Does anyone skip math curriculum for the first couple years?

[Aspasia]

We started out with a workbook approach and dd did fine with it, except it was boring and she didn't seem to retain certain concepts if we didn't use them for a few days. So I decided to skip it for the rest of this year (kindergarten), and try a different (spiral) curriculum next year. My plan was just to sort of play math for the rest of the year, with games and c-rods and other manipulatives, covering addition and subtraction from various angles, along with basic money, time, and measurement activities. We've been having so much fun with that (and outdoor math, now that the weather has warmed up!). I just wonder about the feasibility of doing this for the next couple years. Is that risky? Like, will she be missing out on something? If I keep tabs on the general scope and sequence of grade-level math programs, do you think it could be enough? If so, for how long? I was thinking maybe through second grade or so?

[Trilliums]

My kids didn't follow a standard math program. They have 2e qualities (gifted w/LDs). Most workbook programs resulted in a high degree of frustration. Midway through elementary, I finally adopted a living math approach. We read tons of math readers from the local library and we integrated math into our everyday lives. We measured and poured and weighed and counted and talked about numbers. We used tiles and math cubes and geometric shapes. When my kids were ready for pre-algebra they did have some gaps. Khanacademy.org was a wonderful place to fill in those gaps. By the time they were ready for prealgebra though, my kids liked math and found the concepts interesting. They are now doing very well in high school math. My 9th grader is getting As in geometry and my 10th grader is getting As in precalculus. I am pretty sure they will both go into STEM fields.

 

Your activities sound like a great basis for developing an understanding and appreciation for math. :)

I highly recommend saving coins in a large pickle jar and counting them from time to time.

 

Is it risky? I do not know....I am beginning to wonder if sticking to a standard math curriculum is actually MORE risky as it seems to too often result in young students disliking math and finding it incredibly boring.

[Mom2TheTeam]

This is basically how MFW does their math. They do lay it out and give you ideas for games and a scope and sequence. But, the math program is "life" or hands on math. They do this for K and 1st. *I* needed more direction and ended up getting Singapore. But, many people use this approach successfully. So, I have no doubt you could do this as well. As long as you are making sure you are getting everything covered, there is no reason it wouldn't work just fine. MFW starts with recommending Singapore in 2nd grade. But, that doesn't mean you couldn't do the above through 2nd, I'm just not sure about it. But, you can definitely do it successfully through 1st. :DETA - I completely forgot. My twins recently started MFW K and I'm not using Singapore for them. We are just doing hands on, life math. I realized after my first that I really don't need a formal curriculum for K math.

[happypamama]

I don't use a curriculum until closer to second grade, depending on the kid, and it seems to be working fine. With DD, we did Miquon stuff occasionally in K-2, but she wasn't really into it; she preferred more to learn math from real life situations but doesn't really enjoy number play and patterns and that sort of thing. I did introduce a slightly more formal routine sometime in third grade, because I felt that she had the basic skills and concepts down and needed a bit of an outside push. But for all of not having practiced much formal math in the first few years, she has done just fine and will start pre-Algebra as a sixth grader next year.

 

Now, for my son, I wanted a bit more consistency, more of a set routine, so last year, in first grade, we started doing Miquon. He loved it, but we do it almost entirely orally, and we take side trips with the c-rods and such. I also started adding Singapore to the Miquon this year, second grade, and he is really thriving with it. It's just enough structure, just enough mind bending for him, to provide a gentle challenge for him. I don't regret not doing Singapore in first grade at all.

 

My next little guy turns 5 in October and desperately wants to be able to do everything the big kids do. I picked up Making Math Meaningful from the Cornerstone Curriculum Company (or something like that) free last year and thought it looked interesting. It seems to have lots of hands-on mathy activities that he'd probably really enjoy. The thing for me is that with a bunch of small children, having *some* sort of plan laid-out for me means that I might actually do it. If it's up to me to think of and plan activities for a 5yo, it's honestly probably not going to happen. But the MMM book might be just what he and I need.

[Soror]

I started ds with RSB at 6, which is a 1st grade program, technically in his K year- due to birthdate and cut-off. I've been doing some math-mostly RSA with dd at 5 this year but not a lot. I'm planning RSB with her next year. I will be going slower with her though and putting in days of just math games play and cuisinaire play as well.

[rieshy]

I did this with all with my older children. We called it "mom math". My older children went then went into MUS intermediate level (back in the dark ages when one MUS book was 3 years worth) and my current 5 th grader did nothing but mom math until the beginning of 3rd grade and then he started with Saxon 5/4 without any difficulties.

 

None of my older children were math geniuses, we just did it that way because, well I don't know why. It was fun and I could work on what they individually needed more help with.

 

My current 1st grader and pre-k are working through MEP year one and Reception, respectively, with LOF and Miquon thrown in. The switch from mom math was because I wanted to shake things up a bit.

[mathmarm]

I am not a person to speak with homeschooling experience, but I have to ask if you mean "math text/work books" when you say 'curriculum'

[Aspasia]

I am not a person to speak with homeschooling experience, but I have to ask if you mean "math text/work books" when you say 'curriculum'

 

 

Yes, mainly. I guess I'm referring to conventional curricula. There are books like Kitchen Table Math that maybe some people might consider to be a curriculum, but the concept of that book falls in line with what I'm currently doing--just "playing math". So yeah--for the purposes of this discussion, let's say "curriculum"= workbooks.

[km123175]

I started my oldest with a math curriculum for her pre-school/K year. I wish I hadn't.

 

My 2nd is now in K and we started with some curriculum, but as the year as progressed, we've gone to more of a play approach. Now that I've been all the way through the 1st grade curriculum, I know the concepts that need to be taught and I actually have a workbook on hand that I look through and then I plan some play time/games around the concepts covered. I'm a box checker by nature and I would never do anything mathy with the kids if I didn't follow some kind of plan. This one asked to do math games instead of the workbook. So, that's what we're doing now (I still follow the order of the workbook, but we get the information/practice via different routes). Occassionally, she's in the mood to write and I pull out the workbook and she fills in some answers. Or I pull out the workbook and we do the problems orally - as teaching moment. She's really into the C-rods right now; so, I ordered some Miquon books to guide me more with how to use them. (This is the same kid that showed me that you really don't need Phonics Pathways lessons to learn to read. Bob books and other graduated readers work just as well, thank you very much.)

 

For the 3rd child, I expect that he'll want to do the Miquon workbook when he sees a sister with it. Otherwise, I'll use what I've learned on the first 2 kids to help him grasp the concepts and learn how math works without doing formal workbook curricula.

[Koerarmoca]

I don't do a formal math program till 2/3 rd grade. We do a few pages of MEP and lots of math games, file folder games, manipulatives etc. We just recently started doing Evan moor daily math problems to get my 2nd grader into a routine of "daily math" with out a formal math program she can add, subtract, tell time, do money math, fractions, geo. and some multiplication tables. It's worked out well so far.

[kiwik]

Our school system doesn't have an official workbook and textbook type stuff. It would be easier for me if they did.

[Χά�ων]

I didn't start DS on a formal math program until 3rd grade. He had no problems learning the concepts and has progressed rapidly. He is working at what I learned in 4th grade.

[Aspasia]

Loving all these responses!

[Farrar]

We skipped doing any program in K. I don't regret it, but if I had to go back, knowing what I know now, I would have done more because I'm familiar with more resources now. Still, it was fine. No big deal. And I think you could skip doing a formal program for a couple of years and have it be fine. I've found that math is at least half being ready for the concepts. And when they're ready, you can teach it so much faster!

[Ellie]

I never found anything I liked when my dc were at home. Older dd did some of Math 76, the first published Hake-Saxon text (I had photocopies of handwritten pages), younger dd did some of Math 87, maybe some of 76. R&S had not revised its math series back then (1982) and I didn't like the old first-grade stuff, although we did poke at a third-grade text. Older dd went to school for six weeks when she was 11...I think that was the only time she did a focused math. She got a B. :-)

 

When older dd was 14, she started taking classes at a c.c. All students had to take the placement test, and dd tested low enough in math that she had to take the basic math class--high school math--first. Students can take up to three semesters to complete it (and how crazy is that? high school grads who have to take remedial math???); dd completed it in one semester with an A. Then she took pre-algebra, dropped it, took it the next semester with a different teacher and aced it, then took algebra 1, algebra 2, and statistics, all of which she aced. So, did it matter that we didn't spend much time with math when she was home? No.

 

Younger dd didn't do much math, either, other than the Math 87 and assorted cute little workbook-y things we picked up at ToysRUs. She took the same c.c. placement test and was able to go into pre-algebra; she dropped it, then took it the next semester with a different teacher and aced it; then she took algebra 1, algebra 2, and statistics, all of which she aced. She was thinking about taking calculus because it looked like fun (!), but she didn't need it, and she was taking dance and theater and other classes, so she never did. Today she is training to be the bookkeeper for her dh's family business. So, did it matter that we didn't spend much time on math when she was home? No.

 

I taught them, of course, to use money and tell time and all the things that are needed as far as daily math, which, as it turns out, are things that can be taught without an official math book.

 

It is why I find this article so interesting.

[AdventureMoms]

Well I have no experience, but this is pretty much how I'm handling K with DD. We do use Miquon, but only as needed and at her pace. We play with c-rods. We talk about clocks, though she hasn't caught on to that one yet. I'm planning to do a lot of measuring and estimating and skip counting and such. She's in love with beads and "jewels" so we use those for counters. I'm really not worried. Looking at all the topics covered in K-2, I really think most kids will pick up on most of them if they are getting even a little exposure. We will do more formal stuff later, and can fill in any gaps then.

[AdventureMoms]

I never found anything I liked when my dc were at home. Older dd did some of Math 76, the first published Hake-Saxon text (I had photocopies of handwritten pages), younger dd did some of Math 87, maybe some of 76. R&S had not revised its math series back then (1982) and I didn't like the old first-grade stuff, although we did poke at a third-grade text. Older dd went to school for six weeks when she was 11...I think that was the only time she did a focused math. She got a B. :-)

 

When older dd was 14, she started taking classes at a c.c. All students had to take the placement test, and dd tested low enough in math that she had to take the basic math class--high school math--first. Students can take up to three semesters to complete it (and how crazy is that? high school grads who have to take remedial math???); dd completed it in one semester with an A. Then she took pre-algebra, dropped it, took it the next semester with a different teacher and aced it, then took algebra 1, algebra 2, and statistics, all of which she aced. So, did it matter that we didn't spend much time with math when she was home? No.

 

Younger dd didn't do much math, either, other than the Math 87 and assorted cute little workbook-y things we picked up at ToysRUs. She took the same c.c. placement test and was able to go into pre-algebra; she dropped it, then took it the next semester with a different teacher and aced it; then she took algebra 1, algebra 2, and statistics, all of which she aced. She was thinking about taking calculus because it looked like fun (!), but she didn't need it, and she was taking dance and theater and other classes, so she never did. Today she is training to be the bookkeeper for her dh's family business. So, did it matter that we didn't spend much time on math when she was home? No.

 

I taught them, of course, to use money and tell time and all the things that are needed as far as daily math, which, as it turns out, are things that can be taught without an official math book.

 

It is why I find this article so interesting.

 

 

Very interesting!