How do you pick a math curriculum?

[beth83]

Why does this have to be so hard?!?

 

I was all settled on RightStart.  I think it is a beautiful curriculum and I love the thinking behind it.  It just wasn't happening.  I would pull everything out and we would get started.  It is just so teacher intensive!  I would have to pull my toddler off of a table in the other room - the lesson would stop.  A child was in distress in the bathroom - the lesson would stop.  I don't want to throw a worksheet at my daughter and walk away, but if I need to take care of a disaster in the other room, I don't want her staring at a wall until I get back.  I tried altering things to fit our family, but with a baby on the way, I just realized that it is not working and I need to move on.  Tear.

 

So, now I have a friend who raves about MathUSee, a friend who raves about Saxon, a friend who raves about Horizons. WHERE IS THE SPREADSHEET COMPARING ALL THE PROGRAMS?  They all seem good!

 

How do you pick a program without going through every option and spending a lot of money?  I was a mathy kid, so I just want something that won't put anyone behind, that isn't lacking, and gives them a good foundation.  I am fine with some manipulatives, but worksheets are a beautiful addition!  I just don't want to curriculum hop!

 

Help!  How did you pick a curriculum for your family?

[Guest]

I love BJU Distance Learning math. The DVD does the teaching. My lids love it and are never left waiting on me. I went through 18 math programs tryong to find a fit gor us with my older guys. This one is wirth every penny to me.

[Ellie]

It has to make sense *to me,* because I'm the one who will be teaching it.

 

It has to be something that doesn't have lots of moving parts--I don't mean like Cuisenaire rods, but like Saxon's primary levels. My eyes are like this :blink:  :wacko:  when I read through the teacher stuff. I know that you're supposed to pick and choose what your "class" needs, but goodness...too much thinking for me!

 

Now that I'm older and wiser, it is easier for me to make some decisions. I know that I like R&S's arithmetic series; I like Saxon beginning with Math 54; I like Miquon. If I were homeschooling again, my dc would have to like one of those three, lol.

[ShellLou]

We use BJU (3rd Edition) =

I agree with Ellie - the program it has to make sense to you to begin with.

 

when choosing, I read loads of review - it was really hard to make a decision & have I made the right one? - it works, we are progressing, some bits are hard, some are easy, it has built in review & so forth.  Some days it seems really teacher intensive, but not every day.  I can adjust things if I need to & I don't always do things exactly as they say, but that's me...  My son doesn't always like doing maths, but I find that last year (K) was easy for him & this year (gr1) he has come across some concepts that he had to think about, so a bit harder.  We are in Australia, so our school year is over half way through (we school calendar year)

 

Before spending money on other math programs - can you adjust what you have to suit?  Is there something else that if added in will give some flexibility when an emergency arises & you need to leave the room.  If either of those - can you have something there that if you are called away, she can continue with - I don't know your child's age so these might not be suitable - patterning, shape sorting, putting days of the week in order, addition/subtraction facts etc - just something you have off to the side, that you can hand over to give you 5-10mins away if an emergency arises & you can leave with her.

 

If you really believe you want to change programs - can you look at the ones your friends are recommending to you - borrow them for a weekend if possible so you can really check them out?  It is always easier to make a decision if you are able to handle the programs I think :-)

 

Best Wishes

 

 

 

 

[momma2three]

I like Math Mammoth for the situation you describe.  There's a brief explanation, which I read with DD, and then I make sure that she's doing the problems correctly, but there are a lot of problems and it's easy for me to say "okay, finish this set, and I'm going to check on your brother and sister."

[boscopup]

I first figure out how I want to teach. I only look at the subset of programs that I would enjoy teaching (I tried RS A and didn't enjoy teaching it). I then look at which ones I think my child would do well with. I pour over samples and figure out which one I like best.

 

I then try it, and if it doesn't work, I change. Changing curriculum in the early stages is not terrible. I have even purposely changed curriculum at the 4th grade level of math without issue. The child was ahead, so it was ok that we had to jump back a semester (different scope and sequence).

 

Also, my oldest used Saxon in school (K and 1), and I learned that I wouldn't want to teach Saxon at that level. 5/4 and up are better (though still not to my liking).

[happypamama]

I'm pretty comfortable with math and with teaching math, so that wasn't a big concern for me.  But if it's not your strong subject, I'd look for something whose method made sense to you.  For me, we went with Saxon for one child, because it works for her, and tbh, it was free.  (MUS might be fantastic, but one, I watched the videos online and realized that I think in terms of the little tricks and shortcuts that he mentioned, and two, I didn't think I could justify the price for what I'd get from it.)  Maybe something else would be even better for her, but Saxon works fine.  Otoh, Saxon would bore my other child to tears, but people recommended Singapore, and that works beautifully for him.  (Singapore would drive my older child nuts and would bore her because she likes the variety of problems that Saxon has with each lesson.  She also didn't like Miquon, even though she's a very hands-on sort of kid, but the child who likes Singapore also likes Miquon because he likes finding the patterns and little tricks and such.)

[MotherOfBoys]

Saxon is good but still a little teaching intensive. The worksheet is review though so while your at a disaster in another room the child can know ahead of time to do a problem on the worksheet by herself (if she can read a little). The lesson is teacher, student, manipulative though. So plan on 15 minutes of sitting with child time at least for that.

 

Saxon K is a waste of money, start with 1st. Also, I started putting graph lessons together and clock lessons together to make them thicker lessons. Saxon is a spiral approach. The meeting is important for some children because it reviews almost everything in a hidden way sometimes so be careful skipping. (Not saying you can't skip, sometimes, but if your skipping it a lot and the child isn't doing well in the lesson...)

 

We switched to mm temporarily to see if we were doing good (and we are), to see if a mastery approach would work for my son (and it does), and to see if it would take less time (about equal). I have Saxon 2 and we will be doing it after mm2A is complete. I am hoping back and forth to make sure there are no holes in these younger years. That is really important to me. Saxon has fact sheets which I like but mm seems to go deeper into the topic (covers it in more ways I think).

 

I'm still sorting it out but this is my findings so far.

[leeannpal]

We are really liking Saxon math for my 10 year old dd. She does have ADHD, and the uncluttered pages are actually good for her. She can focus on just the problems and not all the pictures and colors. Any math program that my daughter actually likes is a winner to us!

[Crimson Wife]

If you like Asian-based math, I would look into either Math Mammoth (the author is technically Finnish but it's essentially the same method as Right Start or Singapore) or the online Singapore version called "Math Buddies". http://www.mconline.us/LEAD/login/content/ps_mb_1.html

[Aurelia]

Echoing the sentiment about finding the curriculum that you understand and will get done. Math Mammoth would likely be a good fit, especially if your child doesn't need much, if any, review. My DD did, so we switched to CLE. It's fairly independent, but has much more review.

[...................]

With much weeping and gnashing of teeth...

[Amy M]

Lol, where is the spreadsheet? I made spreadsheets comparing all of my research in each subject to try to make choices, isn't that crazy? I've started putting them on my blog in hopes that it will help someone else after all the time it took me; but in the end I think it just takes a lot of research. I have a spreadsheet for history up on my blog, but a 4-month trip to America has made me late to add the others. I have chosen MUS, but I often second guess myself and wonder if some of my other kids will need a different one. I think math is the hardest choice, outside of maybe writing! I've heard of some people who use SM in conjunction with MUS, so I bought those books too (minus the TM) to have on hand. And we started with ABeka kindergarten math, which was a great foundation and helped me learn how to teach and drill. :)

[Targhee]

I choose something I like (or at least can stand) that fits their learning style. That has meant different curricula for each of my kids at one point (one was using SM, one BA, and one Miquon). I've also switched after a year or two - I think RS A and B are amazing at establishing numeracy, place value, and arithmetic operations. Once they have that down my kids swap over to a more problem-solving based math.

[beth83]

Thank y'all so much!

 

I guess I'm just in the stage where I am figuring out what I like. Before I started homeschooling, I was sure that I would use Singapore all the way through. Once I received our books, I couldn't stand it. Then I found RightStart and loved the idea behind it. It just didnt work for or family, even with altering it as much as I could.

 

I just never wanted to be a curriculum hopper, so I felt bad. But, I'm realizing that even with tons of good reviews, sometimes you just need to have the material in your hands to know if it will work, or not.

 

I guess this is just part of the process? At least we are early in our homeschooling adventure. Hopefully we will settle on something soon and stick with it a while.

 

Y'all are making me feel more comfortable with bailing on a program in an effort to find one that I really like to teach, and the kids like to learn from.

[Desert Strawberry]

I chose the ones that didn't make me cry. They also had to seem to be a good fit for my kids. 

So far I've lucked out 3 times. Kumon for preK for my oldest . Singapore for K -4 for Ben and K-1 for Jeff. Now LOF for both. No formal math for the little ones till 1st or so. Just counting, addition and subtraction. Then LOF for them ,too.

If I like it , they will like it, too.

 

[Superfly]

I don't think it is the end of the world if you curriculum hop.  We started with Saxon, and I couldn't stand how labor intensive it was.  I agree with a previous poster that it has to be easy to look at.  We now use a combination of many programs, and it works for us.  I have very mathy hands-on girls. My second grade will be using TT3, miquon, R & S, some Saxon worksheets, and LOF.  My fourth grader will be using Mathematical Reasoning, LOF, and tons of free online math instruction and games. I just started adding their lesson plans to my blog so they can link to the internet activites from any computer.  I thought it would be a great way for me to lessen calls for help.

[gratitude]

I picked Singapore for Kindergarten for my oldest for the following reasons (he is now in 4th, we still use it, and I still love it):

 

*The number bonds in the sample for book 1 impressed me with the fact they were trying to prepare kids for 'math'.

 

*The thinking involved in the samples impressed me.  I saw it teaching math the way I think math.  It looked like it very well could prepare for higher math, and I wanted that  preparation of real math thinking; rather than plugging in a numbers without understanding them.

 

*I liked the scope and sequence.  I liked how it linked multiplication and addition.  I liked how it linked division and subtraction.

 

*Above all it looked like something I could teach, and I wanted something I could teach easily.

 

I still love Singapore 4 years later.

 

The bumps:

 

The first one was half way through Kindergarten when we hit multiplication in 1A.  My oldest likes math and he gets math, but he wasn't ready for it at that point.  So I filled in with Horizon K for 4 months and then went back to Singapore with an easy transition back.

 

The second one was half way through second grade.  He burned out on math thinking.  So we supplemented with some other Singapore books at the same level for awhile to solidify what he was learning.

 

The third was half way through third & half way through second for my second son.  Both of my boys needed more speed practice.  So we did some R&S drill, drill, drill and speed drills.  I still do speed drills.  This is when I realized math facts need to be drilled with Singapore.

 

The reason I don't use Horizon, A Beka, BJU, or Saxon:

 

*The TMs.  I have looked at all 4 and the TMs did me in.  I just couldn't teach math that way.  It would drive me crazy.  Maybe my kids would like it, but I have to use what I can teach.

 

The reason I don't use MUS (I did supplement with them for a month last spring and it was actually very helpful):

 

*I did a month of 'math review' last May for the last month of school using MUS.  It was review, so this is very very skewed.  They flew through 1/2 a year in a month though.  I just think for them Singapore is the better fit since it requires a lot of math thinking.

 

Pick what:

 

1.  You can teach.

 

2.  A scope and sequence you like that you feel good about teaching.

 

Then put on the blinders and try not to look at anything else or what anyone else is doing.  ;)

 

For us Singapore has worked.  We have to test and so far I have only had to test my oldest due to the legal age not being 8 before we have to start school.  He has so far scored 96% and 99% in math.  So it has worked for us.  It doesn't mean it would work though for every mom or for you.  The best program for you is the one You can do day after day and can teach successfully.  It will be different for every family what works best.  We rave after all about what works!   So the programs your friends rave about are the ones that are Best for them.  They could be great for you, or could not work at all for you.

 

When I choose Singapore I printed out a lot of sample tests and looked through them.  It is the bottom line of the reason I picked it.  The math in those samples.  So pick something you like and will be excited about.  Math is a joy in our house.  I think though my attitude about math and the fact I have a program that doesn't bore me and brings me joy is a big part of that.  Mom's attitudes always wears off without us even knowing we have that attitude!  :tongue_smilie:   Now if I can just have joy in all our subjects.  ;)

 

Prayers for your own decision that will bring you a good math experience for you as a teacher and then for your students.

[gratitude]

Thank y'all so much!

 

I guess I'm just in the stage where I am figuring out what I like. Before I started homeschooling, I was sure that I would use Singapore all the way through. Once I received our books, I couldn't stand it. Then I found RightStart and loved the idea behind it. It just didnt work for or family, even with altering it as much as I could.

 

I just never wanted to be a curriculum hopper, so I felt bad. But, I'm realizing that even with tons of good reviews, sometimes you just need to have the material in your hands to know if it will work, or not.

 

I guess this is just part of the process? At least we are early in our homeschooling adventure. Hopefully we will settle on something soon and stick with it a while.

 

Y'all are making me feel more comfortable with bailing on a program in an effort to find one that I really like to teach, and the kids like to learn from.

 

Pick the TM you like and that you can teach from and that makes sense to you to teach.

 

If you couldn't stand Singapore once you received the books definitely don't use it.

 

Find something you not only can stand, but honestly like.  

 

Math has been one of our consistent curriculums, and I think a lot of the reason is because I honestly like what I use.

 

I think this applies to all subjects.  If we like the curriculum and can use and enjoy the TM and program as a teacher a huge portion of what needs to be in place for success is done.

[IHaveNoIdeawhatIAmDoing]

I do it by first narrowing it down between spiral and mastery. I really love the concept of mastery, so I used this site to search for mastery math programs and then I read what everyone had to say about them and created a long pros and cons list, taking my daughter's learning style and personality into consideration. I settled on Math Mammoth and we love it.

[Five More Minutes]

I had a complete math bust the first year -- I bought an expensive program that I was excited about, but it was a disaster. That experience helped me figure out what was going to work for me and my students, so when I came here looking for advice, I had a better sense of what would work for us. I think that some programs or even subject areas are like that: you can read, read, read reviews, but in the end it comes down to trying them out and seeing if they work.

[HelenNotOfTroy]

We used Saxon K in pre-K (drove me nuts, DS loved all the "math toys" and loved what we did, but I cut the script and skipped huge amounts of the book). Then we did Singapore Essential Math and that went well for both of us. I was originally going to go with Singapore, but decided to try Math Mammoth. He says he hates math and I think he is bored from the review of things he did in K. Oh, and DH did a little MEP with him and they both liked it, but I couldn't get my head around it. We have Miquon and he does that when he wants to. I need to get the "math toys" out more often I think.