So, I spent all evening researching Foerster and the Math Without Borders Home Learning Companion video lesson series by David Chandler. I think I'm going to go with his Algebra I course and the Foerster Algebra I book. Chandler says on his website that used texts after ©1999 are fine. And the solutions manual is helpful - although I can only find that new on Pearson's website. I like lessons on video because I'm not confident I can explain/teach it myself. I suspect i'll need a tutor by Algebra II, because I'll be still muddling along with manipulatives and a multiplication chart with my younger son! I'm definitely relaxed/ecclectic. Not aiming for excellence here. Perhaps best described as under achievers. :)

thanks for the ideas. I just let him skip the mixed practice on these last 9 lessons (50-59) because everything so far had been easy and review for him. My thought was let him work through until there was something he didn't already know... and I was going to do the same thing with 60-69 on Monday, but thinking maybe it's ok to just move on completely. Prior to today, he'd work on it sporadically, we'd check against the answer key, and redo anything he got wrong. I started grading every couple of mixed practice sets to show him that he could sometimes get partial credit IF HE'D ONLY SHOW HIS WORK! I like the test idea and am going to do that next week. I think he might be able to pass the rest with at least 85%. It does irritate me that he doesn't show his work and I keep insisting that he has to start doing that. I don't know why AOPS makes my head hurt. My friend showed me her copy and my eyes glazed over. But maybe my kid would love it. Another friend uses something called Jousting Armadillos that she said was fun. I like the Foerster suggestion. Would I want the teacher's manual for tests or anything? Does anyone use the Home Study Companion with David Chandler? The good thing is we haven't written in any of the books, so maybe I can sell it all. FWIW, I thought his public school math teacher last year was very good and now I'm pretty much convinced she wasn't actually following EverydayMath.

this is the first year homescholng my 7th grade son. His school used EverydayMath from 1st - 6th. I did a placement test in the summer and determined that Saxon 8/7 would be the right level and a solid program to try at home. Inititally I had him do a lesson a day, but many things come up where we do things outside the home, so he doesn't do math daily. But, it seems he blows through the book when he does work on it and everything so far has been review. I'm not "mathy" myself and don't help him at all. He uses the Saxon Teacher dvds and I check his work against the answer book when he's done. Often, he knows how to do the stuff without the dvd. He just blew through lessons 50-59 in seriously 15 minutes (not the mixed practice sets) without even looking at the dvd or reading the directions - he just skipped ahead to all the problems and does almost all the work in his head. Now, every couple of lessons I have him do the mixed practie sets for a grade. When I score his mixed practice sets, he gets and 85% or better and the mistakes are always sloppiness or doing too much in his head, not lack of understanding. So anyway, I'm kind of felling like we've wasted a lot of time. My younger son has homeschooled longer and has a bit of a math disability and he works very slowly and methodically through Math U See. I have to help him every day. I love the program personally and I was directed towards using it because websites on dyscalculia recommended the program (along with others) as good math mastery based approaches for kids with moderate learning disabilities. I think I had/have a touch of math disatility too. Number sense and math fact recall is not my or my younger sons thing at all. So, given that experience, I made the assumption that MathUSee wasn't going to be the right thing for my older son. Anyway. I perhaps have this compulsiveness to get through Saxon since we bought it. I've decided to let him keep going as fast and he wants, I grade the practice set problems, and every 10th lesson I'll grade the mixed practice set for a score. I think we can finish the book in a month or 2 at this pace. I don't want to continue with Saxon. I want to switch to something else. I plan to continue with MathUSee for younger son, so buying their pre-algebra and algebra now isn't a big deal since it'll eventually get used. I also happen to own used textbooks from a neighbor who's son went to a private school: McDougal Littel textbooks for Math 2 (this looks like same table of contents as Saxon 8/7), Math 3 (this looks like pre-algebra), Algebra I, Pre-Calculus. So I could try those since they're free. anyone else switch from Saxon and what do you like better?

I homeschooled one child this year (4th grade) who I am fairly convinced has a touch of dyscalculia. Math-U-See has been great. We started with Alpha as intensive remediation and got through Beta and Gamma. We're going to start Delta this summer and should be through Epislon next year. I may have a touch of dyscalculia myself, but managed to get through in life, went to a liberal arts college, and never took a college math course. Math-U-See seems also great for me as I have to be the teacher and I look ahead to the harder content and am hopeful that the dvd lessons and mastery approach will be easy for me to help guide my son. ANYWAY, now older ds wants to homeschool. He will be a 7th grader and is quite facile with math. He's no genious, but he's much better than I. I'm wondering if something a little more than Math-U-See would be better for him. BUT, I know my eyes will glaze over with Saxon and I"m not sure I can adequately teach it. Tutors or Kumon is an option. But, perhaps a different math curricula is a better option for the first year homeschooling. I'm leaning to Teaching Textbooks also because of the dvd lesson format. I also kind of figured if it really is behind other programs, then couldn't a good math student move at a faster pace and get farther along, therefore not be behind? I've also bookmarked a ton of math website and even found a link to one that has Saxon aligned video instruction. Maybe that would be enough for me? Anyone have thoughts for a good math program to use when the parent is not strong in math?

i like it. My only complaint is they don't give enough room for writing long, full-sentence answers. I like the reading passage and questions at the end. My 4th grader who was really struggling in public school and not producing any meaningful work, as a homeschooler this year got through the 3rd and 4th grade book. I didn't demand full-sentence answers often because of the space issue and I was more glad to see the correct answers. I plan to use it again next year.

update on Alpha MathUSee for anyone who happens to stumble across this... Luckily, it's pretty easy for ds. We started on page one and he got through lesson 8 in two days. I feel I have to be very patient though, and stick with it and resist the urge to jump ahead, because he is actually using the manipulatives (even though we've drilled on these same facts and worked on strategies like counting on numbers, number line, or counting on fingers) to solve. So, I'm going with the presumption that he's still grasping the number sense and this is part of the learning process for him. I suspect I could get him through the entire book in 2-3 weeks if I wanted to. I'm going to try, but not push too hard. I think there is something to be said for starting at an easy level to build confidence.

thanks, I also got an booked many months back called The Dyscalculia Assessment by Jane Emerson. I couldn't do parts of the assessment myself. Well, I can, but I seem to only think in 1-to-1 correspondence, I can't subitize, have poor working memory in the area of math... My short list of curricula to consider was MathUSee, Teaching Textbooks and Math Mammoth. Not sure why I ruled out Teaching Textbooks, just on a gut feeling about not liking having to sit through the videos and wanting to do work on pencil with paper, not enter on-line. Maybe kids are more into that though. I think I was drawn to Math Mammoth because it looks so easy to use. There is no teacher's manual and you get all the directions you need in the workbooks. I did get a multiplication book from her that I downloaded as a pdf and think it's quite good. I started it with ds, but still think he will benefit from review as far back as Alpha in MUS because to improve his number sense. I hope I didn't waste my money getting it! I figure best case scenario is it's so easy, he breezes through and we move on the Beta.

Thanks! I've added the Ronit Bird books to a wish list in amazon. I'm not sure why I'm such a cheapskate and don't buy... but I did find some other, similar books through the local library which were very helpful. I notice the UK sites have much more information on this and many other LDs also. We've been doing card games, dice games, dominos and similar things I've found in these books. Come to find out he's a wiz at chess (I lose every time and I'm not trying to).

Very interesting. Thanks so much! I did a quick test and he knows his right from left. I think a lot of this might be developmental and he will be able to progress in math with proper support but never be really strong. Delving into all this is an eye opener for me because I realize I had/have the exact same learning struggles he's having now. Bless those nuns I had as teachers back in the 70s because they seemed to know their pedagogy and reading up in these areas brings back vivid memories of being taught all the things that I am now reading are good strategies for LD kids! Many math concepts did not click for me until very late and mental math still alludes me. I'm starting to see that I have about half of the dyscalculic symptoms, but not severely. I've spent the first month of school for my son doing OT strength exercises (we will continue daily!) that I researched to improve hand, arm, shoulder and core strength and his handwriting is improving. My sense is he is about average with writing as a fine motor skill when you take into account we had been at a school that did not teach handwriting, much less how to hold a pencil, doesn't teach cursive, and really puts keyboarding on the parents too. His grip is already better than his siblings and I think he has the potential for very good cursive. In only 4 weeks of school, I've seen an improvement in willingness to write and especially where there is motivation - like a science journal he is keeping that is exciting to him - he puts forth solid, independent effort to write several sentences and organize bulleted lists or a Tchart and includes drawings with labels. So anyway, kind of leads me to think this is concentrated in math, and the dysgraphia or dyslexia isn't there or he has innate abilities to compensate for minor weaknesses there. Some parts of Nonverbal Learning Disorder sort of fits. There is weak executive functioning in some areas. Overall, I think I'm dealing with very milds symptoms in any area, except the math may be verging on more serious. Luckily, I have the advantage of being able to devote pretty much all of my time to this, ability to keep seeking resources for help, and I am positive I have and will continue to put forth more effort to give him appropriate learning experiences than the school, or any learning specialist at the school, would ever provide. I'm thinking I'll go ahead and get the MUS ordered today. It's less expensive than what I was using. They use a set of manipulatives that is a combination of cuisine rods and base ten blocks. I could probably even make a set for a few bucks out of colored cardboard or laminated print outs.

I started homeschooling a 9 year old, 4th grader this September. He reads at grade level and his spelling is ok. His comprehension is ok. His handwriting is terrible and his willingness to write is very low. His oral responses are great. We are working on cursive and typing this year. He does sometimes still reverse lowercase b and d. He was very late to tie his shoes (still prefers I tie them), he just learned to tell time with my intensive help, and doesn't have it down cold. I am not sure if he knows his left and right. He sometimes struggles to count backwards or to skip count. He struggles with addition and subtraction of single digit numbers, but he does warm up with practice. He has little grasp of multiplication, the idea of grouping or repeated addition, and knows none of those facts. I've been working with a lot of manipulatives with him and showing him strategies to figure out basic addition and subtraction problems. Some progress seems to be happening. As a side, the school did test him last year. I am homeschooling him, so clearly that tells you what I thought of their evaluation reports. He showed terrible organizational skills and inattentiveness in the classroom setting. By the end of third grade, we were told he had completely shut down and did absolutely no work in school. We do not see any of this in outside activities or at home. It was pretty much an emotionally exhausting year for us last year, so currently I have no plans to delve into the testing process with a private neuropsych, but that may be on the horizon. I spent much of the past year researching all things learning disabilities, learning differences and neurological disorders. I had never even heard the term dyscalculia before, but a lot of it seemed to fit, when other things did not really fit. Particularly in the area of number fact dyscalculia. I have also pretty much diagnosed myself with a bit of dyscalculia, having had no idea that I wasn't just math phobic all these years! I am confident in my abilities to homeschool currently, and think I could manage through high school if need be. He responds extremely well to the homeschool situation and gets a lot of work done for me without complaint at home. I suspect his reading level will advance beyond his sister and brother (currently still in public school) if he stays home and works with me - if for no other reason than the luxury of time to read a large amount and increasingly difficult texts. The situation is, I bought Math In Focus based on what research I could accomplish before I had to submit a home education plan in order to pull him from school. I think it's a good program. But now, one month in, I don't think its for my son. We did the first chapter, then I switched to Kumon workbooks full of drills on the basic math facts with manipulatives for the past 2 weeks. I am thinking of switching to MathUSee and ordering it to arrive asap. I think if I don't find something that will work as math remediation for him now, it will become a greater and greater struggle trying to move forward. To be honest, he could possibly benefit from starting at Alpha. But, yeah, that's pretty difficult for me to admit! I think if I start at Beta he'd be fine. My hope is to try to get through it in half of this year and then move on to Gamma, probably not take a summer break as far as math goes, and hope to be in Delta next fall. Do you think that sounds reasonable? Not to push it down his throat by any means, but to just keep at it consistently, even if a bit reduced for summer months, in order to make some needed progress. So, not sure I even have any questions. Just that I have no one in real life to bounce my ideas off of! And know no one who has used MathUSee to get opinions from. Any thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated!