This thread is not about Beast Academy

[slackermom]

:glare: I have a weakness for buying Math curricula and this thread isn't helping..

 

Question for those who own multiple math curricula/child, especially afterschoolers like Spy Car - how do you plan your usage? I often feel like there are not enough hours in the day to do each curriculum justice, and this is even without accounting for the time spent on other subjects or activities.

 

Limiting ourselves to one curriculum for math would be like limiting ourselves to one author to learn reading. For us, math is a language, and DD loves it and wants to be as fluent as possible.

 

We are afterschoolers, at DD's request. Her second grade teacher gives her Primary Grade Challenge Math chapters to do instead of the regular math homework, but that just gets DD warmed up. We use whatever seems helpful to use, on whatever topic DD is asking me about. We don't have a specific schedule, but usually spend a few hours on math each week. DD is also participating in a weekly math circle, which generates more math discussion.

[Spy Car]

:glare: I have a weakness for buying Math curricula and this thread isn't helping..

 

Question for those who own multiple math curricula/child, especially afterschoolers like Spy Car - how do you plan your usage? I often feel like there are not enough hours in the day to do each curriculum justice, and this is even without accounting for the time spent on other subjects or activities.

 

For example, do you:

1. Use your school/state standards as a guide, and pick the curriculum that best presents the topic to your child?

2. Schedule a different day for each, e.g. today - word problems with Singapore and HoE, tomorrow - manipulatives with Miquon and RS games?

3. Use one curriculum as a spine, let your dc request others on demand?

 

Math seems to be a subject in which we are spoilt for curricula choice. :001_smile:

 

How do I plan my usage? It depends.

 

First off I need to be very "flexible" in terms of a "schedule." I decided from the beginning of our home education adventure (when my son was in nursery school) that I did not want our lessons to interfere with fun real-life opportunities. And I have pretty much stuck with that idea. So yesterday he had a change to join a friend for a table-tennis with a very well-respected coach (on the day Beast Academy arrived) and I said sure, let's go!

 

And then we turned his "journaling" homework from school into an opportunity to write about Beast Academy (when he would ordinarily write about a fictional story) and then we did more BA until lights out.

 

So I have two things going. One, be willing to toss out the days schedule. Two, be very opportunistic about seizing what might be non-productive "down-time" (while realizing children need time for "creative" downtime too.

 

It is a balancing act. But by keeping "after-schooling" from truncating fun life opportunities, and (instead) making it rich one-on-one "Daddy and Son" time, my child is enthusiastic about the time we spend working on things together. And I do try very hard to make it an interesting mix.

 

Time is a factor. I found it pretty easy when we started to do nearly 3 complete math programs (Miquon, MEP, and Singapore), plus lots of "Math Lab" supplementation with RS games and other activities I stole or invented.

 

Now with increased school homework, the basketball team, piano lessons, play-dates and the like, time is squeezed. I had to make the decision to pick one math program to do as our "spine." In a very tough decision between MEP and Singapore I went with Singapore. We still supplement and go on rabbit-trails, but I'm not going to make either of us crazy by taking on too much during the school year.

 

However, school days make up just less than half the year. When school in not in session, and on weekends (when nothing else is planned) we make up for lost time. We do not watch television in our home (outside selected films) and in the time a child might otherwise be watching a boob-tube we have fun learning. Durning the summers when others are taking a break, we pick up the pace, still having fun, but it looks more like part-time "homeschool."

 

I do not follow the sate standards. We have consistently been about a year (or more) ahead of grade level in his work in English and Math at home. The Singapore Primary Mathematics SE (that we use) does meet the California standards, but that's not really why we use it.

 

When we started, and I was bouncing and balancing more programs and approaches there was a logic to it. I always tried to put myself (as best as I was able) to put myself inside my child's mind and I'd ask myself what he would need to know "before" we worked on the next topic we were going to cover. Then we would work on that prerequisite skill first. That was an amazingly helpful strategy for us. And I would draw on whatever resources I needed, or invent my own in order to build up the levels of understanding in fun ways.

 

Sometimes things are not so creative. Sometimes we just pick up in a book where we left off the last time. But I try not to let this become "habit."

 

I do not have strict days where we will do this or that. Were we full-time homeschoolers I might have Friday "Math Lab." This has been a common experience for us, but it is not set in stone. The basketball season just ending had Friday afternoon practice, the new season just starting will be Tuesdays. I stay flexible.

 

The big dilemma now will be how to handle BA and Singapore. BA is sparking a lot of enthusiasm at the moment. We will ride that wave awhile. Then see. We had the end of Primary Mathematics 3 in sight. BA will push that back. I can live with it.

 

I figure as long as my child is happy and learning things with a depth of understanding and has an enthusiasm for the acquisition of knowledge, and has a fun kid-life, we are doing something right. And I just keep on improvising with a plan that makes sense to me on a macro level, but is very prone to shifts on a micro level. If that makes sense.

 

Bill

[HejKatt]

stripe, Roadrunner and SpyCar - thank you so much for your detailed responses! I sense that you know your curricula (and your dc) very well, so you can splice in the parts you need and keep the learning balanced. Certainly there doesn't seem to be any groaning when you pull out the Math books/manipulatives! :001_smile:

 

slackermom -thanks for the analogy about curriculum being like an author's work, that's been giving me something to think about. Many students, at least in my cohort, experienced Math as exercises in plugging through algorithms, without having the why explained (or, when it was explained, it just went over our heads). I'm glad your dd loves it and wants to discuss the whys and wherefores.

Edited March 17, 2012 by leeyeewah