Jackie Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 For no frills + exploration, I would seriously look at something like Math Mammoth done a few days a week and then deliberate use of living math books or puzzle-type math the other days of the week. The MM (or other completely no frills curric of your choice) would cover the standard topics effectively. The living math books and math puzzles would encourage exploration and would fit well with the unschooling approach you have now. I love love love RightStart and nearly always recommend it. And yet I don't get the sense it is what you're looking for. Used as written, it has every bell and whistle and would be an ubrupt switch from undchooling to highly scripted. As someone who is intentionally accelerating and compacting it, I know it can be done but it's certainly not the easiest program to speed up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EliseMcKenna Posted May 23, 2015 Author Share Posted May 23, 2015 Okay, my husband and I are about to sit down with the laptop to review many of these programs together. Jackie, something you said got me thinking more about what I am looking for. You're right -- I'm not sure if RS is what I'm after either. Which makes no sense to me, considering the number of raves I read about it! I can't quite put my finger on it . . . Anyway, I've tried picturing what I do want. This is what I imagine as ideal -- my daughter and I can sit down, for awhile, and do lessons together. She, based on what she is learning, is able to make connections and move forward on her own after that. Like, we work on concepts together, but then she can take that knowledge and run with it. I don't want her to be 100% reliant on me for every piece of information she uncovers. Does that make sense? Does that help at all with what would be a good fit for ME? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 That makes sense. How do you picture her wanting to apply it? Is she naturally paper-and-pencil oriented and would want to play with paper-and-pencil math? Project oriented and would like to take the new concepts and physically build with it? So here is how *I* do math: I teach in a standard, logical progression used by most curricula. I use RightStart for this for a few reasons of my own, but most typical math programs could fulfill this piece. I adjust the program freely so that if she knows a concept, we move on very quickly. Minimalist RightStart ;-) We do this three days a week, which because of compacting, lets us complete at least a level per year. Then two days a week, we use living books, random selections from Singapore's Challenging Word Problems, math and logic oriented card games and board games, living math books, and math-oriented puzzles from sources such as Highlights MathMania. I have a child very drawn to language, books, and games, so this is how she likes to apply her math. In addition, I often briefly introduce a concept well ahead of schedule. So, within teaching addition, I taught a bit of subtraction. Just enough for her to get the relationship. This was then able to percolate in her mind and by the time we got to subtraction in the math book, we were able to skip half the lessons and fly through most the rest. I did the same with multiplication and by the time we get to it in the book I suspect we'll be able to skip a bunch and fly through a bunch. Another poster here, Farrar, has some stuff on her blog about math projects, which appears to be how her kids like to apply their math. If that rings true for your child, you might want to look up her blog and read the math posts. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 Ella Frances Lynch's chapter on arithmetic https://archive.org/details/educatingchilda00lyncgoog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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