difficult situation, really need advice (math related - 5th grade)

[jenniferlee]

If you were going to be in a position of not being able to personally teach math to your child for the next couple of years, what would you do?

 

Just "hypothetically", he's a 5th grade boy, he's extremely bright, but emotionally unstable in many ways. He's made it through singapore 5A with a lot of help and lot of tears.

 

So lets just say you are suddenly not going to be able to give him any more math instruction, but you are going to continue homeschooling him. A private tutor is not financially possible.

 

What would you do, what program would you use?

 

This is hard for me to even ask, so please be nice.

 

Jen

[ondreeuh]

I would look at CLE. Instruction is written to the child, and there are answer keys for the child to check his own work. Tests and quizzes can be easily removed from the booklets before handing them over. The sunrise edition goes through 8th grade so you would have a few years with it. I'd give your son the placement test and then ask CLE for a sample Light Unit so you can get a feel for the program.

 

On the other hand I think Teaching Textbooks can be graded by the computer, and of course the teaching is done on the computer, so that might work too. I just haven't used this program. Maybe there's a trial offer so you could get a good look?

[Corraleno]

If you could get him to do Math Mammoth 5B-6B by himself for the rest of 5th and 6th grade, I'd do that. It's roughly the same level as Singapore, but it's pretty self-teaching at that age. If he won't do that, I'd go with Teaching Textbooks 7 (which has online grading; TT Prealgebra doesn't), and when he finishes that, I'd switch to Kinetic Books Prealgebra. KB is considerably more rigorous than TT and they currently have Alg I & II available, with Geometry almost ready for release. I expect they'll have a complete HS program by the time you get there. Their homeschool versions are completely online, with the lessons all laid out, automatic grading, built-in help for difficult problems, solutions, etc. It would totally remove you from the equation.

 

Sorry you're dealing with this. :grouphug:

 

Jackie

Edited November 23, 2010 by Corraleno

[Mom0012]

If I could afford the BJU dvd for Math, I might go with that. Can he read the lesson himself and understand what he needs to do? If so, then CLE or Saxon might work. From my understanding, CLE moves a lot faster than Saxon, but it has the benefit of being in a workbook format.

 

If none of that looked like it was going to be a good fit, I would probably go with Teaching Textbooks.

 

Lisa

 

ETA: You say he is extremely bright but made it through Singapore 5A with lots of tears. Is math a weakness for him or is it that he just doesn't want to do the work? If he just doesn't want to do the work, but picks up math easily, I would definitely pick CLE to start with. You can even buy just a couple of Lightunits and see how it goes. Make sure you use the placement test so you start at the right level if that is the direction you take.

Edited November 23, 2010 by LisaTheresa

[MerryAtHope]

I would use a computer or video-based program, unless this child learns very well from books. I just switched my oldest to Math-U-See, and that's going well. I'm not sure how independent you need the child (hypothetically) to be, I do still correct my son's work and walk him through mistakes. I think he could check his work against an answer key but I'm not sure he'd be dilligent to make sure he understood why it was wrong. But that's only about 5 minutes a day that I need to spend with him on math, and the main instruction not coming from me. I do watch the videos with him.

 

You could look into Teaching Textbooks or SOS. I'm less familiar with how these work specifically (I know TT is a bit different at different levels, so I'm not sure which level has both instruction and correction on the computer, I'd be sure to figure that out if you are considering that one).

 

Just some thoughts, I hope you find what will work for your family!

 

Another option, depending on your situation--could Dad do the teaching? Or, could you barter with a friend--you do something for that friend, that friend teaches your son math?

 

Merry :-)

[jengjohnson]

Another vote for CLE. My kids are so independent with it, though I do grade and go through corrections with them which is probably 5 min. a day.

[mothergooseof4]

I am assuming something here, but if he is like my oldest ds....we just butt heads with math. He is very intelligent and CAN do the work. Taking instruction from me in math is not working for us most of the time with this child though.

 

I tried CLE, he still needed me to teach the lesson to him. I think he is auditory and needs to hear the lesson, not just read it. Reading history/science works great, but math/LA he needs to hear and see it demonstrated. Plus, with CLE, when he got a problem wrong, I had to help him figure it out. We still butted heads all of the time.

 

This year I switched him to TT. He placed in TT7, but I started him in 6 just to build his confidence. I just had him take the quizzes until he no longer made an A, then we backed up and started with that chapter. He will finish and get partially through level 7 before our summer break....when he will still do a lesson here and there until next fall.

 

TT is working great for us. It did take a little while for him to learn to listen and follow the lesson. He tuned the lesson out at first and then asked me questions. I insisted that he listen again a couple of times and that took care of that problem. He also is required to listen to the solution for any problem that he misses. The grade book shows me whether or not he did indeed listen to the solution. He now rarely asks me questions and when he does it is just one or two per lesson. We very rarely have math issues with TT.

 

Also, if dh is around when he is working on his math and he asks a question, he will ask for his help. For some reason he can take instruction from dh in math and there is no head butting. I do not know if it is that dh explains on his level better (I am an accountant by profession and math just clicks with me) or if it is just a personality thing. But, it works.

 

All of that to say: I know that TT does not always get great reviews. It is behind, just make sure to give him the placement test and don't be surprised when he scores way over his grade level. And, I have read MANY reviews that say it is great if you do follow through with the entire program. So, they do eventually get to everything.

[jenniferlee]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I will check out all the suggestions. I have always wanted a quality math education for my children and I hate to give them any materials that aren't as "good" as others, KWIM? But, something is going to have change and self-teaching is the route we are going.

 

It really has to be something that includes everything he would need to figure out the methods/solutions on his own. I don't mind checking the work myself later, but he's going to have to DO it by himself at this point.

 

We've been so teacher intensive with Singapore that I feel at a loss of where to turn.

Thanks again for the suggestions

 

Jen

Edited November 23, 2010 by jenniferlee

[Hedgehog]

A good friend of mine uses Math-U-See and thinks it's wonderful - I'm pretty sure that it can be done almost entirely independently.

[Corraleno]

Thank you everyone for your replies. I will check out all the suggestions. I have always wanted a quality math education for my children and I hate to give them any materials that aren't as "good" as others, KWIM? But, something is going to have change and self-teaching is the route we are going.

Once he gets to Prealgebra, you will have more options, and when he gets to Alg I there are even more options with video instruction, so you're not limited to TT or MUS. I wouldn't recommend switching to MUS at this point anyway, because even MUS Prealgebra would include a lot of review for a student who has been doing Singapore 5, and there is only one, very short video "lecture" (a few minutes) per week. If you really need something totally self-teaching, I do think TT7 would be a reasonable one-year compromise, as a bridge between Singapore and Prealgebra. It includes lots of review and practice problems, and although the problems are not particularly challenging, the program will review and cement all the concepts he needs to move into Prealgebra. Then you can choose a more challenging program like Kinetic Books or Chalkdust or one of the other programs that includes DVD lectures. For algebra, you can get DVDs for most of the common texts, such as Lial, Foerster, Larson, etc.

 

Have you looked into Life of Fred at all? They're totally self-teaching, but you'd need to be able to check that he's doing the problems and not just reading the answers. For kids who "get" the way LoF teaches, it can be a great independent math program. It doesn't include a lot of explanation up front, though, so some kids need a more explicit program first, then use LoF as a supplement. Adding a few LoF books (Fractions, Decimals & Percents, and one of the PreAlgebra books) to TT7 would give you a pretty rigorous program for the next year and a half, would prepare your son very well for any prealgebra program, and could be entirely self-teaching.

 

Good luck with whatever you choose; I have a very bright but highly emotional DS, too, and I know it can be tough. :grouphug:

Jackie

[jenniferlee]

Jackie-

thanks for the encouragement!

My daughter (in 7th) has been using life of fred for a couple of years now and we love it! She has just zipped through her math instruction, however, so it was easy to move her from singapore 6 to lof. My son, however, not so easy. But maybe the TT/LOF combo would be a good way to go. I hadn't thought of that.

thanks again

 

Jen

[thowell]

What about Systematic Math starting in 6th grade?

[PentecostalMom]

I second...or third...or whatever, Teaching Textbooks. We used it with with my ds while hubby was deployed and I was couch & bed bound sick. He knew what he was required to complete, and with the CD's it is almost completely self-teaching. There are examples and samples on their website. I cannot recall having to tell him anything except what his assignments were.

 

Blessings to you!

[athomemom]

We loved MUS here.

 

Recently though we switched to Saxon (level 7/6) using the Saxon teacher Cd's. Wow! My children love it & so do I. I don't really have to do a thing. (besides grading, of course)

[8filltheheart]

If you were going to be in a position of not being able to personally teach math to your child for the next couple of years, what would you do?

 

Just "hypothetically", he's a 5th grade boy, he's extremely bright, but emotionally unstable in many ways. He's made it through singapore 5A with a lot of help and lot of tears.

 

So lets just say you are suddenly not going to be able to give him any more math instruction, but you are going to continue homeschooling him. A private tutor is not financially possible.

 

What would you do, what program would you use?

 

This is hard for me to even ask, so please be nice.

 

Jen

 

Perhaps EPGY might be a good option? http://epgy.stanford.edu/district/courses.html

 

Someone on the accelerated board had a couple of openings left in her open enrollment group not too long ago. I don't really know anything about this b/c it is geared toward younger kids. (I think :tongue_smilie:) I am planning on using JHU's upper math courses in the next couple of yrs.

 

If you search the accelerated board, you will probably find several posts on the topic.