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Griping for a minute


mamashark
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My dd9 has been doing prealgebra and loves it! She eats up each concept and opts to spend extra time solving the harder problems once she understands each concept. She talks about how much she loves it, and I love seeing her enjoy math since we've had a rocky road getting to this point. 

BUT

 

I have to teach it to her. She can't just read the text and figure it out, because she learns best with discussion style teaching. Thrives on discussion style teaching. And I hate math! I barely understand the prealgebra and struggle to explain it even with the explicit teaching in the text and I get so frustrated when I can't explain it properly. I find myself avoiding math and now after Christmas break I am dreading getting back into it! 

 

And I have no money. Like, literally no money - we just spent our entire emergency savings on a new power steering assembly on our van. So I'm stuck with the math we've got and I've got to just suck it up and keep teaching it.  :glare: Grumble. 

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Is this your oldest? Could she stay up a little later than the others to do math with Dad after they're in bed?

It is my oldest but she's an early bird and usually asleep by 8pm with wind down time and reading from 7-8. She is the one who turns out her light and goes to sleep that early, too, it's not my mandated bedtime for her.

 

I'll have to talk to my husband, maybe he can do 30 min. With her in the evening and I can review problems the next day or something.

 

 

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Sounds like it is time to revisit your long term plans for math.

 

When you decided to homeschool, what was your original plan how to handle higher math, if you hate math and are struggling with prealgebra? How did you and your DH envision her math instruction in the upper grades? Coop, tutor, trading with another homeschooler? Depending on what you had thought of, can you bump up this plan by a bit and do whatever you were going to do for high school NOW?

 

Tutor in the neighborhood?

Trade homeschool classes with another parent ("you teach my kid math, I teach your kid French")?

Find a homeschool coop?

Can dad take over the math instruction?

 

Math is a difficult subject to teach oneself, and I would not expect a 9 y/o to teach herself from a book.

 

If there are no other options, you will need to spend more time on math to study ahead so you can work with her. 

Parents have learned alongside with their kids, up to pretty very high level.

Edited by regentrude
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Sounds like it is time to revisit your long term plans for math.

 

When you decided to homeschool, what was your original plan how to handle higher math, if you hate math and are struggling with prealgebra? How did you and your DH envision her math instruction in the upper grades? Coop, tutor, trading with another homeschooler? Depending on what you had thought of, can you bump up this plan by a bit and do whatever you were going to do for high school NOW?

 

Tutor in the neighborhood?

Trade homeschool classes with another parent ("you teach my kid math, I teach your kid French")?

Find a homeschool coop?

Can dad take over the math instruction?

 

Math is a difficult subject to teach oneself, and I would not expect a 9 y/o to teach herself from a book.

 

If there are no other options, you will need to spend more time on math to study ahead so you can work with her.

Parents have learned alongside with their kids, up to pretty very high level.

Thanks for this! It was a helpful reminder.

 

 

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You're not going to like this idea, but I recommend that you work well ahead of your daughter in whatever text you've decided to use.  You may find that once you understand it better by doing more of it, you won't hate it as much.  

 

I did very poorly in math in high school.  I had to retake both Algebra I and geometry, and I got a D in Algebra II.  When I realized that I would be teaching my older son Algebra I, I decided to run through the ALEKS Algebra I course.  It took about a week of intensive work (by "intensive" I mean that I did the program in all of my spare time).  I then did the same with geometry the next year.  With that base, I was able to back off a bit and just work ahead of my kids in whatever text they were using.  I am currently doing this for BC Calculus (even though my kid is in school--the teacher is horrible), and having done it for all of the math until now means that I am prepared (though I am finding that I need to draw in resources other than the text provided by the school because it is almost as horrible as the teacher).

 

Some kids do well with being handed a text and told to go for it.  But many others, maybe even most others, need a human to teach them and keep them on track.  As a homeschooler, I felt that I needed either to be that human or find a human willing to do it.  Unfortunately, finding a human to do math with a kid several times a week is usually not feasible, either financially or logistically, so being that human becomes the only option. 

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You're not going to like this idea, but I recommend that you work well ahead of your daughter in whatever text you've decided to use. You may find that once you understand it better by doing more of it, you won't hate it as much.

 

I did very poorly in math in high school. I had to retake both Algebra I and geometry, and I got a D in Algebra II. When I realized that I would be teaching my older son Algebra I, I decided to run through the ALEKS Algebra I course. It took about a week of intensive work (by "intensive" I mean that I did the program in all of my spare time). I then did the same with geometry the next year. With that base, I was able to back off a bit and just work ahead of my kids in whatever text they were using. I am currently doing this for BC Calculus (even though my kid is in school--the teacher is horrible), and having done it for all of the math until now means that I am prepared (though I am finding that I need to draw in resources other than the text provided by the school because it is almost as horrible as the teacher).

 

Some kids do well with being handed a text and told to go for it. But many others, maybe even most others, need a human to teach them and keep them on track. As a homeschooler, I felt that I needed either to be that human or find a human willing to do it. Unfortunately, finding a human to do math with a kid several times a week is usually not feasible, either financially or logistically, so being that human becomes the only option.

I may not like that option because I don't like math, but you're right, it's a good option. And one that will work. I have to take an easy school week this week because of my sons behavioral eval, so it's a perfect time to work ahead of her and learn this stuff myself. I know I'm smart enough to learn it, I had a terrible base in math as a kid, which is where my difficulties now come from... The stuff I've learned as I teach number sense is astounding.

 

 

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I agree with EKS about working ahead. Even when I know the material for my math circle, I do work through it the day before to review. I was always good at math, but don't have university level skills in that subject, so feel nervous teaching upper high school level.

 

You might still look for a neighbour... that is where I am now for my eldest who is in high school, but now way ahead of her grade level. Next week I'm going to talk to a retired math teacher/principal about doing higher math with her once a week just to add some support for her insane drive to do much more difficult problems.

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I might try to talk her dad into teaching her math... he just doesn't want to because he is only home from work a couple hours before the kids (We have 4) bedtime and would rather spend the time playing with them.

But if she loves maths that may be the play she would prefer to share with her father.

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