The big brown truck pulled up in front of our house the other day with our first shipment of 2008-2009 school materials. Teaching Textbooks for 7th grade

and Algebra I arrived! 

This is a major change for us.  We had been using A Beka since the beginning of time.  I loved their beginning math.  However we were getting worn down.  I finally freed myself this past year to only do a portion of all the daily lessons.  Honestly, this must be designed for math whizzes who live in math.  Also I had to tell the dc not to worry about the tougher concepts, many of which I never ran across even though I took precalculus in college.  There seems to be different levels of A Beka math.  Grades K-3 are cute and colorful.  Loved them.  Grades 4-6 lose the color on the tests and quizzes.  That was heartbreaking to dd and I.  Then Grade 7 was a shocker.  I was so confused. The entire layout changed.  It was difficult to determine where one lesson began and another ended.  Also I had to buy yet a separate book for the in depth answers to word problems.  They used to be at the back of the 1-3 level books.  Then I noticed I had no in depth answers to the tests.  We were fine with the mere answers in the separately purchased teacher's key, but if we were stuck, there was no explanation to how to get the answer.  Grade 8 was no better.  I could see the writing on the wall.  I started listening in to all the high school math banter at one of my yahoo groups.  I had learned about the wonder of Math U See.  I had used many of the same manipulatives with my children when they were younger.  I worried we might be too old to pick up an entirely new way of doing math.  Besides, my dc were never fans of using manipulatives.  I did order a free sample of Math U See about 2 years ago and have yet to recieve it and in my search forgot all about it.  

Next year dd starts Algebra I and I was deeply concerned.  I felt this was a matter of prayer to consider all the options.  DH is good at math, but not structured and he'll never make the time to teach the dc.  I am no math whiz.  I  confess I detest math.  I could probably learn to enjoy it, if only I had made time to add the daily A Beka math lessons to my overly full schedule.  Then I could probably really pick it up.  But I was feeling swamped.  We were considering that I would study math daily with dd and if I got stuck I would go to dh.  Yet, I didn't feel a peace about this.

I've heard of Video Text, the mother of all high school math programs.  Well, the dc do not enjoy math nor do they plan to major in it in college.  VT seems to be the program of choice for math bound majors because it is so intense.  I didn't seem to be a good fit for us.  I went through each curriculum and only one seemed to offer hope:  Teaching Textbooks.

Teaching Textbooks has a reputation for the reluctant math learner, engaging them in a simplified way so that they grasp the math concept.  The huge selling point for me was that through all the CDs, I'd have a math tutor whenever he was needed.  The student pops in a CD to learn the lesson.  One of the Sabouri brothers explains the lesson while a pencil is seen moving across the page.  I chose a lesson I had vague memories from in Alegebra I.  (There are samples on their site.)  Wow!  By the time it was done, I felt as if I understood it better now than I did before.  Then the student does the work in the book, then she checks her work against the answer key.  Any she gets wrong she needs to correct.  If she can't figure it out, she can pop a solutions CD in the computer and select the problem she missed.  Then one of the Sabouri brothers explains how that is done.  

One of the arguments against Teaching Textbooks is that it's not in depth enough, doesn't prepare a student for the SAT or college.  I've heard some moms say they are just glad their child can at least solidify the basic concepts instead of being overwhelmed and moving too fast.  This is how I was leaning.  I did a little research and found reviews of kids who used TT and maxed the math portion of the SAT and did just fine in college math.  I've heard moms say the opposite.  I think this tells me it is not the fault of the program but that some students did not retain information.  That can happen with any program.  

When we went to our homeschool bookfair, we went to the Teaching Textbooks booth and got to interact with everything as well as talk to some of the moms.  One mom said they used to use Math U See and loved it!  Then they got to Algebra I and she was going nuts trying to figure out the concepts.  That's when they discovered Teaching Textbooks.  Her oldest has whizzed through math and has not needed to use all the CDs.  He did well on the SAT and his friend, who used TT, maxed the SAT.  The younger dds of this lady have not enjoyed math until they got TT.  It's been a wonderful fit for the family. 

Although my primary concern was dd entering Algebra I, in the back of my mind I was concerned about ds entering Math 7.  He does an excellent job with math but detests it so much that he will spend hours day dreaming and has a really negative attitude about it.  But if we are playing board games and he's keeping score he can beat any of us.  I have minimized his math work in A Beka but it doesn't matter how little I give him, he just labors over it.  So I had thoughts of getting TT for him too. 

TT has a different approach to Math 7 and below.  All the work is done on the computer. The student pops in the CD, listens to the lesson and is then given sample problems to practice.  The student then does these on a sheet of paper and enters the answer.  After 3 errors it will explain the concept.  There are also selectable characters to interact with the student.  One was a robot and another was an animal.  DS played with this while I talked to the ladies.  I watched him at one point.  He was given two numbers to subtract, both 6 digits long.  There were several numbers to carry.  I watched ds compute everything in his head and get the correct answer!  Why can't he do this on a sheet of A Beka paper????  Boys and their toys!  There was also a record keeper built in for the teacher to keep check with the student's progress. This might be what we need to get over the hump.

After this we went to the next table, the A Beka table and looked at their algebra I book.  Oh my goodness, I saw things in that book which looked like another language.  However when I looked through the TT algebra, it had every useful topic that a student needs to learn higher math, prepare for SAT and daily applications.  A good math teacher can weed through A Beka math and pull out what is really essential.  I know because I have a very sweet friend whom I met in some of my yahoo groups who gave me lots of encouraging advice last year on how to endure A Beka math.  Now endure is what I have to do.  Not her.  She excels with it because she is a math major and has that wonderful background of knowledge to make A Beka math fit her dc who also excel at math.  I wish we lived next door to each other and perhaps we could have traded off dc for different subjects!  So I don't want to put A Beka in a bad light, because I have friends who use it successfully. But for our needs and limitations, it was looking like TT was the answer to our prayer.   

That night I told dh all about it.  He liked what he heard.  He asked how much it would cost.  gulp  I told him and he said, is that all?  Whew!  Because he excels in math, he understands the expense of hiring a math tutor.  They are pricey.  In college, I was a reading tutor and was upset to learn that my friend made more money that I did because she was a math tutor.  That's discrimination!  But that's the way it is.  Math tutors are expensive. Teaching Textbooks is cheaper.      

We are done with our math curriculums for the year!  Woo hoo! I feel like a weight has been lifted!  Now I feel like summer is around the corner.  Now we can really have fun wrapping up school.

Neither the children or I enjoy math. Math is merely an endurance test, although we realize there are educational benefits as well. 15yod has learned her basic math facts well and is solid in basic math usage.  If anything throws her, it's the word problems.  I was thrown by them all the time in school too.  My son could be brilliant in math, if he gave it a chance.  He has never enjoyed memorizing things.  When he was younger I tried everything under the sun to encourage him to memorize the math facts:  audio math song tapes, math games, pc games, etc.  To this day, if he misses a complex math problem, it's probably because he made a careless mistake in a basic math fact.  He knows them, but he doesn't really own them.  Therefore, I feel a need to drill the basic math facts this summer, sigh.  

The dc and I have discussed the need for this and we were in agreement.  We could do some math games while doing long math computations. We never formally discussed how to do the games, we only discussed that we would do it.  Behind my back, they hatched the plan for how we would play. They made the announcement the other morning.  They told me what I was going to do to lead them!  They set up the white board with their chosen pen color and wrote their name at the top.  I am to go through the long math equation and it's a race to the finish.  When they figure out the final answer they write it on the board.  Whoever is first and correct gets the point.  We do this for 30 minutes or less, stopping at 9am.  We begin after our morning devotions.  So far after two mornings of this, it has been a hit.  

One thing I do like about the A Beka math program is that they have math drills like this worked into the teachers' lesson plan book.  I gave up doing them with ds through the year because for him to do it solo was sheer drudgery and set a poor tone for his math paper of the day.  When we started these the other day, I began at the front of the book and we will work our way through. They start out simple, like 6+8-2+9=?.  Now they are getting longer and throwing in multiplication and division.  Later they will throw in fractions, etc.

I like these because it takes the brain to a new level of development.  Like dictation which is highly valued for training the brain to hold chunks of information for a period of time, this goes a step further.  Doing math computations in the brain helps new synapsis to grow while processing chunks of information temporarily stored in the brain.  We do so little of this type of work in our highly visual society today.  Even 150 years ago, the one room schoolhouses did a great deal of auditory work.  When I read the Little House books aloud to my children, I was amazed at what a one room classroom produced.  There is something to be said about the old fashioned way of education...which many of us homeschoolers have grabbed hold of.  Doing auditory memory work develops the brain.  Since my dc invented this game, they are having fun with it and I accomplish my goal of increasing their math skills.  Yea!

We are not necessarily a math family...at least not the children or me.  My husband is good with math.  When he was taking college classes, I kept telling him that statistics was a bear.  I've known math majors who struggled with it.  Although dh struggled with most of his college classes, he was the star of his statistics class!  It was a wonderful change of pace for him, to be the one who knew all the answers and to be asked by the instructor to put sample answers on the board.  For a guy who is mostly hands on and rarely bookish, it was a shining moment!

My children and I do not equally shine in math.  For us, math is a laborious process that we endure.  Nevertheless, we aim to conquer.  It is the first subject of our day, when our brains are  fresh.  We also want to get it over and done with!  =0  My children have pretty much followed my footsteps, carrying an A or B average, but enduring while trying to understand. 

12yos, especially, has struggled.  As brilliantly minded as he is, he detests the tedious work of memorization, whether it was phonics or spelling rules, much less math facts.  He'd often lose hope and I keep telling him one day things will kick in.  I was hoping Piaget, in all of his theories, was on target when he said puberty makes a big difference in abstract thinking.  I have seen that in 14yod.  I've been waiting for the day for it to kick in with 12yos.

Today was the day.  After his quiz, which he aced, he completed his worksheet.  Today he studied Pascal's triangle. Having no idea what was going on, he came to me for help.  This in itself has been a major accomplishment.  Until the last year, he thought he was a poor student if he needed help with anything.  Therefore when he comes for help, I exaggerate the opportunity to help him, just to tease him.  =)  

I could tell he was not completely focusing on what I was saying, because the gears in his brain were busily whirring.  Part way through my explanation, things started clicking.  Actually, he found a pattern I had not seen.  It was enough to get him started.  When he finally turned the paper in, he got the final question wrong and I had to figure that out to explain.  I walked him through how I backtracked on the lesson, to figure out the pattern.  Although I knew the correct answer because of the answer key, I had no idea how to explain it.  In the midst of the process, the lightbulb went on for both of us; once again we each saw different patterns.  Unlike my dd who needs every detail explained, ds was catching on quickly and could quickly see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I do believe there is hope in math yet!  LOL