Need Advice from Moms homeschooling highschoolers

[parias1126]

My oldest DD has been homeschooled from the 3rd grade. She has always had a horrible time with Math. She has done Algebra 1 for the last 2 years. She is picking it up, but very slowly. She decided last year that she doesn't want to go to college. I could graduate her now, but I don't want to for more then a few reasons. The biggest one being that she is too immature to "push out the door" yet (so to speak). She has more then enough credits (other then math) to issue her diploma if I wanted to. I just really want her to get some more math review this last year....real life math practice so to speak and I want her reading reading reading!

 

I would love any suggestions as far as a Math curriculum I can use with a high schooler that needs review. My biggest worry is Fractions and Percents. I have been looking at Math Mammoth, but I am unsure which grade to purchase. I even thought about just purchasing 6th grade for her to work on this year.

 

The whole idea is to review real life math skills. Any other suggestions on curriculums for a 17 year old would be of great help (even if it's not math). I would also like her to be reading. I just haven't come up with any ideas and its so late now. I need something ideas quick!

 

As far as what she wants to do after graduation, she wants to become a private nanny which is the goal she is going to spend the next year trying to accomplish.

[Remudamom]

My high schoolers lovelovelove Khan Academy. It's a free online program. The guy started it for his niece who needed help with her math. Follow the link and mess around til you find the math and then look for what you need. You might need to sign in, but it's free.

 

http://www.khanacademy.org/

[KidsHappen]

One of my high schoolers used Math-U-See and the other used Teaching Textbooks. They each liked the one they had chosen. They both did well on the math portion of the SAT and they both passed the math portion of the college entrance exams. Math-U-See is better for a visual learner (someone who needs to see the math) and Teaching Textbooks is good for someone who learns well by just reading the instructions. The one that used Math-U-See seems to have a deeper understanding of math while the other seems to get it more intuitively. I am happy with both programs. We didn't use any other high school math. If you want a fairly quick review of basic math concepts then I recommend the Key to . . . series by Key Curriculum Press on the particular topics you want to review.

[Sugarfoot]

For real-life fractions and percents, I love Life of Fred.

 

As far as reading goes, does she have a favorite book or author that could be expanded upon?

 

What about doing a children's literature course of sorts, since she wants to be a nanny? I took a class like that in college, and it turned out to be one of the most helpful things that I did. Most colleges with a teaching degree program will have that type of course listed. You could figure out what text they're using and just buy it for her to use. Then she could get the literature from the library to go with it. IIRC, we read 60 picture books and 40 chapter books that semester and wrote a summary of each one that included things like genre, intended audience age level, artist style, etc.

 

HTH!

[Miss Sherry]

pariass - when my oldest was about that age I was in the same boat. My daughter had struggles with math for years. We used the Key To series to get extra practice but math was a struggle for many years. I think the others have given good suggestions.

She is 24 years old now and still struggles with math but she functions fine in life and knows how to use a calculator. When she had her first job as a teenager at Papa Murphys she carried a calculator in her pocket in case she ever needed it.I don't know if she ever had to use the calculator at work. She also worked for her Dad as an interior painter. She loved using the designer colors.

I was totally surprised when at age 18 and a half she got married. It just did not occur to me that she would get married at such a young age. I was hoping she would continue to develop her artistic skills. She has a husband who is very good to her and their two young children, ages 2 1/2 and 4 months.

I just wanted to encourage you that you will not have to deal with the struggles of math forever - but it did seem like it to me for a few years - There is life after math.

Edited September 9, 2010 by Miss Sherry

[Miss Sherry]

For real-life fractions and percents, I love Life of Fred.

 

As far as reading goes, does she have a favorite book or author that could be expanded upon?

 

What about doing a children's literature course of sorts, since she wants to be a nanny? I took a class like that in college, and it turned out to be one of the most helpful things that I did. Most colleges with a teaching degree program will have that type of course listed. You could figure out what text they're using and just buy it for her to use. Then she could get the literature from the library to go with it. IIRC, we read 60 picture books and 40 chapter books that semester and wrote a summary of each one that included things like genre, intended audience age level, artist style, etc.

 

HTH!

I have never used Life Of Fred, but after hearing so many reports of it from the Moms here, I am planning on getting the Fractions book to start with.

[Barry Goldwater]

For real-life fractions and percents, I love Life of Fred.

 

:iagree:

[Jenny in Atl]

My high schoolers lovelovelove Khan Academy. It's a free online program. The guy started it for his niece who needed help with her math. Follow the link and mess around til you find the math and then look for what you need. You might need to sign in, but it's free.

 

http://www.khanacademy.org/

 

Thank you so much for posting this!

[Laurie4b]

For real-life math skills, I would look into Rod and Staff. It is totally focused on real-life math. It has lots of problems for mastery with each skill or process you're learning, plus review. There are problems with cooking, agriculture, business, finances, gas mileage, etc. There are a lot of agricultural word problems--probably more than ideal if you're not a farmer's kid, but the whole series is definitely real-life focused. It also doesn't cost an arm-and-a leg and has a very good teacher's manual, though just answers and not solutions. The series has some algebra, but not a total algebra course, so if it's algebra you're looking for, it's not the right thing. If it's solid coverage and review of the math most people need for life, it's excellent.

[Kate in Arabia]

What about doing a children's literature course of sorts, since she wants to be a nanny? I took a class like that in college, and it turned out to be one of the most helpful things that I did. Most colleges with a teaching degree program will have that type of course listed. You could figure out what text they're using and just buy it for her to use.

 

I also took a children's lit class in college, the text we used was the Norton Anthology of Children's Literature. I still have my edition, and have re-read lots for myself, in addition to some read alouds with the kids. One thing that surprised me was how different some of the classic stories are from popular movie adaptations, which I thought might make an interesting studying for the OP's daughter -- like reading the original story, then watching a movie adaptation and doing a comparison. Pinnochio in particular I thought was striking in its differences, but of course this could go far beyond what's in this anthology...

[parias1126]

pariass - when my oldest was about that age I was in the same boat. My daughter had struggles with math for years. We used the Key To series to get extra practice but math was a struggle for many years. I think the others have given good suggestions.

She is 24 years old now and still struggles with math but she functions fine in life and knows how to use a calculator. When she had her first job as a teenager at Papa Murphys she carried a calculator in her pocket in case she ever needed it.I don't know if she ever had to use the calculator at work. She also worked for her Dad as an interior painter. She loved using the designer colors.

I was totally surprised when at age 18 and a half she got married. It just did not occur to me that she would get married at such a young age. I was hoping she would continue to develop her artistic skills. She has a husband who is very good to her and their two young children, ages 2 1/2 and 4 months.

I just wanted to encourage you that you will not have to deal with the struggles of math forever - but it did seem like it to me for a few years - There is life after math.

 

Thank you for this post Sherry. This is our situation. She will be 18 in February and plans to get married. This is the whole reason why I refuse to graduate her yet. If I have some type of schooling for her, she wouldn't finish until June since we are starting late. She will be 18 in February.

[Starr]

We used Lial's Basis College Math for an overall review. I think Abeka has a lifeskills math course that might work well.

[Teachin'Mine]

Not math related, but she might want to consider taking Red Cross first aid and CPR classes. If she's able to, an introductory education class at a community college might be good too. I'd also suggest a health course with the focus on nutrition. As a nanny, she'll likely be preparing some meals. If being a nanny is her goal, help her to find things that will look good on job applications for that. I think it's great that you want her to have good basic math skills - those are important too. :)

[AngieW in Texas]

Would something here help?

http://www.pass.leon.k12.fl.us/Book%20Subject%20Areas/Mathematics.aspx

 

I just saw this link posted on some email loop I'm on today. The programs are free in Adobe Acrobat format. You can read the student material online and then print out the worksheet pages for the problems (or just answer them on looseleaf paper).

 

I'm thinking about using it for Pre-algebra for my youngest. I've been trying to find a program for her that has black print on white paper, is uncluttered, and has plenty of white space. This seems to fit the bill and looks better to me than MUS (the only other program I know of that meets the visual layout requirements my dd has).

[Miss Sherry]

Thank you for this post Sherry. This is our situation. She will be 18 in February and plans to get married. This is the whole reason why I refuse to graduate her yet. If I have some type of schooling for her, she wouldn't finish until June since we are starting late. She will be 18 in February.

It was a little hard for me to accept that my daughter was getting married at the age of 18 1/2 but I knew she was not going to change her mind and I didn't want to alienate her from myself, so I tried to be as supportive of her as I could under the circumstances.Also, it was hard because we just barely knew our son in law before they got married. Her Dad had a harder time with it than I did. He is still holding a grudge against dd and sil and I feel that is ridiculous. It has been over 5 years now. I want him to give up the grudge and just enjoy them and the 2 grandchildren, ages 2 1/2 years and 4 months. They all are not even speaking to each other. It is so hard and breaks my heart. I see my dd and grandchildren without my dh. Life is too short for this kind of nonsense. My son, age 21 , says he thinks it is ridiculous that my dh and dd and sil are all angry at each other. My son says being angry takes too much energy.

Are you holding off graduating her, hoping she will delay getting married ?

Keep in mind that once she turns 18 there is nothing you can do legally to stop her from leaving home and getting married. (Unless the law is different in your state - here the age is 18 )

 

My dd got married 6 months before the end of her senior year. But I think if she had stayed home to finish those last few months before getting married that it would have been a waste of time and a lot of stress on everyone because she would have been so distracted and discontent that she wouldn't have accomplished anything academically.

Edited September 10, 2010 by Miss Sherry

[Miss Sherry]

About my daughter getting married so young. I think that being homeschooled all of her life did play a role in her getting married young. She was around family so much more than she was around her peers, and spent a good deal of time doing domestic things like cooking and cleaning, that I think she started thinking about wanting to have her own family at an early age. Although I had to adjust to the idea because it came as a surprise to me, I do think being married has helped her to grow up more than she would have if she had remained unmarried.