Sounds like a good routine. Its just hard to fill in time when I need to, and right now we are kind of math starved! I am not planning to do a whole hour on one lesson, but to use supplements that make our time fun, and games, as you said, and maybe verbal puzzles or logic drills at this period, done verbally or on the board instead of written. I probably shouldn't send him to his room with his workbook, though, but have him just do a few at the end of the session. Then I would probably give him tracing or mazes to do on him own, when our house is quiet for the late afternoon.

I really think I am going to go to a curricula fair or conference sometime in the near future. I would LOVE to see these shiny books and manipulatives in person before clicking "buy" and crossing my fingers. It almost feels like a blind date! I do agree that at some point, you just have to settle for what you have, and find a strategy to use them well. I guess when you have bought and tried, you have given yourself some new ideas to run with.

Well, what I meant by left-brainy in describing SM was that it encouraged attention to detail, comparison, and sequence at the K level. My impression was that if I wanted my child to take the LSAT someday, this might be the math to prepare him. Its feel is analytical, which made us do it slowly, as we discussed the differences between terms like "similar" and "identical." I love how it encouraged critical thought. I love any type of material that expects children to analyze, but that doesn't necessarily make it an efficient math program for us. Right Start seems like it could be a good right-brain strategy. Thats just the thing: I hate how its never a one-size-fits all with any program. Blending and supplementing is required, even if you LOVE your core program. At least, the Singapore Math forum administrator told me you should always supplement the basics with more depth or breadth as you see fit. I am liking RSB (from what I see of its description) because in looking at the manipulatives, it seems apparent how I would use them to teach. There are not too, too many, but the ones required are all there. For someone who might take 3 days to gather up stuff to use for math, I like how that's all done for me. I really just want to make sure he gets his daily dose of math in a way that doesn't drive me nuts. I don't want to spend him-- you know, with too much drill-- because I need him to keep up his progress in learning to read and write also. I don't want to cause any eye strain with too much book work in math, except when needed for practice, since I want him to read this year! He is almost there! I'd prefer a math that is a true change of pace from our LA routine, but at the same time fits the overall needs of our daily life. It may help to know that I plan to teach math in the afternoon, and will usually follow it up with an art or science period. Most of our main LA is done as part of a relaxed morning time routine. In the afternoon, I require my son to come in from playing. I want math to be something inviting and engaging to be done at that time. I would like it to fill up to an hour, and provide independent exercises for my son to take to his room and complete on his own after the lesson, before he gets to go out again to play. I like a long quiet period in the afternoon, but math can be a little bit of a last hurrah before that period. Of course, I am not going to get all this from one math program! And the way I teach will matter alot, and how I pace it, and present it all. I know I will need to supplement. I am finally seeing math as it should be seen. It is an entire area, like language arts. It isn't just one skill requiring one course, like spelling. Just like my whole morning is filled with Lit, LA, and penmanship practice (in little tiny chunks for my 6yo), my afternoons need to switch into math mode before we get a nice break, and that means having several short lessons and practice sessions within the scope of math.

I have looked at Saxon. I like that at least in K it begins the math routine with a meeting-type interaction where the weather is recorded and the temperature is graphed. Thats part of the problem: So many programs offer something valuable. It is difficult, in math , to determine where I should put the most emphasis. Beyond that, there are just thousands of way to use manipulatives. Every program seems to have there own special system. My son is 6, and stubborn, and easily bored. Writing is a strong subject for him-- writing, as in, listening to details and narrating a complete sentence that summarizes it back to me-- but his motor skills are not to the task of a lot of written work. He is not even a lover of coloring or drawing as most kids his age are.

Math isn't a language I speak.... one math program sounds just as good as any other, very different math program. When it comes to language arts, I usually see value of different materials and supplements. I can usually reconcile two different approaches, or go with one and feel fine. We want to read and study the classics, we want practice in reading, and we need phonics, spelling, grammar and penmanship. Its like a whole system with many layers and textures, and I like what we do and can see ways to make it even better, or more challenging, when needed. With math, it is very different. I never know if I am comparing apples to apples. I don't know if a problem is in the curriculum, in my teaching, or in my child's learning style. We tried and faltered with SM Essentials: Kindergarten. The concrete introduction took too long, and my child refused to do the worksheet. However, I felt it was a good mental workout, rigorous and very, umm, left-brainy, if that makes sense. I understood what I was supposed to be teaching, but getting him to do his work was awful. If it involved coloring, he would not do it. I started to wonder if SM was too art/drawing based for him, but I know he loved the manipulatives because he would play with them at the end of the lesson. Maybe this was a discipline problem? Should I have put away the stuff and made him do his worksheet? I really had my heart set on SM, but then I learned of other programs I thought would be cool to give a try. I thought about Right Start, and even Ray's Arithmetic... they all seem good in their own way. I know I need something I can teach concretely-- and that tells me what I will need. I like something scripted if possible. I really liked SM Essentials in many ways, and it only makes me wonder where the Singapore approach might lead. I am very interested. I am interested in RS because I like geometry and spatial math, in Ray's because I think it would be very good to have that olden day perspective (for me, at least) and because I don't really remember all my algorithms, and SM because it seems to build logical thinking skills. It is too hard to choose just one. Now I realize why people use the buy & try strategy.

My ideal for my child is that he should have a deeper education, steeped in the liberal arts, and very kid-collegiate in feel. Western culture is so vast that to go deep into a few areas, while developing critical skills, can take years, and be enjoyed, so that there is less time to delve into other world cultures. I had little chance to explore other cultures while I was in school yet I also did not read great American classics to the extent that many homeschooling families try to do. I think its really important to understand your own cultural roots, and be able to express yourself using your own culture's symbols, in a way that you identify with, and also in a way that can communicate cross-culturally. If you meet someone who is from another culture, you should expect them to know more about theirs than yours, and they would expect you to be able to teach them something about yours. You might strive for awareness and exposure to the cultures of the world, and demonstrate respect for cultural understanding. And your child may like to learn more about a culture that is foreign to them, and they can make a special project of it that may lead them to study it in college if they wish. Many educational philosophies, it seems, want to teach broad, general basics and call that "cultural studies," and then allow the students to go deeper in college. My view is, focus deeply on topics, whatever they may be, for your children will have plenty of exposure throughout their lives to broaden their horizons. Classical education is about having the strength of intellect and the skills, so that kids can learn well what they choose to apply themselves to.

These bundles are strictly e-books, are they not? I don't think its such a great deal then.

I really wanted to use Nurture Minds abacus set in kindergarten, but they seem to be sold out and have been since I first inquired. They are a Japanese style math program that uses an abacus, similar to Right Start. But I couldn't get it. It must have sold like hot cakes long before I heard of it, and for some reason or another the website no longer offers the Nurture Minds package. I wanted, at first, to use Nurture Minds as a complement to Singapore. But then, I heard that Mammoth Math was so similar to SM and a lot more affordable, and so I bit the worm. But SM has more teaching and has specific ways of showing the math in manipulative form, whereas MM does not have this information handy, at least not in print form. BTW, I am not a big YouTuber, and usually i prefer written guides to digital media. Maybe that is one reason I feel a little adrift in teaching MM. I may sound whiney to people who don't consider it important to have open-and-go lessons that include specific manipulative instructions. There may be a way that I can still use MM, such as by buying the book Why Before How: Singapore Math Computation Strategies by Jana Hazekamp and using its lessons and manipulative instructions to help us through MM. I do agree with the person who said that Right Start would be a good investment at Level B; certainly the abacus is a thing I would have to try on my kid and the card games would be useful supplements at the very least. And I appreciate the person who said I may not need to push myself into a commitment at this early grade. I might have some time to learn about the different approaches and see where it all leads, and see what my kid favors. All-in-all, maybe I am being too "curriculum-dependent" instead of grasping control and becoming the teacher. But this is me one year into formal hs'ing and we have gone too long without a real math routine. If left to my own devices, I will neglect it. That is why I need something that is very supportive, teacher-directive, and foolproof. We were unschooling before I read TWTM and after getting into a phonics and writing routine, my next priority was a deep and challenging math program. Now is the time. I am just stressed is all. Summer is going by so quickly!

Thanks for all the suggestions. I really need to bounce ideas around. I think viewing samples is a good idea, someone mentioning the HIG for SPM as a good intro to that program and the role of the teacher. I feel very lucky that there are actually too many good curric. choices out there, and that seems to be my main dilemma right now. I went with MM mainly for budget reasons, kind of taking a gamble that it would be a useful resource. I am not disappointed in it just regretting that I made a decision based mainly on budget and word of mouth, rather than take into account my own experience (or lack of) and interests. But we live and learn I suppose. You see I never liked math and really want to remedy that for my son's sake. But I really didn't know what I was looking for in a math program, they are all so different, that I ended up going with MM and not really, you know, understanding what a mastery program meant, or what would be required of me, and what my son may like about or hate about it.

I am looking for a program that is not self-teaching but that teaches the teacher. I think some people misunderstood and thought I was trying to shirk my duties and avoid the effort of creative teaching. Actually, MM claims to be self-teaching and requiring little to no prep on the part of the teacher. I am actually seeking a program that speaks to me, the teacher, and empowers me to teach the lesson (think Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading but for a math curric.)

I am hesitant to switch even though now would be better than, say, middle of 2nd grade. We are only at the beginning of first grade. I know that MM is good for the child who works independently and I am in no way trying to bash it. I just don't want to modify the way of teaching it, like some have suggested, because I am quite sure I would screw it up if I tried to deviate, jump around, condense, or expedite the worktext. I believe that we will spend about a half hour per day on math once the summertime passes, and I really want to enjoy that half hour and feel confident I am teaching it correctly, and he is engaged. Right Start is kind of a big investment, and they seem to be in the process of switching to their CC 2nd edition. So I will have to look into that. I thought I might try Life of Fred: Apples, just to keep our math brains at work until I decide what to do for our main curric. Though, some say that LoF is fine on its own. I feel like it could be a supplement to MM on occasions we get bored. But like I said, to re-commit, or to switch completely? That is the question.

Really the meaning of all this is simple: How can I avoid turning a teaching problem into a budget problem? I really don't want to spend more money on the one hand-- I certainly got alot of good deals this year but I always hate when something turns out to be a "dud" after I used part of my budget on it. One the other hand, how do I know what really works unless I try a few products? In many ways I was lucky because most of my language arts material turned out to be hits without having to consider switching. Maybe I am just more comfortable with my philosophy on what to emphasize in language arts, or maybe I loved TWTM so much that I chose their recommendations and faithfully stuck with them. I guess, despite wanting to like my math program I don't, and the burnout was so complete that I am not sure adding fuel to its engine is going to get me to start it back up.

Her suggestions are helpful but fall short for me. The philosophy of MM is more traditional than I expected. I guess I thought it was like SPM, which I at first wanted to go with. It seems very similar to the math I didn't like in grade school. It is repetitive, and her suggested games are kind of boring for both me and my son. We need something that just... draws us into what math really means, not just how its done. I never learned math really well so I need some creative advice on how to teach it. I do think that just following the MM workbook and doing the games is foolproof, as in, I can't screw it up. But I also think that I am falling short at delivering a... love of math. I guess I just need a program that shows ME math as I never learned it so that I feel inspired to teach it. I think MM is fine but I am a little math shy, and would just like something that helps me get on my feet more. I know that Maria has videos and blogs and such but I really need something just built right in: games, concept demonstration, example problems, and the worksheet serving more as a review or follow-up drill, not a large bulk of the lesson content. With MM I always feel like I am "teaching to the worktext." I feel that even if my son gets it and is ready to move on, if we do not do the worktext page he can't, and the problems are kind of repetitive. We were doing about half a sheet per day and doing the same games over and over. It was going okay, but we just kind of got tired of it. We both did, at the exact same moment. We had spent a whole week filling in die faces.

I guess I am trying to say that I am kind of a rookie homeschooler, and I wasn't sure which programs suggested simple manipulatives, versus left it up to you, versus actually require and include how to use them in the teacher's notes. If I keep at it with MM I know it means I have to bring in manipulatives at my discretion and learn how to use them to teach my child. It sounds like you are making use of the iPad. That is one more thing I never considered.

I know alot of people love MM. I liked the scope and sequence, and the straightforward style of the worktext. But in teaching without a script, and without planned reviews, or many concrete activity ideas, I fall short and my son really just gets a workbook drill instead of a mind-opening math experience. My son at 6 does not like to use a self-teaching text; he needs to develop number sense in the real world, and I do not feel that MM helps me truly deliver that to him. Now that I have said that, I am taking responsibility for the decision to use MM, and realize I must either recommit to teaching it properly and in an engaging way, with more frequent reviews, and tap into other resources to help me present the material to him; or switch to something that is more scripted, spiral, and manipulatives-oriented. It would be nice to find a program that was even a little fun for us both, since I want to interact with my son and enjoy solving math problems together, verbally, and concretely. Unlike my son, I at an early age loved to draw. He does not have confidence in his drawing skills, so I am wondering if I should rule out the Singapore approach, which requires model drawing and textbook copying? I think as a little girl, I would have liked SPM, but I am not sure that he would take to it. I was interested in Right Start Level B on the other hand. I like how it de-emphasizes the workbook and focuses on visual and concrete number sense. It also seems to be interactive and "fun," with chants and drill games already built into the program. I looked at Miquon. That would give our lessons a concrete focus, with the colorful rods. A low-budget option, that wouldn't be manipulatives-based but would add fun, and would emphasize real-world math, is Life of Fred. I am curious about it, for sure, but WTM seems to categorize these books as supplements, not curricula in their own right. Maybe we could begin it just to help us out of this corner we seem to be in, though. I am feeling a little stranded now. There are all these wonderful but completely different math programs, and here I am complaining about MM, which has definite merits of its own. Shouldn't I, for principle's sake, just suck it up and re-commit to my first choice? You can tell that I have wanderlust now that I have explored my options. I would leap into Right Start if I didn't feel budget-guilt. I know math is probably the most justifiable big expense after literacy, and worth finding a great fit, but I also don't believe in splurging on curricula, or juggling, or switching frequently.

I like to see what everybody thinks of their own home school. When I first began doing kindergarten with DS last autumn, I felt there was only one right way to go about it and I was either hitting or missing. But now I think of it in terms of striking a good balance, and I love to see how others out there are achieving that as well. I really had my heart set on starting history, but since I got my hands on SOTW Vol. 1 at a used book sale, and can read through it, I realize there is a lot more planning involved and many details to think about. I am thinking I would like to spend the extra cash to get the audio version, so that we can listen in the car or over breakfast, and launch into a geography discussion. But this will have to wait until we have our math routine figured out. Down: We have been trying MM1 (light blue series), and I will be returning the rest of the set and holding onto the worktext for extra practice. I just find it dull to teach, and my son hates how it revolves around a worksheet. Its not like TOPGTT that was at first intimidating but later we grew to love; it really doesn't excite me to teach from the worktext even though I can see how a child old enough to read and pace himself through it could use it independently, and save me time down the road. For now, I would like to spend 15-20 minutes explaining a concept orally and with manipulatives, and then assign a worksheet to work on for about 10-15 minutes independently. I am wondering if I can achieve this with MM1; I went to look for the teacher's manual and found there was none, and I realized we might have a problem.

You mentioned you are on the fence about doing SOTW during morning time. Did you know there is an audiobook version of SOTW available? Your post made me think of this, because I have been overwhelmed by my read-aloud load and really want to do SOTW starting in September. My 6 yo DS is not an independent reader so I end up reading everything aloud, and for a change I would like to sit back and get to listen, to be inspired and take down notes to ask him follow-up questions while we both listen, and allow that to launch us into a hands-on project. I can imagine this fall having history in the morning, in which we listen to SOTW, re-read the parts we want to focus on (since I already have the book), do our activity, coloring sheet, or mapwork, and then get prepared for our regular workout of skills lessons. Its such a nice idea to begin the morning with something inspiring, instead of hitting the drills as soon as breakfast dishes are cleared out of the way. Maybe you could use the audio version of SOTW as part of your morning time, as a suggestion.

Bumping my own post cause I'd like some feedback!

We are doing school over the summer with DS 6. Mainly, we are advancing language arts skills, trying to find the "right" math program by trying out samples, and getting our feet wet in classic literature. We have NOT started SOTW, even though I have been on many scouting missions to the library. I am not comfortable teaching history until I have really perused what my library can offer to enhance our studies of history, but more importantly, we run out of time each day after we have completed language arts and math skills. DS is doing a great job in getting his phonics lessons finished without resistance. We are more than halfway through the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading by Wise, and I must say that while at first I didn't enjoy teaching it, now it is our strongest area. Which is right where we should be since we have been working at it for nearly 9 months now. He was kind of a late beginner by Wise's standards, as he was more than 5 1/2 when we first cracked open any type of phonics program. He can work on his Zaner-Bloser handwriting sheets independently, something he could not have done last autumn or winter. We are still on the Kindergarten level until we have completely consumed it, but the lessons I taught him all winter have obviously stuck so now I don't need to hold his hand through every worksheet left in the book. I credit Crayola and their book called DryErase Handwriting for Pre-K-K in helping DS overcome resistance to putting pencil to page to begin writing. This frees me to teach him writing from Writing With Ease by Bauer. This book gives us a lot of material and a challenge. It is a time-consuming part of our school day. But I am going to make it into a fun experience for DS by getting books from the library to read which will complement the writing assignment. For example, next week we will have two copywork exercises and two narration assignments from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. My DS hates that we never get to finish the entire story in the process of doing the writing assignment, so I am going to build a literature unit study around Writing With Ease because that seem appropriate and interesting at present. We are fast when it comes to reading chapter books and short stories so we can probably keep up with the weekly assignments and read the whole books or stories, especially if we get some of them as audio books to have for down-times. My DS will love it. I will even print coloring sheets and compile a notebook. You can see why, with a son who is still not sitting for long hours, and all this lovely reading we plan on doing, that SOTW is put on hold for at least another month or two.

I know that if we are secular homeschoolers we probably aren't teaching that the Bible is to be taken literally all the time, but we should still try to freshen our own perspective, and give our kids a good introduction to it. I took a women's studies course in college, and I never learned that the Bible's story of Eve was actually worded more in her favor than popular tradition. I wouldn't be able to teach my son where all the distortions occur, however, since I have not studied feminism, theology, nor the Bible extensively. I do think that trying to stick with the basic facts of what the Bible actually says, and trying not to indoctrinate my son in the process, will be my strategy until I can educate myself more. I can say this about my own experience: My first-grade, Catholic school Bible study was a bit of a shock and a disappointment that lingers to this day. First week of school, we learn that woman led man into sin. The boys all sat taller while the girls shrank in our seats. Some time later we learn that Jacob meets a beautiful woman at a well, and so he marries her, and her sister. I remember very clearly that day our teacher made us memorize the threesome of Jacob, Rachel, and Leah and imagine them riding their camels through the desert or something. Again, the boys sat taller in their seats. We didn't learn about the female servants also being part of the reproductive unit, thankfully. Yet I can't imagine talking to my child about his many, many children and the reason Joseph is his favorite, and why the girls names are so few, without talking about the status of the women to the men, and also, the women to the other women. I don't know if they were co-equal as wives, how the birthright was passed to the sons, or anything like that. I definitely need to get my hands on a resource that explains the context of the Bible. That book intimidates me and yet it appears early in SOTW Vol 1. I feel I'd have to skip all the history involving it if I can't get a grasp on it for myself.

http://www.secular-homeschooling.com/010/teaching_bible.html Markus in Secular Homeschooling Issue 10 (link above) emphasizes how important secular Bible studies are for our kids' cultural literacy (assuming we are not incorporating a religious curriculum into our homeschool). She discusses the difference between the popular take on certain stories and their literal translations, also interesting. She also recommends some quality resources, plus some rather unconventional media to help gain Bible literacy. It is a good article for anybody who wants to use Bible stories for literature in a secular homeschooling environment. Especially if you are just getting acquainted or re-acquainted with the Bible yourself. On my bookshelf we have the illustrated My First Bible Stories produced by the Watchtower Society for Jehovah's Witnesses, but I am looking for something else to read with my children. I don't like the-- I don't know, maybe the illustrations, or emphasis on certain details-- in this JW one I have, but it is interesting to read to see where some of my JW relatives' theological views come from. I do like the illustrated sermon The Creation by James Weldon Johnson and James E. Ransome. I like how it describes only up to Adam's completion, and I like how it puts him on the bank of a river with the dark tan mud matching the color of his skin, to remind young readers that Adam was made by God from the earth. My 6 year old was enthralled, and I got to read its deep rhythmic verses out loud, which is delightful Harlem-Renaissance period poetry.

The kids are just everywhere, and sometimes I feel like I have to play Mama to the whole block by default. That is the cost of him having his social life in our neighborhood. They are not "bad" kids but some do come from unwholesome households, so there is language I don't want him top pick up. You sort of know when kids are not very nurtured and they thirst for anyone's attention they can get, or resort to emotionally manipulating their peers, or they tell strange tall tales to impress you? It can be tough. The stress is in just not having anything to offer my son as an alternative to this in the afternoon. He is one of those intense, insatiable kids. He is only happy when his day is full to the brim with activity, and yet I have responsibilities that keep me from spending alot of time on outings and playing with him. He is one of those kids that needs to be tired out from activity, or else he is a challenge to deal with. He is not a good listener, always needing to be prodded; but when he sets his mind to a task, he can execute it beautifully. In other words he has trouble balancing focus and passion. I am at my wits end. My son's new motto is "I can take care of myself." But no, he cannot! He doesn't get himself dressed without prodding, nor can he remember to brush his teeth without prodding. True, he can do science kits designed for an 8-year-old without help, and he is learning to read and write when he couldn't before. But he still acts babyish from time to time. He is a popular kid; others love his sense of humor, yet he also bursts into tears if a balloon floats away into the air, or if he is denied a privilege he had his heart set on. This makes it challenging to have him at home, and I feel guilty that I cannot do off-campus learning every day with him.

Thank you for being kind! We need to do more as a family, to get outside the confines of our local neighborhood. I don't get why people are being so critical of the idea that maybe a charter school might provide a stepping stone to what we want and need. Usually people are so supportive, and I posted this in the chat forum specifically because it was personal.

The reason I was considering Montessori is because they have all those great math manipulatives and building kits which I lack. And they do some formal phonics and handwriting each day, which is all I have been doing with my son so far. At our town's Montessori school the kids put together their own "contract" with the teacher in which they agree to spend some time on math, geography, and cultural studies each day in addition to the language arts lessons which are formally taught by the teacher and teaching assistants, based on ability rather than age in a mixed-grade classroom. The week includes Latin, art, gym, character development and music lessons and it offers after school intramural sports, clubs, and violin lessons, and as a charter school it would cost us nothing extra to send our child to it. It would be nice to try it for a year to see if he benefits from the structure being routinely implemented. As his mother I feel undermanaged and overwhelmed, unable to provide that overarching structure while keeping up with the chores and caring for my younger little one, too. Even if I were armed with the best of the best of resources it is hard to overcome what I am starting to see as personal limitations on my part.

My neighborhood in spring and summer can be stressful. Yes, he does go out and plays in the neighborhood cul-de-sac as young as he is. And he holds his own quite well, too, considering he is one of the youngest. I am pretty liberal as far as letting him come and go but still more watchful than most of the other parents. I will often patrol where the kids are playing, or sometimes listen from the porch. Last year a two-year-old ran around supervised only by her 12-year-old brother; and there are the tiniest of backyards so the kids have no choice but to spill into the street during their play. That made me very paranoid. Last year I would call my son into the house if the little girl was out so that she would not try to run and chase him down the street, but this year, at the age of 3, she is not a big toddler but a little girl and now she holds her own well with even the much older children. It is just nerve-wracking because I practiced attachment parenting for my son's first years and he was not allowed to leave our porch without a hand-hold until he was well past the age of 5 and had earned our trust that he would not dash and dart between cars in the street like some of the other children do. So it is not as if I can relax at the end of a school day, and make dinner, while he plays. I must watch not only him, but his playmates, to make sure they don't became entangled in some game that will lead them out into the main road where the traffic is busier. (That is the sort of play that prompted me to use the word buffoonery.) When I talk about sending him to school and joining in hobbies with him after school it is because I would like to redirect him toward other communities, ones based on interests and activities rather than our geography. This is just to illustrate how a day can be more stressful than I bargained for. It is not so much because of homeschooling but other factors are causing the stress.