That was how I started in the first week. The issue isn't in the idea, but the execution. He got them all wrong. Sometimes twice. He knew what he needed to do, but he always skipped or missed sides, even when marking them. I do believe it comes from not having practice being precise in doing something. So I gave him some example methods for counting them, but he's just going to have to practice until he gets so bored of doing them that he focuses and makes sure to get every last side because he wants to move on. When it is a simple shape like a quadrilateral or regular octagon or something where the length of the sides is written, he generally has no problem calculating the perimeter.

I realized after I wrote it that might be confusing. 😀 It is still beginning perimeter when shapes are drawn on graph paper. I mark my starting point and trace around the outside, counting as I go, until I reach the beginning again. My friend has her kids put a tick mark in every "unit" as they count, and my daughter prefers to write the length of each side and then add them. This is for unusual shapes with many sides of course, that look like capital "H" or a right triangle with stairstep sides, etc.

Most things are going well! He seems to have area fairly well down and be doing well in the other topics we've been over, but shapes and perimeter are still a big stumbling block. After working with him, it doesn't seem like he doesn't understand perimeter, it seems like he is not used to being slow and careful in his work. I showed him three different ways to do perimeter of an oddly shaped object and said he needed to figure out which one worked best for him, but he will count three times and get three different answers. We will keep working on it and hopefully with more practice he will get better. Neatness is a big issue and I gave him graph paper and told him to work his longer problems on it. He said, "I don't do so well with graph paper." I was like, because you're used to being messy in your work! If you use it, one number per square, you will have less silly mistakes. I am going to make him some shape flashcards, just for quick recognition of basic shapes and identification of the 5-10 sided shapes. Everything I can find online is super babyish. And in great news, the online tutor he has has spent the whole month on fractions and he seems to have a decent understanding of what they are and even equivalent fractions now. Since that was the other big topic he needed in the 3B book, it allows me to spend more time on geometry without worry. 🙂

Hmm. I have overseen DD's education thus far - I have provided all her core instruction with an occasional "for fun" class taught by someone else. Next year I plan to send her to a two day a week school. I would still consider myself to be homeschooling her I guess? They are adamant that we are still homeschoolers. They do give grades but nothing like a transcript, and I choose what classes to enroll her in vs. what to teach at home. I'm not that pressed about the label to be honest, but I view homeschooling as being about where the buck stops. Who bears the burden of guaranteeing the child is educated? (Obviously parents are always making decisions about this, but if a parent has their child enrolled in public school and the child is not educated, the blame is not generally placed on the parents.) Since DD will not be in a traditional public or private school for at least the next two years, I would probably still say she is homeschooled, though most classes are outsourced, not much different than if I had chosen and enrolled her in online classes.

How did I forget this one? It's my ultimate "watch it again" movie. But only the Kiera Knightly version.

I'll agree on National Treasure, Legally Blonde, Ever After. Also love Stepford Wives and Sweet Home Alabama, I can put on any Harry Potter at any time, but it's more background noise than active watching.

My profile says I joined in 2012. But it's hard to believe that's true, I know I was all over these boards from at least when I was pregnant with my first (in 2008/2009.) Knowing me (and knowing the very harsh feelings this board used to have on "preschooling,") maybe I really just did wait to register until she was approaching kindergarten...

He's doing all right, but he got all but one of the assigned word problems wrong. When I asked him to do them again, he did them right with zero assistance, so it's either that his work is too messy and numbers get lost, or that he was going to fast. Geometry continues to be a big issue. There were problems like, using only straight lines, divide this rectangle into a square and a rectangle, or two triangles, or 4 triangles. I feel like these are things small children pick up playing blocks (the first time they fit two triangles together and realize they made a square) or Lego (I need another piece that's 8 long, but I only have a 6 long and a 2 long). And none of that geometric awareness is there. Even after I explained and modeled solutions on near identical problems, he couldn't do it. I asked mom to download him a tangram app, because I know that won't feel too babyish. Part of me doesn't want to spend to terribly long trying to drive shapes home, but there is so much in high school geometry that is breaking shapes down into smaller shapes so you can calculate lengths and angles...

I think she does know what area is and how to calculate it, I think she was just really shorted on problem solving and critical thinking in math. She says he's doing well on his work and really seems to understand. This is mostly place value, so yay, because that's so important. I'll see him Thurs.

There were a lot, but especially why carrying works the way it does (you are filling in the ones place but you have created a new ten and so however many tens you created gets added to the tens place.) She could carry but she didn't know why. That to get the area of a rectangle with a piece cut out, you you find the area of the rectangle and the area of the missing piece and subtract. Oh, the little tick marks geometry books use to show that two lines are equal in length? She had not seen them before or known what they were. Does anyone know when Math Mammoth does parallel and perpendicular lines? I need to figure out if I need to go back and teach it or if it will come up later. My only real complaint about MM is that they don't mark their right angles or equal sides. I did it myself, lol.

I will pass that along! We started Monday. I get the feeling that he has *seen* a lot of these concepts before, but not done them enough or had them explained enough to be cemented. So The things I planned to cover for this first week, I touched on and reviewed, and then (even though he is still practicing those concepts this week - mostly place value), I spent most of the time teaching geometry, because he's had basically none. This lets me spend 3 full face to face sessions on geometry if he needs it before he gets to those workbook pages. Geometry and fractions are going to be the two big units that need to have full attention devoted to them, so the more time I have for them the better. He did all the days work I assigned in the book in about the amount of time I was hoping it would take and only missed 1 question out of many, so that's good too. I brought the book and white board and explained to my friend what he was working on so she could be the first line of questioning if he had an issue. She said several of the things I talked about she was never taught at any age and she's upset how badly her math education failed her. 😕

Those triangles look like a flashcard form of the "number families" Singapore teaches for +/-, and I teach again for multiplication and division. We just draw them on the paper though. I did plan to teach him number families, especially as a problem solving strategy (even though his basic arithmetic is strong, he's missing questions like 852-?=262, and 864/?=8 so he's never been taught the relationship between addition/subtraction and multiplication/division or how to use it to solve problems) and I plan to go all the way back to unit cubes to teach it. Everyone loves unit cubes, right? I even pull them out with my 6th grader sometimes when I think she's not getting the relationship between the algorithm and real life. I am not going to just shove him along to pass the test though. He is adamant that he wants to be a marine biologist when he grows up, and that of course will require upper level math and sciences with math. I'm going to tell mom that we will go exactly as fast as he can understand. If that doesn't get him to Saxon 7/6, then I will commit to continuing this next year to get him there. With a whole year there's no question he can get there, and in fact, DD and I find the placement questions showing mastery of 8/7 WAY easier than the ones that show mastery of 7/6. I don't know why, but if he does as well, he could potentially test into Algebra 1/2 (Saxon pre-a) after another year. I don't know. I can't see passing the 7/6 portion of the test and not the 8/7, because it's so much more basic.

I would let her keep reading BA, or doing a problem or two a day, but make her main, daily math program something traditional. Beast Academy is fun and engaging, but I think there is a very specific type of learner that can do it as their main program, and it doesn't sound like she is one. My daughter wasn't either. As for remediating, I would go back to old MM books and pull reviews or EOY tests and see what she is missing on them. Then spend the summer hitting the subjects that need shoring up and progress forward next year.

Also, yes, I'm worried for him too for more reasons than just math. It's a very rigorous program, with most if it being completed at home and it's going to require a lot more consistency and discipline than they've had. But he has made it clear he wants to be in a school of some kind, and a public school isn't an option to them at this moment. If there is such a thing, he is a kid who is used to nothing ever being the same, and being thrown into totally new situations, so hopefully he'll be OK. Better to try now when he has time to adjust and the grades don't have long-term implications, than later down the road.

I'm about to start him with Math Mammoth. He's not in anything now. Eilonwy is right below. My goal is to shore up his elementary math and get him into Saxon 7/6. Then he will have a proper math teacher he will have daily access to, if not daily instruction by, and I will have his mom get him access to that online math tutor that keeps popping up in this thread. AND he will still have access to me for homework help. While I don't want to attempt picking up a Saxon book and remediating a very behind student under pressure, helping with homework is a totally different issue. There is no perfect option here, but the bottom and very firm line is that he needs to be in a full time, outsourced math program as soon as possible. After considering everything I do think using a program like Singapore or MM is my best chance of getting him here. I never used it until this year, but I have begun using it if I feel a lesson hasn't stuck, or possibly that I have not explained it well. If she has forgotten something since last semester or year, I will send her back to do the video lessons and exercises as a refresher. Yes, all the Saxon questions are very straightforward. It did drive me a little crazy that a few of the MM terms were different or missing (numerator and denominator for example but I assume that will come next year), but I wrote him notes all through the book, to remind or refresh him on things I will have taught. Next to these I wrote "Most books call this carrying," etc and will hit that in person as well. The vast majority of the terms seemed the same as Singapore though? And I don't see any terminology on the Saxon test that my daughter wouldn't know coming from 7 years of Singapore. Or are you talking about if they're trying to test *into* MM?

We would like to get him into 7/6. I mean, 8/7 would be amazing, but it isn't realistic in the time we have. He did take a Saxon placement test. His fluency with math facts is his one strong thing. Saxon looks like it's a full year behind the Singapore-method stuff. I just got Math Mammonth 3B in the mail, I went through and made a plan and assigned problems based on his placement test and Khan results. We're skipping measurement, and large parts of multiplication and division (focusing on the concepts and the word problems but he doesn't need a lot of practice on the actual mechanics), hitting place value, geometry, fractions, and the intro to long division pretty hard. Comparing it to the Saxon placement test, after completing Math Mammoth 3, he would test into Saxon 6/5. And I *believe* everything he needs to test into 7/6 is covered by the end of 4th grade in Math Mammoth or Singapore, so I'm breathing a little easier. I think it's possible IF they're willing to put in the daily work. Sitting next to him every day while he works is completely impossible. They live 30 minutes away, and we have very busy (and opposite) schedules. I am praying for twice a week to teach and review and the ability for him to video call when he has questions. Plus Math Mammoth is EXTREMELY user friendly and written to the student. There's no way I can pick up an unfamiliar curriculum and confidently accelerate a kid with it. Especially a program that seems exactly opposite of how I teach and my kids have learned. Math mammoth looks fantastic for the job. (I am kind of starting to think I should opt out of math and the school and keep DD with Dimensions until high school. 😳 I know lots of people love Saxon but the more I learn the less it seems like a good fit. )

You set yourself up as the teacher, and then you can put in however many students. I had my daughter in there already but I added him. You can assign them different things. I assigned him all the Grade 3 end of unit assessments, and then when those results rolled in, started assigning the full units with instruction and practice. From my portal I can see his score on every exercise and quiz, as well as how he answered each question. I can see how much time he has spent on the website working and how far he is in his assignments.

I am noticing the scope and sequence is behind Singapore for sure - we're barely into Dimensions 6B with my daughter, but she's covered everything up to (and much into) prealgebra on the Saxon placement test. And good news!! He only needs to test into Saxon 7/6. so I think I only need to get him through 5th grade math. Based on his third grade Khan results (he only passed measurement and single digit multiplication), I have assigned him the lessons and exercises for different units and so far as he is going through them, he is getting 80s and 100s on his quizzes, which is heartening. After looking at Math Mammoth, I have ordered him 3B to start with. I am fairly certain there are gaps in understanding of basic concepts from before third grade, but I feel comfortable remediating those as we find them.

I am pretty confident teaching place value, thanks though!

Spectrum workbooks from the store, without parent guidance. I 100% realized what was going on with the tutor once I saw the results. Regardless, once a week was not going to make a substantial dent. She will be understanding of whatever we get to. She trusts me, I am not beating around the bush about what is going on, and she knows my daughter's math education has been good. She is realizing how far this situation has gotten and has already put her next child (1st grade) in outsourced math so it doesn't happen again. I have him reviewing a few of the topics on Khan, and I've bought and downloaded the Math Mammoth 1-5th grade fraction book for when I see him Monday. All we can do is what we can do.

It's a bit worse than I thought. He's working through the 3rd grade unit tests from Khan and instead of a mid-late 4th grade level like thought, I'd say he's closer to early 3rd. He can add multi digit numbers, but it's clear he's never seen the idea that, say, 492 + 253 is the same as 400+ 200 + 90+ 50+ 2 +3. He's missing every understanding or conceptual question. I'm not sure how he got the fractions questions on the Saxon test, but it's clear we need to start over. I'm starting with third and just going to go as quickly as I can while being sure of understanding, and at the end of the summer, we'll just see how he does on the placement test. I'm not as certain that we can get to 6th grade anymore, but we'll see, maybe he's mathy and doesn't know it yet. 🙂 Maybe we can find a way to keep this going through next school year if he needs another year of remediation. We love them and I want to help, and she is making it worth my while and then some in services (she is giving my daughter private lessons in one of her sports $$$), our schedules are just so hard to match up and it will be even more so next year. 😕

I am extremely nervous about my ability to teach from another program. 😬 Especially a program as different from PM as Saxon. Especially someone else's child who I'm attempting to catch up. Maybe it's silly but I am just so used to how Primary Math does things and I am nervous I will waste time floundering to figure out the program. I even opened up the long division section of the dark blue book of Math Mammoth and went, "What the everloving heck am I looking at?" (I still don't know. I've never seen long division presented like that.) And I could get the teacher's guide and figure it out, I'm sure, but I feel like that's wasting time... Maybe I will catch him up using programs I know and then look at Saxon for the 5th/6th grade stuff. We'll see. I've assigned him every end of unit test from 3rd grade Kahn Academy to make sure there are no holes before we look at 4th.

One of our favorite state parks is in the 100% path and I plan to make reservations the hour they open. Hopefully we can bring many friends with us.

I'm for some kind of testing. I know a pretty dramatic number of homeschoolers who would be extremely surprised to see how behind their kids are compared to the public schools. I wouldn't want those numbers to have implications, but I think for the parents that do care, it would be a wake up call. If it could be tied to funds for homeschoolers like the situation sweet2ndchance described up there, I'd be all for it.

Yes, I think with a little shoring up, multiplication and division should be fine. His addition and subtraction are good with a few carrying mistakes. I don't know that he's seen long division at all. I'm sure he hasn't learned how decimals equate to fractions and therefore why it's a tenth, hundredth, etc, but his understanding of basic fractions seems to be fine. Overall I really think he will pick up quickly.