Is Math usually the disadvantage...

[Ginevra]

if your kids are going to go to brick&mortar school at some point in elementary school (or possibly Middle School)? Is there any good way to combat this problem if you think you will not continue to homeschool for all lower-level math?

 

Whenever I know friends whose children are going to school in elementary school after being homeschooled, or even switching from private to public school, math always seems to be the mystery.

 

I ask because my youngest is the most likely one to go to B&M school earlier than the others and if I can help combat that transition problem by what I do now (ds is in 1st grade), I think I should do that.

[Guest]

Yes, I mean when the kids come into a class and what the students at the school have been working on is different, or done from a different approach, or not in the same sequence as they've been learning.

[snickelfritz]

Yes, I mean when the kids come into a class and what the students at the school have been working on is different, or done from a different approach, or not in the same sequence as they've been learning.

 

Math was an easy transition for us. We used some Singapore, some Math Mammoth, and worked on math facts. Dd started using Saxon in school and thought it was easy.

 

Grammar, writing and handwriting brought tears.

[*********]

Hunh. I think it'd really depend on the child and where his natual abilities lie.

 

Moose would be in kindy if he was in ps. He's doing CLE100 right now, and it's not even challenging him. I'm thinking of testing him for each unit until he gets to somewhere he actually has to think. :tongue_smilie:

 

So no, if I were to put him into ps right now, math would certainly not be an issue for him. But both my boys are more gifted in math than in creative writing, for example. He very well may struggle with some creative writing if they do that in ps kindy. I don't even know if they do?!

 

I think perhaps there are more children that either dislike or struggle with math than any other core subject? Seems to be a trend among the homeschool kids I know, at least.

[Joyofsixreboot]

Our problem wouldn't be math (unless being ahead is a problem). My kids' problem would probably be the amount of writing PS kids do. Constructing a report would be fine but creative writing seems to be very difficult for them.

[JFSinIL]

Depends on the math used in the local schools. Here, they use Chicago Math - which is awful, and does problems in the most awkward way possible. A kid familiar with math from a more traditional program might well be confused by the hoops Chicago math would have him/her jump through.

 

I am not expressing this well, am I.

 

Also - what cursive (if any) does the local school teach? You need to replicate what they are doing if a kid may be going there. Our school district uses D'nealian, so that is what we used at home.

 

If you think you may be having a kid or two use the public schools at some point (all my kids have been at home or the local school on a year-by-year basis - depending on the needs of each kid vs. which placement was best for them each year) by all means contact the school and find out what they use. You do NOT have to replicate what the school does - but it can't hurt to be aware of any major differences (like my handwriting example).

[Chris in VA]

Dd went to ps for the first time in 3rd grade. Math was totally review. When she went back in 5th grade (hs'd 4th), they put her ahead a year, and she's stayed there this year.

A great foundation helps a ton. I love hs'ing math in elementary, because we can do so much one-on-one, slowing down to explain or give more examples, or speeding up, going deeper or applying to real life...Math at home is GREAT, imo. If you've got the basics down, the sequence change or method changes can be learned quickly.

 

Writing was a little harder--she had excellent sentence comp skills, which I think came from copywork and grammar, but she didn't have "enough" on her page. It was mostly creative writing or report writing. By the end of 3rd, tho, she was fine.

 

She had more world history, but less contemporary US history b/c we followed the classical cycle and she hadn't gotten to the last two years yet, where Early/Mod American history comes in. She didn't know much US geog either.

 

YMMV.

[QuirkyKidAcademy]

I think we will be okay in math, even if we have to work a little harder than some kids. It's the writing I'm concerned about. My pencil-phobic kid is way behind in that area.

[BMW]

All of mine transitioned at some point to ps... two of them in mid-elementary. I had really laid a solid foundation in math, so while they did have to learn a couple of different approaches/methods, they did just fine. The older ones who transitioned in higher grades didn't really experience any gaps or challenges, they went into higher level programs that were offered. But, I spent a lot of time laying the math foundation with them.

[Carrie12345]

Math is only a problem for my ds in that he's sitting around doing nothing in math class right now. He transferred in having finished Alg. 1, but they don't even have a pre-algebra course in his current school. Fortunately, he's been accepted into Geometry for September in the high school.

 

His writing is also fine (well, more than fine, lol), but there would be a real issue if I were to put my 3rd or 4th grade dds in school right now. They have no experience with what passes for "writing" in elementary classrooms. *That's where I'd reluctantly focus if I needed to.

[justasque]

I would say that generally speaking the schools I'm familiar with tend to include more conceptual stuff early on than some of the homeschooling curricula I'm familiar with. So a kid who has only done ABeka (which emphasizes calculation skills in the early years and does little to lay foundations for algebraic thinking) may be at a serious disadvantage if they enter school in middle school. However if you use the early years to lay a good foundation in math in a broader sense, encouraging the use of a variety of ways of thinking about various kinds of problems, learning about all the different ways numbers relate to each other, including things like showing your work, learning the vocab, explaining (verbally and/or using writing and symbols) why an answer is correct, and so on, then you should be OK. Remember that in PS, if you can't write it down, it's as if you don't know it at all, so encourage your kids to develop good "show your work" habits. (At the early grades, this can be as simple as drawing dots and circling some of them to show fractional values, or drawing an array of dots to show multiplication, etc.)

 

Call the school and ask what they use, or take a peek at the textbooks the neighbor kids are using (or their math homework). If you have advance notice of school in your dc's future, you can always use the summer before to prep - buy an earlier version of the school's textbook from Amazon (earlier=cheaper) and work through the stuff you think might pose a challenge.

 

Consult local homeschool moms who have backgrounds in fields that require math (engineering, science, etc.) as to what they think of the materials you are considering using.

 

Bottom line, math is easier for some kids than others, regardless of the instruction they've had in the past, KWIM?

[sassenach]

Hmm, I don't think so. At least not in my experience. The thing that was a mystery for dd (back to school in 8th) was classroom culture. She caught on pretty quickly, but there was a learning curve. Learning had been a dialog for her. In a classroom, you sit and listen. That's it. She had lots of questions for the teachers that seemed silly to them. Because of her experience, I have my kids in a co-op that has a sub-curriculum of teaching classroom culture.

 

Dd was never a math genius, but she did just fine transitioning into school math. I think appropriate placement is key. You have to be honest about what level the child is at. If they're not strong in math, don't place them in Algebra in 7th grade. Dd took the first half of Alg 1 in 8th grade. That was the appropriate spot for her and she did great.

[ThisIsTheDay]

Danielle, it's no different than if a child came from a different school district, or even sometimes a different school within the same district.

[Annie G]

Depends on the math used in the local schools. Here, they use Chicago Math - which is awful, and does problems in the most awkward way possible. A kid familiar with math from a more traditional program might well be confused by the hoops Chicago math would have him/her jump through.

 

I am not expressing this well, am I.

 

Also - what cursive (if any) does the local school teach? You need to replicate what they are doing if a kid may be going there. Our school district uses D'nealian, so that is what we used at home.

 

If you think you may be having a kid or two use the public schools at some point (all my kids have been at home or the local school on a year-by-year basis - depending on the needs of each kid vs. which placement was best for them each year) by all means contact the school and find out what they use. You do NOT have to replicate what the school does - but it can't hurt to be aware of any major differences (like my handwriting example).

 

I know exactly what you mean. An incoming student might place poorly simply because he didn't know the terminology or 'quirks' of the math program the school uses.

[Guest]

Hunh. I think it'd really depend on the child and where his natual abilities lie.

 

Moose would be in kindy if he was in ps. He's doing CLE100 right now, and it's not even challenging him. I'm thinking of testing him for each unit until he gets to somewhere he actually has to think. :tongue_smilie:

 

So no, if I were to put him into ps right now, math would certainly not be an issue for him. But both my boys are more gifted in math than in creative writing, for example. He very well may struggle with some creative writing if they do that in ps kindy. I don't even know if they do?!

 

I think perhaps there are more children that either dislike or struggle with math than any other core subject? Seems to be a trend among the homeschool kids I know, at least.

 

Depends on the math used in the local schools. Here, they use Chicago Math - which is awful, and does problems in the most awkward way possible. A kid familiar with math from a more traditional program might well be confused by the hoops Chicago math would have him/her jump through.

 

I am not expressing this well, am I.

 

Also - what cursive (if any) does the local school teach? You need to replicate what they are doing if a kid may be going there. Our school district uses D'nealian, so that is what we used at home.

 

If you think you may be having a kid or two use the public schools at some point (all my kids have been at home or the local school on a year-by-year basis - depending on the needs of each kid vs. which placement was best for them each year) by all means contact the school and find out what they use. You do NOT have to replicate what the school does - but it can't hurt to be aware of any major differences (like my handwriting example).

 

Those are good ideas. (I have been told they don't teach cursive handwriting at all at "our" schools.)

 

All of mine transitioned at some point to ps... two of them in mid-elementary. I had really laid a solid foundation in math, so while they did have to learn a couple of different approaches/methods, they did just fine. The older ones who transitioned in higher grades didn't really experience any gaps or challenges, they went into higher level programs that were offered. But, I spent a lot of time laying the math foundation with them.

 

I have had no significant problems with my dd, who went to school beginning 9th grade (this year). But that also seems easier to me, because by 9th grade, she had all the foundational math skills down pat. I'm not sure how this works when they haven't learned all the arithmetic operations and now they have to learn some of them at school. Maybe I'm making more of it than it is.

 

Math is only a problem for my ds in that he's sitting around doing nothing in math class right now. He transferred in having finished Alg. 1, but they don't even have a pre-algebra course in his current school. Fortunately, he's been accepted into Geometry for September in the high school.

 

His writing is also fine (well, more than fine, lol), but there would be a real issue if I were to put my 3rd or 4th grade dds in school right now. They have no experience with what passes for "writing" in elementary classrooms. *That's where I'd reluctantly focus if I needed to.

 

That's a really nice problem to have. :001_smile:

 

I would say that generally speaking the schools I'm familiar with tend to include more conceptual stuff early on than some of the homeschooling curricula I'm familiar with. So a kid who has only done ABeka (which emphasizes calculation skills in the early years and does little to lay foundations for algebraic thinking) may be at a serious disadvantage if they enter school in middle school. However if you use the early years to lay a good foundation in math in a broader sense, encouraging the use of a variety of ways of thinking about various kinds of problems, learning about all the different ways numbers relate to each other, including things like showing your work, learning the vocab, explaining (verbally and/or using writing and symbols) why an answer is correct, and so on, then you should be OK. Remember that in PS, if you can't write it down, it's as if you don't know it at all, so encourage your kids to develop good "show your work" habits. (At the early grades, this can be as simple as drawing dots and circling some of them to show fractional values, or drawing an array of dots to show multiplication, etc.)

 

Call the school and ask what they use, or take a peek at the textbooks the neighbor kids are using (or their math homework). If you have advance notice of school in your dc's future, you can always use the summer before to prep - buy an earlier version of the school's textbook from Amazon (earlier=cheaper) and work through the stuff you think might pose a challenge.

 

Consult local homeschool moms who have backgrounds in fields that require math (engineering, science, etc.) as to what they think of the materials you are considering using.

 

Bottom line, math is easier for some kids than others, regardless of the instruction they've had in the past, KWIM?

 

Very good information, thanks!

 

Danielle, it's no different than if a child came from a different school district, or even sometimes a different school within the same district.

 

Well, that is where I have seen difficulties with kids I know. I wondered if it was a common problem, but it sounds like not necessarily.

[Samiam]

My 13/8th DS just started virtual charter school, ie online public school in January. He's in Honors Algebra, and it's a breeze for him. Now Composition, that on the other hand is still a struggle.

 

He'll go to Public High School in the fall, and I don't see any issues for him in math. I expect him to be in either Honors or AP level math (if that is offered)

 

Composition....well.....

[HeatherL]

When I taught upper elementary PS, the subject that my incoming homeschoolers had the most difficulty with was writing and handwriting. Many times their handwriting was very hard to read (size, spacing, as well as messy). Also as others have said, those kiddos had a hard time elaborating ideas to write complete essays or stories. When they would first start in my classroom they would write just a few sentences of a persuasive essay or creative writing story and say they were done. I worked with them on graphic organizers, word choices, etc. (6 trait writing techniques).