There are so many great math curriculums, how do you chose which one is best for your family?  I have a friend who will only use Saxon, she won't even look at anything else.  I also have a friend who uses Bob Jones, Calculadders, Math U See (all at the same time) and when her children get to jr high she switches to Saxon. 

Guess what?  They are both right!  Each one has decided what is best for her family and is diligently teaching her children.  That is what each of us need to do.  And what works for us could be quite different from what works for any one else. 

With all of that said, here's what we do.

In kindergarten we start off with Miquon Math and Cuisenaire Rods.  We love the rods!  For those who have never seen them, I'll try to describe them.  The rods are based on centimeters and range from 1cm cube to 10cmX1cmX1cm.  There are 10 different lengths and each length is a different color.  They can be used to add, subtract, multiply, divide and do fractions.  And, of course, a great intro to the metric system.  We start with a book called One Digit Addition and Subtraction using Cuisenaire Rods (which is not a Miquon Math book) and when the child has finished that we move on to Miquon.  Miquon is very hands on and a little outside of the box.  There are 2 books per year and goes through the 3rd grade.  However, I've yet to have a child finish them by the end of the 3rd grade, when the work gets hard we slow down.  We're not in any big hurry to finish the books, I'm more concerned that my children understand the concept and are not intimidated by math. 

For my oldest son, we used several Key To.... curriculums after Miquon.  We did measurement and metric measurement.  Then when he was in the sixth grade he did Saxon 7/6.  He hated it!  I hated it!  But it was supposed to be "the best" so he struggled through it.  And technically it might be the best, but it wasn't for us.  So when he was finished with it, I promptly sold it.  Then he did Key To Decimals.  Now he is using Teaching Textbooks for Algebra and is doing great.  Especially for a kid who has only had 1 year of "real" math!

When my second son finished Miquon, he worked on multiplication and division, facts and form for a while (mainly using stuff off the internet).   I wasn't really sure what he was going to do, but I knew we could not do another year of Saxon.  Then Teaching Textbooks came out with a Math 7 (and now 6 and 5).  So, he's now doing Math 7 with TT.  He's only in 6th grade, but I bought it in Jan.  and thought that if it gets tough he can slow down and take a  year and a half instead of a year to go through the book.  Again he's doing great and he had even less "real" math than his older brother. 

My other 3 are working a various levels of Miquon (our one staple in this whole math journey) and my third son will be finishing it very soon.  What will he do then?  He will probably have a couple of years of just playing with math (like his older brothers did) and begin "real" math in about the 6th grade. 

I know this sounds crazy, but it works for us.  I see that my children understand the why of a problem and are not just memorizing facts.  For instance, by 8yr. old knows that 6x4 means 6 groups of 4 and that is why it equals 24, but she doesn't have 6x4=24 memorized.  I'm okay with that, I think the why is more important than being fast, and the speed will come. 

So, that's our math journey.  Next, I'll share our reading journey, which has been much more stressful. 

Feel free to share your favorite math products in the comments.

Angi