Anyone teach math without a 'curriculum'

[mommagruber]

I have an 8th, 7th, 4th, 3rd ~ we currently use Teaching Textbooks pre-algebra for the 8th and Rod and Staff until then. I am considering dumping the textbook and doing our own thing in math. Focusing on each concept until they seem to get it and move on.

For what it is worth, I went to college to be a Math teacher (didn't finish my degree, decided to stay home when the babies started coming.)

Just wondering, are there any others who teach math with no set curriculum? How's it working for you?

Thanks!

 

ETA: Not considering dumping Teaching TExtbooks ~ I think once they get into pre-algebra, I will leave it. It just seems like Rod & Staff has so much review work, that I am able to do that stuff with them on my own teaching.

Edited August 26, 2012 by mommagruber

[Jen500]

No, there are so many good math programs to choose from that I wouldn't teach it on my own.

[Walking-Iris]

I'm trying to imagine how you would teach math without a curriculum or hodge podge of parts of curriculum. I guess you could just write your own. Make some sort of list of skills and goals that you want each child to master. But then they'll have to practice them. And I suppose you could use some sort of online worksheet generator or Word program. If you're confident about it I would say go for it. There are other things besides R&S math btw. ;)

[Farrar]

Have you looked at something like Kitchen Table Math or Math on the Level?

 

I didn't do a formal curriculum for one of my boys for about half a year when he was struggling and it helped us get back on track. But we did use bits and pieces from things I had. We read lots of living math books. I printed worksheets, we did math puzzles. That was when I bought the Right Start games and was sorry I'd not bought them sooner. And we kept a math notebook. After all that, we settled into mostly using Miquon and have been very happy (until later this year, when we'll be finished with all of it!).

 

I guess what I'm saying is that I can imagine not following *a* program. But I wouldn't want to give up on the many wonderful math resources out there. There are so many!

[mommagruber]

What I think my problem really is, I want to piece and use different resources. Like math worksheets, MEP Math, various online resources ~ and maybe follow a typical course of study for each child's respective grade level to be sure that they are learning what they should be at grade level.

I have used MUS and my children hated to watch the lesson on DVD, which is what the whole program was about, so we switched to Rod and Staff. It has worked for us for two years, but they are getting bored with it.

So, I guess I don't really want to teach without a curriculum. I just want to pick and choose and make math a little more fun for them. I am so tired of hearing, "I don't want to do math (whiiiiiiiiiiine)!!!"

[Crimson Wife]

Have you looked at something like Kitchen Table Math or Math on the Level?

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

I got a chance to preview the KTM books at our support group's curriculum fair last spring and they looked like an excellent way to do "living math".

 

The Lawrence Hall of Science Family Math books are also great for this kind of "hands-on" work.

[regentrude]

I attempted to do so when I first started homeschooling; I was planning to get DD up to speed in prealgebra over a few months to prepare for an overseas stay. I have a PhD in theoretical physics and solid mastery of math through calc 3 and diff eq, so I thought I should easily be able to teach fractions.

What I found out very quickly was that teaching required going through the material in a certain sequence, because you can not do the 2nd before the 1st step, and that thinking about the sequence and carefully designing good problems that use precisely the concept you mean to teach is extremely time consuming.

There are so many math curricula out there that this was absolutely not worth my time and effort. We picked up the one curriculum I had heard homeschoolers were using, Saxon, and while it was a poor fit for my kid's learning style and we hated it, it was still way more effective than trying to reinvent the wheel. We have since found a curriculum that is a perfect fit for them, and very much like the way we would teach the material ourselves- but it is already laid out and easy to use.

 

I would not recommend designing your own math curriculum beyond basic elementary math.

[jennynd]

I have an 8th, 7th, 4th, 3rd ~ we currently use Teaching Textbooks pre-algebra for the 8th and Rod and Staff until then. I am considering dumping the textbook and doing our own thing in math. Focusing on each concept until they seem to get it and move on.

For what it is worth, I went to college to be a Math teacher (didn't finish my degree, decided to stay home when the babies started coming.)

Just wondering, are there any others who teach math with no set curriculum? How's it working for you?

Thanks!

 

ETA: Not considering dumping Teaching TExtbooks ~ I think once they get into pre-algebra, I will leave it. It just seems like Rod & Staff has so much review work, that I am able to do that stuff with them on my own teaching.

For under 4th grade, I think u can do that. I did that with my older. Above that, I do think u will need a curriculum

[Hunter]

I took my son from grade 3 PS math to Saxon Algebra 1 without a curriculum, in just over a year. Part of that was afterschooling, days spent skipping school aka mental health days, and part homeschooling.

 

A library copy of Arithmetic Made Simple (now OOP) was the closest thing I had to curriculum. I had scraps, and I mean SCRAPS from yard sales, and a cheap drill workbook.

 

I thought I was going to have to teach Algebra with nothing more than an old 1960's version of Schuams Outline of Algebra, but my son's dad gave me money for Saxon Algebra at the last minute and I just about cried in thankfulness.

 

I was backed into a corner back then, in the 90s. I was by myself, young, poor, sick, and desperate. It's funny that I never doubted I could do worse than was happening in school, so I just ploughed ahead with what I had, with total confidence.

 

I'm glad regentrude said what she did. My son was capable of mental jumps. He didn't always need to be taught each step. There may have been times I didn't provide the correct instruction, but that he was able to move ahead anyway.

 

Complaints and fun were not part of our relationship, never mind schooling and curriculum choices. I've mellowed a LOT over the years :lol: Despite having mellowed a lot, every time I have switched curricula due to student complaints, it hasn't worked. I need to pick what I think is most efficient and systematic, and within my ability to teach well, and offer that as the only choice.

Edited August 26, 2012 by Hunter

[coralloyd]

Have you looked at Ray's Arithmetic? It is a very old math program that is mostly done orally. It would give you a good frame work/scope and sequence for your own curriculum. It basically says work on such and such till it is mastered but it does not tell you exactly how to go about it. http://www.mottmedia.com/pages/publications.asp?Pub=rays

[Hunter]

Oh, and I had no math degree. I had 2 years of severely dumbed down high school algebra and a year of dumbed down geometry that I didn't even understand. I'd forgotten it all and couldn't even remember how to divide fractions, when I started self-educating and teaching with those scraps. Sometimes the stupidity and arrogance of youth is a blessing :lol:

[Soror]

What I found out very quickly was that teaching required going through the material in a certain sequence, because you can not do the 2nd before the 1st step, and that thinking about the sequence and carefully designing good problems that use precisely the concept you mean to teach is extremely time consuming.

:iagree:

 

I thought it would be easy for me to teach Math because it was a subject that was fairly easy for me. I quickly realized that knowing something and being able to teach it are two very different things. I very much appreciate having a sequence to follow and some guidance in this area. I may remember how to do things but I don't remember how I learned to do them. There are also little shortcuts here and there that I do that I just don't even think about. I also think, as Hunter said, some kids need more a incremental approach than others. I think it would take more energy then it would be worth and unnecessary.

Edited August 26, 2012 by soror

[justamouse]

Well, math is my weakest, so I need a curric, and my Dh teaches from Alg up.

 

If I were you? I'd feel much more secure in dumping it.

[dbmamaz]

For my older son, that 'its easy for me but not easy to teach' was a real issue. we tried 4 curriculum and I had to change my style, but we're plodding along just fine.

 

My younger child is a crazy math kid. He went to kindergarten at public school, where they were counting shapes and he was asking about negative numbers.

 

Our first year of homeschooling, we pushed through most of Singapore 2A, but he just didnt really seem to connect with the workbook - the concepts were ok, but not the workbook. By the end of it, he'd started on Time4Learning and I let him go totally self-paced there for a year and a half. His math was set at grades 2-4 iir, but he also spent a lot of time playing with their graphing applets and calculators. We also read a lot of living math books from the library (we checked out Polar Bear math 4 times .. . i ALMOST bought it . . .)

 

During the summer between 2nd and 3rd, i think, we read Murderous Maths Arithmatricks. This covers all of arithmetic in an entertaining, silly, potty-humor way, but has virtually no practice problems. I just went with it. Then we read the murderous maths book about fractions and decimals.

 

I dont remember all the details, but we did primary challenge math (awesome book), some fun math practice sheets from Scholastic Teachers Express, and some random freebie long division worksheets. We also worked through LOF fractions.

 

that was 3rd grade. Fun, challenging, when i saw something missing, we spent some time on it. He even admitted he needed to work more on his facts because it slowed down his math - which he did with timezattacks.

 

For this year? some more random worksheets, LOF decimals, maybe the regular Challenge Math . . . oh, and murderous maths shapes.

 

I love math and he loves math, but really, if you get to something you want to teach the and you see they are missing something . . you just back up. if you speak the language of math fluently, its easy to see what they need next.

 

ok, thats just my opinion, my experience. I think it can be done. Fun for everyone, engaging, as deep as you want to go.

[regentrude]

Our first year of homeschooling, we pushed through most of Singapore 2A, but he just didnt really seem to connect with the workbook - the concepts were ok, but not the workbook. By the end of it, he'd started on Time4Learning and I let him go totally self-paced there for a year and a half. His math was set at grades 2-4 iir, but he also spent a lot of time playing with their graphing applets and calculators. We also read a lot of living math books from the library (we checked out Polar Bear math 4 times .. . i ALMOST bought it . . .)

 

During the summer between 2nd and 3rd, i think, we read Murderous Maths Arithmatricks. This covers all of arithmetic in an entertaining, silly, potty-humor way, but has virtually no practice problems. I just went with it. Then we read the murderous maths book about fractions and decimals.

 

I dont remember all the details, but we did primary challenge math (awesome book), some fun math practice sheets from Scholastic Teachers Express, and some random freebie long division worksheets. We also worked through LOF fractions.

...

For this year? some more random worksheets, LOF decimals, maybe the regular Challenge Math . . . oh, and murderous maths shapes.

 

ok, thats just my opinion, my experience. I think it can be done.

 

 

:confused: Now I am seriously confused: how is what you do "not using curriculum"?

The bolded above are all examples for using curriculum, several of them together, mix-and-match style. How does your experience show that "it can be done", i.e. teaching without curriculum?

[justLisa]

Sounds like you mean not following ONE curriculum and I think that's fine.

 

I use SM but sometimes a unit comes up and I use something else just for that unit, or in conjunction with. But I do think it is important to follow a scope and sequence.

[Farrar]

:confused: Now I am seriously confused: how is what you do "not using curriculum"?

The bolded above are all examples for using curriculum, several of them together, mix-and-match style. How does your experience show that "it can be done", i.e. teaching without curriculum?

 

I think the OP's question is a bit unclear. She said without a curriculum, but she later mentioned wanting to use a bit of this and that. I think that's what a lot of people are responding to - teaching without following a curriculum, but rather by using pieces of different things to create your own curriculum. That's done in other subjects a lot, but most people use one thing (possibly with supplements) for math.

[Hunter]

Math on the Level looks really interesting to me. Also the A2 curriculum comes with a worksheet generator. I would like both of these when wanting to specifically target a weakness.

 

But...

 

1. I can't afford them

 

2. I get disorganized when I seize a lot, and do best when I spend my clear headed time picking things, that I can just "do the next thing" when befuddled.

 

3. I get into these stupid co-dependent relationships with students where they get lazier and lazier wanting me to more and more efficiently spoon feed them. I feel healthier and more in control, with individually preplanned lesson that are written TO the student. I do better teaching them HOW to be self-learners, rather than teaching the material itself.

 

All of my current students need explicit and systematic presentation with a narrow focus and lots of repetition, no matter what the subject. It was only over the past couple days that I have become fully aware of the difference in teaching students who naturally infer and make mental jumps and apply self-taught concepts to assigned school work, compared to those that can't do those things. This had never been one of the primary things I considered when making curriculum suggestions to others. I'd been naturally choosing curriculum for my students, with out fully understanding what I was doing. But I wasn't always able to identify this important factor when making suggestions to others.

 

So from this thread, and some others, and some recent experiences, I realizing that winging it sometimes has as much to with the student's ability to infer and make mental jumps, as it does to resources, past preparation, and the teacher.

 

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to whether we can teach without a curriculum. Sometimes we can. Sometimes we can't. It depends on a lot of factors.

[kesmom]

I think it could be done (Dh and I are both pretty mathy) but it would be time consuming and I think the curriculum is a worthwhile purchase for our family.