melissel Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 When you got there and had to teach it, were you able to do so? Was your curriculum strong enough that it enabled you to understand and teach it, lesson by lesson? Or did you have to outsource? Or something else? I ask because all this time, I thought I was fully prepared to teach math up through algebra at least, and possibly geometry. I didn't have any problems with algebra in school, and I seem to recall doing OK in geometry. I knew I'd be out of my depth once we hit Trig, and I never took Calculus, but by then DD will be old enough to take those classes at the local CC. I was very confident about all of this! Then, I started seeing, in various places, examples of the problems we'd be seeing in pre-algebra, algebra, etc., and I realized that I no longer have a clue how to solve them! :banghead: And now I'm completely freaked out about being able to teach even algebra competently. I'm hoping that I'll keep building a scaffold as DD and I move through the levels, but maybe I won't? Did you reach a point where you realized you could no longer be the one to teach your child math at some level? TIA! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poetic license Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 :lurk5: I did OK on all the math I did up to Calculus (straight As), but hand me a problem now and I'll start sweating. I lacked conceptual understanding--I was great at simply plugging in the stuff into the calculator. Ideally I would self remediate before my kids get to that level, but we'll see when I get around to it. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 When you got there and had to teach it, were you able to do so? Was your curriculum strong enough that it enabled you to understand and teach it, lesson by lesson? Or did you have to outsource? Or something else? I ask because all this time, I thought I was fully prepared to teach math up through algebra at least, and possibly geometry. I didn't have any problems with algebra in school, and I seem to recall doing OK in geometry. I knew I'd be out of my depth once we hit Trig, and I never took Calculus, but by then DD will be old enough to take those classes at the local CC. I was very confident about all of this! Then, I started seeing, in various places, examples of the problems we'd be seeing in pre-algebra, algebra, etc., and I realized that I no longer have a clue how to solve them! :banghead: And now I'm completely freaked out about being able to teach even algebra competently. I'm hoping that I'll keep building a scaffold as DD and I move through the levels, but maybe I won't? Did you reach a point where you realized you could no longer be the one to teach your child math at some level? TIA! I took through Calculus in college, but found that I was floundering because I didn't really understand what was going on. My kids are in AoPS this year. I find that I can do a full chapter in a couple days, just because I understand how to think better as an adult. Even when we were doing middle grades Saxon, there were things that we were working on that I really understood for the first time (like dividing fractions). FWIW, I am working through the AoPS algebra book at about the same pace as the kids. It is work, but I sort of enjoy the brain workout and the sense of capability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen in CO Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 I was terrific in math through a couple of years of college calculus plus a few other topic math classes, but I couldn't explain my way out of a paper bag if my kid doesn't understand the explanation in the book starting in pre-Algebra. My brother is a math teacher so he is helping along with my ds who is now terrific at explain math to my dd. They can figure out what she doesn't understand and explain in a variety of ways until she does. If your higher math skills are rusty or were never wonderful, please make a plan now for those later years. Start now auditing classes at your local CC or work through your math sequence ahead of your kids. Find resources in your family that have the skills to help. Consider hiring tutors or outsourcing math. Working a chapter ahead won't be enough if your kids and you don't understand the explanations in the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faithseed Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 I agree that things are clicking much better now as an adult than they did the first time around. I am learning right along (and slightly ahead) of my children. If all else fails, I'll just outsource Math, either by co-op or by video classes. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missmoe Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 At the algebra level I outsource. I know I could go ahead and review and teach algebra, but time wise I just can't fit that in right now. I'm looking for something for my dd online for next year for algebra. Not sure what we'll use yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlebug42 Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 I haven't gotten there yet but I won't be teaching it. Some sort of outsourcing/online/dh combo will likely be employed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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