love it because the kids love it. They can't wait to get on math and some days they do a week's worth of work in one day. I feel like I struck gold.
BTW, thanks for leaving such encouraging comments on my blog. I commented you back at my blog, but thought maybe I should let you know in case you missed it. You truly are an encourager and a blessing. :)
Have a great day,
Kristee
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Aug. 9, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by jenn4him
We started with Saxon. I loved it. It made sense to me, but not to my son. And since he is the student, we changed. He said he wanted colorful workbooks with dancing skunks, so we changed to Abeka for math and language arts. I also love Touch Math, a very pricey program used at public school. I got a free copy of the 1&2 books (PTL). It is such a joy to come and read your blog. I feel like I am sitting at the feet of wisdom.
Jenn
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Aug. 9, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Homeschooling6
Love this post. We used Ray's too and my son enjoyed it but he wasn't ready for mulitplication at the time and we switched and haven't picked up Ray's again ;(
Josh is finishing up R&S but wants to switch back to Calvert Math (Yikes!) it's expensive. I really would rather continue with R&S. Calvert is colorful and he says it's his fun math ;)
Annette likes Rod & Staff so we'll continue with it. Yahoo!!! I love all the problems and it's easy to use. My hubby likes the repitition of math problems.
Caleb is currently using Math-U-See & Rod & Staff, but he prefers MUS and I think we will stick with that for him. I love that we can see Mr. Demme doing the problems and the rods are great.
Love your post =)
Blessings,
Linda<><
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Aug. 10, 2007 - Thank you
Posted by Keri
Math is our downfall.
We have been playing math war and reading math library books, until I decide on a math curriculum.
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