Posted in Homeschooling

Having homeschooled now for a decade, I have some thoughts about math.  Back in 2001, I believe, I attended a homeschool conference at which a representative from HSLDA gave us some statistics.  I don't remember exact numbers, but it was along the lines of "Homeschoolers test much higher than public schoolers in language arts, and somewhat higher in math."  But the percentage was much lower for math.

Later that same day, I attended a session on unschooling conducted by Susannah Scheffer (who was part of Growing Without Schooling at the time).  She noted during that talk that even unschooling families tended to revert to using traditional textbooks for math.

I put these two thoughts together and wondered if the reason why homeschoolers did not score higher was that they relied on traditional methods of studying math, whereas they would use different methods for language arts.  But, like other homeschoolers, I didn't have any idea how one could study math differently.

Until I began studying Montessori.  At some point I realized that Montessori had been around long enough for long-term studies to have been done about it, so I did an Internet search and found a fascinating article at www.montessori-ami.org/research/outcomes.pdf. This study compared high school students in traditional schools.  One group had attended a Montessori elementary school, and the other regular schools.  It found that the Montessori students scored significantly higher on standardized math and science tests.

I really was attracted to the Montessori math materials when I visited the school, which you can read about here.  I would like to go back and relearn math through the Montessori method myself!  The whole system makes so much sense to me, and if my children had to go to school, that is where I would want them to go.

But, this leaves me with a dilemma - I can't afford Montessori school, nor do I want my children to go to one, but they still have to learn math.  I can't afford the time or money to become a certified Montessori teacher, nor can I afford all the Montessori math materials - several thousand dollars was my casual estimate from looking through one of my catalogs.  Besides that, without Montessori training, I wouldn't understand how to use all the materials.

So last year I considered buying Schiller Math, a homeschool program based on Montessori principles.  But I ultimately rejected it because it didn't seem quite right.  It wasn't what I wanted. 

Our math curriculum so far has been pretty much Saxon.  My oldest child, who graduates this year, started homeschooling in second grade with MCP math.  I realized towards the end of the year that he had already known everything in the book.  The placement test was not a true "placement" test - it merely said that he was ready for second grade work.

So I scrapped that and since he liked sports, we started working through a book on sports-related math, which he just told me was the only math book ever worth doing.  It actually was supposed to be middle school level, but we just worked through it and tried to figure things out together.  Eventually though it seemed like he needed something more traditional and I got him Saxon 87.  I really didn't know what else to do.

At first he seemed to really like Saxon.  He felt he understood it and was doing well.  But then as he got into higher levels, he began having trouble.  I am pretty good at math and could have helped him, except he didn't want to bother me and from my perspective, going back and figuring out what they were trying to teach him and then trying to figure out what he wasn't understanding overloaded my circuits (and usually his too).  Math was stalled.

Then my wonderful, loving, supportive-of-homeschooling mother offered to pay for a math tutor.  Robert suggested that one of his friends, also homeschooled and a little further ahead in Saxon, could be the tutor.  This worked out pretty well for a while, but then their family moved. After looking on Craig's List, we found a math tutor.  She is a young math teacher at a nearby charter school who tutors for extra money.  She was worth every penny!  She and Robert worked really hard over the summer to finish all of Algebra 2 and Advanced Math before Robert retook the SATs in October.  She also ended up writing him a recommendation for college.

Since, initially, Saxon seemed to work so well, I bought Saxon 1, 2, and 3 from a friend and began using that with my daughters.  Gabrielle seemed to do pretty well with it, but Mary just didn't like it.  Pages of math facts produced paralysis.  Saxon seemed to teach something and just expect the child to get it right away.  But what if she didn't?  And then the next lesson would be about something else, and she would get confused about that, and she began hating math.  So I quit using Saxon with Mary somewhere during Math 2.  I let her slide for a while and then got Singapore Math, mainly because it was cheap, so if she hated that too, it wouldn't have cost me very much.

She still hates math and is progressing very slowly, but at least Singapore stays on one topic long enough for her to begin to understand it.  Gabrielle also says that she doesn't like math, but not as vehemently as Mary.  She is working through Saxon 54 right now, slowly.  Even doing some math every day, we only get through 2 or 3 lessons a week.  Usually she watches the DIVE cd, then we do the mental math and practice problems, then I circle the problems I want her to do.  I can't imagine making her do all 30 problems for every lesson!  Then she also does the fact sheets, and she is pretty good at the facts.  That is one area that concerns me with Mary - she seems to not really know the facts, but drill is anathema to her and I cannot (will not) make her do it.

My track record so far with homeschooling math is unimpressive. None of them like it! So again, in desperation, I decided to look at Schiller Math.  And that's when I found RightStart Mathematics, which is a program developed by a Montessori teacher.  I have also been looking at Teaching Textbook.  It's funny, one is going from kindergarten up and the other is going down from high school.

After much thought and consideration of my children, I am planning to have Gabrielle finish Saxon 54 and then move into Teaching Textbook.  I plan to keep Mary in Singapore until she is ready for TT.  And for Ryan, who will be kindergarten age this fall, I am going to order RS Level A.  It really galls me to spend $100 on math for a 5 year old, but I really want something different math-wise for my younger children.  And I am wondering if maybe the abacus they use in that program might help Mary with her math facts in a fun and interesting way.  Also, of course, I will have 3 children younger than Ryan to also use the program!

I will report back in another ten years or so and let you know!