What to use to supplement Everyday Math?

[Damselfly]

Hello! I haven't formally introduced myself~ I homeschooled my ds "D" last year for Kindergarten, but due to circumstances beyond my control, DH and I decided to send him to school this year. He's already cried to me about being bored and wanting more math and science. I am in the process of ramping-up my afterschooling curriculum to meet his needs.

 

His school uses Everyday Math, which I know nothing about other than people on this board do NOT like it!! I will be doing more research on it today if I have the chance. In the meantime, I'm wondering what math would be a good supplement to the style in which Everyday Math is taught? Would Saxon be good to help drill in the math facts? What about Math-U-See? :confused:

 

I have been using Singapore, but don't want two completely different learning styles as I don't want to end up confusing DS. Any suggestions? :bigear:

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

My kids use Everyday Math as well, and I'm currently just having them memorize addition and subtraction tables. From what I can tell from looking on the University of Chicago's (developers of EM) website, it's very difficult to keep up with what they are learning, because they don't seem to cover one topic at a time. Ds's 1st grade teacher told us, "Parents may be confused as to why their children's math homework seems to contain so many different types of problems." They work on several different concepts at a time, and keep on doing things like that ad infinitum, as far as I can tell. It doesn't appear that there is much reinforcement of any one topic at any given time.

 

I just want my kids to be able to know all of their math facts, and be able to compute short problems in their heads, and longer problems on paper. The way that I've seen how EM makes them do multiplication and long division in the future seems very complicated, and it seems to stress a lot of calculator work. I'm going to teach them the regular way to do problems, and just give them worksheets for practice. Dh and I drill math facts with them, since they don't seem to get that in school.

Edited September 27, 2009 by thescrappyhomeschooler
typos

[BabyBre]

I don't know Everyday Math, our school uses TERC Investigations, which is similar I hear. I actually consider the math dc do at school to be supplementary to the Saxon and Singapore we use at home. We're a couple grades ahead and so they're learning the concepts at home first, and that's the way I like it.

 

This thread is full of great information and links:

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57981

[forty-two]

I'd recommend staying with Singapore. It's a good program, and you already have it. It doesn't really matter if it matches up with EM or not - in fact, getting different perspectives is good (certainly that is a core goal of EM). Many of the afterschoolers who post on the group blog kitchen table math use Singapore to remediate/supplement EM. Here are some good posts on Everyday Math and afterschooling (be sure to read the comments, too): starting afterschooling early, Everyday Math frustration, and One Step Ahead of the Train Wreck.

[Damselfly]

Thank you for your responses! Everyone has been so helpful. Thank you, forty-two, for the link to Kitchen Table Math. Some *very* interesting and relevant information for me to read up on. :)

[forty-two]

 

Thank you, forty-two, for the link to Kitchen Table Math. Some *very* interesting and relevant information for me to read up on. :)

I *love* ktm - I've learned so much reading it. Also, here's another EM link - the basic algorithms of EM - I found it informative.