Using more than one math

[scoutingmom]

I know some people on here use more than one math program. Just wondering about the logistics of doing that without overloading kids.

 

Right now my kids are doing CLE math and Xtramath. It is our first year using CLE (I used to use RightStart). I like CLE with the review, the independence. and that it is pretty thorough. I wish it had fewer lessons in a year and wish it was a bit shorter. I've been thinking of giving up doing it in a single year, and having a reward for finishing a light unit of getting to play on Prodigy for their next lesson time.

 

I really like a free math program from Canada that someone (Hunter probably) posted on here recently. But it isn't setup nice and independent. My look through it, I think it is a bit easier than many homeschool programs are now. It is pre-metric. Those are reasons why I wouldn't want to use it constantly. But, it has some great stuff. Lots and lots of word problems that have to do with things kids would be interested in. Problems like "without calculating, which answer do you know could not be correct".

 

I would like to add some from this series... but our math is pretty full already. I was thinking maybe on a few lessons have them do the new section in CLE, then do stuff from this program instead of the "we remember" review.... maybe on specific lesson numbers, or maybe on a specific day of the week (different child on different days)....

 

Any other suggestions or ways people hsve combined programs?

[Sarah0000]

For the most part I let my kiddo pick and choose and bounce around programs. The books are accessible to him any time. When I need to make sure he can work core concepts I do a 2-3 week focus and use either the BA workbook or Singapore CWP, a few times a yeae. The bulk of his math time is unschooling/living math or supplemental resources.

[Syllieann]

With cle we skip the two quizzes and the review in each light unit. The review built into the regular lessons is plenty for us. You can also skip the first light unit in future years since it will just be review of the previous year to fill any gaps. That leaves 126 lessons per level. We choose to insert our supplements on the quiz and review days, but you could also do a few days of something else between each unit instead. If you want to make the daily work shorter, consider replacing the flashcards and speed drills with games.

[fralala]

This is the way we combine programs. It will probably only work if you school year-round or don't have to worry about progressing on a certain schedule, though.

 

I just give my child a daily choice of which one she wants to start with. If she's enjoying it and we get into it (as often happens with one of the texts we use, the free resource-- Math Magic-- from India that sends us on lots of rabbit trails but has very little repetition or formal skills work), I might have her only do a couple problems in her other book (depending on the kid, this is Math Mammoth or Singapore Math). If she's actually working on learning a new concept, we will probably skip the Math Magic and spend our time on that instead. Most days we do a little of both. But I'm not sure I would do the same thing if we were using a spiral curriculum already-- I like that this adds a little spiral to our day, but maybe it would be too much for you? OTOH, if they can complete CLE independently, it might be nice to come together beforehand or afterward and work through one or two interesting problems you've pulled out from a different curriculum. My kids find seeing the same types of problems and presentations on a daily basis slightly enervating.

[HomeAgain]

We use Life of Fred and Right Start together.  Every day starts with a chapter of Fred (his choice), or a continuation from the day before if it was a more difficult concept.  Then we do a full RS lesson.  When he finishes this next Fred book I'm going to get Beast Academy and give it the time allotted to Fred until the end of the year.  Then we'll start next year with the next Fred books, and finish with more BA.

[Sneezyone]

We pretty much use one program as a spine for a full school year (to make sure we have no gaps) and then switch it up during the summer months. Usually, the summer program is less conceptual and more drill-like since both kids are doing more concept-based math as a spine. DD, for ex., primarily used Dolciani as her summer supplement last year (with challenge problems from DM7CC) while DS completed Kumon worksheets.

[Insertcreativenamehere]

I now combine Beast Academy with Math Lessons for a Living Education. MLLE is quite a bit lighter but it covers things Beast doesn't. It's easy to switch back and forth and still get everything in. I never could manage that with CLE because there were so many lessons and each one was so long. 

[UnlikelyHomeschoolingMama]

I have always used two maths.  I really think the basics are important so we used ABEKA grades 1-3 daily and supplemented with mathematical reasoning from Critical 

Thinking Co. a few times per week...one year we did Singapore (1st grade maybe).  This year she tested into Saxon 6/5 but is only in 4th grade.  I'm in no rush and she isn't "mathy" so we are doing Saxon 3 days per week and Beast Academy 2 days per week.  I LOVE BA and love Saxon. Yes, they are polar opposites but I don't think we have to be "either or".  I feel like the spiral basic arithmetic is just as important for my DD as the problem solving and more abstract thinking of Beast Academy.  I love this year and the way it is working out. 

[TheAttachedMama]

I tried to use two math programs one year.   (Beast Academy and Singapore)    So many people do that combination on this forum, so I thought I would try it too.

 

In hindsight, it was a terrible mistake!    It both overloaded the kids and put them a few months behind in Singapore.    When I think back on it, I almost laugh at myself.   Of course, it was too much and of course we got behind....you can't cram two complete math programs into a year!   There are only so many hours in a day and only so many days in a school year.    I guess if our other (non-math) subjects were lighter, it might have been possible.   But I can't add more of something to an already full day without it becoming too much.   You know?

 

So I think it is better to just stick to one math program and teach it very well.    

 

NOW---that being said, I *do* sometimes use Math Mammoth with Singapore.   If my kids don't get a topic right away, I pull out the Math Mammoth pages and use those for extra practice.

 

[Hunter]

It is too much to supplement all subjects all the time. There are key times to supplement a particular subject, and then other times when paring back to the basic core topics and removing absolutely all fluff to expose the skeleton is best.

 

In maths, some topics are more critical than others, and need to be systematically taught in order and drilled. Most of these fall under arithmetic. Most of the other topics can be taught unit-study style for a short period of time with something other than a textbook.

 

Ray's and Blumenfeld's How to Tutor are bare bones arithmetic. MOST of the time, if you just keep up with that, you will be fine. Then when you have some time, do a little unit on time or measurement or geometry or graphing. See what the library has for picture books. Look for youtube videos and apps and games. Think about how you use that math in real life or another subject and USE the math. For example, teach graphing while covering the scientific method. https://www.eequalsmcq.com/BlankLabSheets.htm

 

One of the biggest errors homeschoolers make is to try and do it all, all at once. Plan some things in seasons, and do them a bit more intensively for shorter periods of time. For example, maybe plan nature study for spring, and music for summer when there are outdoor concerts in the park, and PE for fall during football season, and art for winter. Try to schedule things in seasons or alternate years. Just like TWTM spreads out history and science over 4 years, you can spread out other things, too.

[nixpix5]

We are combiners. Here is how we do it.

 

DD does BJU and Singapore. She watches the video and does her page of BJU. She then does one page atleast of Singspore but it tends to be at least one exercise. She loves math so it has never been an issue of overloading for her.

 

DS does rightstart and Singspore. I do one RS lesson per day. Some days he has a work page from that and sometimes not. He then does an exercise of Singspore. Sometimes he feels froggy and does more than one. I leave that up to him.

 

His twin does Saxon and MUS. I do own Saxon lesson per day and give him the fact test. If he is grasping the lesson he does one side of the work page. He watches his MUS video on Monday morning and does one page of MUS front and back per day as well. It isn't a ton of work. Saxon he does quickly as it is simple for him but I like the reinforcement he gets. MUS is his favorite but he doesn't complain.

 

I have a shelf of Montessori materials out that they grab if they need more conceptual understanding of a concept as well. Those are freely used, nothing formal. I just teach them how to use them so they have them as a resource.

 

So far it is working for us but I have early elementary kids. It may change as things become more difficult.

[Btervet]

We combine RightStart and Beast Academy. The level for RS is a year lower than that of BA so it’s a bit easier. We do 4-5 lessons of RS a week and 3 days on BA. So far it’s kept us on schedule to finish in a year without taking a summer break (which we don’t for math). We aren’t tied to the schedule though. If RS lessons are really easy we will do 2-3 a day. If BA is especially challenging we won’t do RS that day. So far it’s been working great.

[Noreen Claire]

We have settled into using BA as my 3rd grader's main curriculum and the Singapore Extra Practice workbook as review/extra practice.

 

We started out using only Singapore Math, and then he was going back and forth between the two, and now we are here. It's working for now.

[ealp2009]

We combine RightStart and Beast Academy. The level for RS is a year lower than that of BA so it’s a bit easier. We do 4-5 lessons of RS a week and 3 days on BA. So far it’s kept us on schedule to finish in a year without taking a summer break (which we don’t for math). We aren’t tied to the schedule though. If RS lessons are really easy we will do 2-3 a day. If BA is especially challenging we won’t do RS that day. So far it’s been working great.

So we use RS and Beast but use Beast a year behind and use it for review. :). I do the Right Start lessons with my child and either my husband will do a little Beast with him on his days off or he will do it by himself during his table work time. My focus is getting through the RS as the years curriculum and Beast is designed to be a fun review with a different way of looking at things.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Arcadia]

My DS13 who did two math concurrently does math daily (365/366 days a year) and sometimes spend more than 4 hours per day. He has a long attention span.

 

He has done:

SM as spine supplement with MEP, U of Waterloo math circles materials as enrichment

AoPS Intro to Number theory and AoPS intermediate counting and probability concurrently over summer

AoPS Intro to geometry and AoPS intermediate algebra concurrently during the academic year

 

We could let him spend so much time daily on math because he doesn’t do sports and does not have a heavy time commitment for musical instruments. So his spare time is spent on lots and lots of reading and doing math. If his other subjects have a heavier outsourced class workload, he just spend less time (1hr instead) on math since he needs his daily downtime.

[Garga]

I did two maths with my oldest for a year or two when he was in middle school. I am in the camp that it was too much for us. One program was a complete curric and the other was supplementary, but it was just too much for my student.

 

If your child can handle the extra, then people have given you nice examples of how to do that.

 

However, I wish that I had quit doing the supplemental program for my son after giving it a 2-month trial period. Give it a try, but if it’s a slog for you and your child, then it’s ok to go back to one math program at a time. It’s hard for me not to finish what I start and I wish someone had told me it was ok not to finish what we’d started.

 

For my other son we use CLE and I will not be attempting two math currics with him. It is a lot each day. As another poster said, you can probably skip the quizzes and tests. My son always aces those, so they’re sort of a waste of time if the student aces them. If you don’t need to record a grade, then taking the test is sort of pointless as they don’t advance the student’s knowledge. You can use those 3 lessons per book for something else, or just for a rest from math for the day.

 

You can always choose to cross out a few of the We Remember problems. I used to do that when I wanted my younger son to progress through the material a little faster—we’d started with a different curric that wasn’t up to speed and switched over the CLE to get him up to the speed we wanted him up to. I don’t have him skip problems now that he’s caught up. I just schedule a little extra time for his CLE work and let him take a break halfway through. Once I started telling him he could take a break halfway through, he started working faster. So much of parenting and homeschooling is a mind game isn’t it? Just knowing he could take a break helped him to focus and work faster. So, if your student is thinking CLE is too much, you could break it into two sessions with a break between them. For us, it’s just 10 minutes and most of the time he doesn’t even take the break. There’s something about knowing that he can that makes all the difference. .

Edited January 7, 2018 by Garga

[homemommy83]

It is too much to supplement all subjects all the time. There are key times to supplement a particular subject, and then other times when paring back to the basic core topics and removing absolutely all fluff to expose the skeleton is best.

 

In maths, some topics are more critical than others, and need to be systematically taught in order and drilled. Most of these fall under arithmetic. Most of the other topics can be taught unit-study style for a short period of time with something other than a textbook.

 

Ray's and Blumenfeld's How to Tutor are bare bones arithmetic. MOST of the time, if you just keep up with that, you will be fine. Then when you have some time, do a little unit on time or measurement or geometry or graphing. See what the library has for picture books. Look for youtube videos and apps and games. Think about how you use that math in real life or another subject and USE the math. For example, teach graphing while covering the scientific method. https://www.eequalsmcq.com/BlankLabSheets.htm

 

One of the biggest errors homeschoolers make is to try and do it all, all at once. Plan some things in seasons, and do them a bit more intensively for shorter periods of time. For example, maybe plan nature study for spring, and music for summer when there are outdoor concerts in the park, and PE for fall during football season, and art for winter. Try to schedule things in seasons or alternate years. Just like TWTM spreads out history and science over 4 years, you can spread out other things, too.

Those are some wise words!  Focusing on one main program, and doing a 3-4 week units on things that your program is weaker on or doesn't cover conceptually is so much easier to implement longterm.  This advice applies to all subjects- alternating focuses allows you to cover your goals without trying to do all of them at once.  As always Hunter is right on the money.

 

But to answer your actual question:  My children are each doing a main program, but I love LOF and we enjoy reading them aloud- so we add that to our evening basket as a family.  But it is optional, and is not gotten to daily.

 

Brenda

[wendyroo]

We are always doing 2-3 math programs.  We do it by splitting it into two distinct "subjects". 

 

During our morning school time each of the boys does some form of problem solving math.  Over the years this has been Miquon, Beast Academy, MEP, Balance Benders, Singapore Challenging Word Problems, Hands on Equations, and/or some combination of those.  This year, Peter is working through the Hands on Equations word problem book (for about 15 minutes) and Elliot is doing Beast Academy two days and Singapore CWP two days (which each take him about 10 minutes).

 

Then, after lunch they work on their main math curriculum.  Peter spends about 20 minutes on AOPS prealgebra and Elliot spends about 15 minutes on Math Mammoth.

 

Wendy