Homeschool Math

We have started our 9th year homeschooling this year. Wow the time goes by so fast! I’ve homeschooled Big R since first grade, and Little R has never went to public school.  

Math – it’s a love/hate relationship. I personally really like math, but I have forgotten too much over the years… I’ve had to relearn how to do long division, how to multiply fractions, and so much more!  

While I have tried a couple of random things over the years, the two curriculums that have really launched us forward have been Teaching Textbooks and Mr. D Math.  What I love about both of them is that it’s video instruction based, and it’s the one subject, (well specifically for elementary school), that I can be hands-off with, mostly, and say “go do your math!” and it will get done. Now that can be really useful during a busy homeschool day when you’re trying to get *all* the things done. Every other subject we do is very parent/teacher intensive.

I’ve heard many people say they don’t like Teaching Textbooks because it is “behind” grade level. I somewhat agree. I started Big R in Math 3 when she was in second grade, and my memory is a little fuzzy, but I think I started Little R in Math 3 at the end of first grade. Teaching Textbooks starts at Math 3, and I think this is where most people make a mistake. Math 3 is not the equivalent of Grade 3 and firmly feels like Grade 2-level work. Another trick that we have used is to not stop when they have finished the level. So if that means that they breezed through Math 3 and finished in February, then we started Math 4 in February and it lapsed over into the next school year. I know, my brain likes to wrap things up in a pretty bow and be finished for the year, but this was just one of the strategies we used to keep moving forward in math.  I don’t think we have ever been finished with math at exactly the end of the school year. 

Another approach we used was to “test out” of the early chapters of the new level. Teaching Textbooks is a spiral-based math curriculum, and the first few chapters are almost a complete review of the previous level. So we start with challenging the Chapter 1 Quiz, and if they were able to pass with no more than one wrong, they were allowed to skip to the next chapter. Sometimes there was only one lesson that needed to be reviewed within that chapter and then they were able to pass the quiz.  

We aim to complete 4 lessons per week and this has served us well for elementary school.  I insist that they work out the problems on paper, (plain notebook just for math problems), and then they enter the answers into the program, and I print the chapter quizzes and those are done by hand. 

Big R switched to Mr. D Math in 8th grade, which would have been one year sooner had we not had an unfortunate year of trying common core math through our Charter school for 7th grade. We just choose not to talk about that year. Since she had taken two years of Pre-Algebra by then, she started Algebra 1 in 8th grade, finished mid-year, and started Geometry, which she is continuing now in 9th grade. 

For Little R, I had fully intended on him using Teaching Textbooks through Pre-Algebra, as Big R did, but I see that Mr. D Math has a new level: Pre Pre-Algebra.  We looked at the sample lessons and the videos, and it really connected with him and I think will be a good time to transition to Mr. D as soon as he finishes Teaching Textbooks 6.  I could not find the description at first for Pre Pre-Algebra, but I eventually found where the prerequisite is “completion of a 4th-grade math curriculum and a firm grasp on addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.” The description for Pre-Algebra is almost the same, except for the “completion of a 5th-grade math curriculum,” but I am going to err on the side of caution and take it a little slower and start with Pre Pre-Algebra.

I don’t have as much hands-on experience with Mr. D Math however, as Big R has been pretty independent with it. Using it at a lower level with Little R will give me more insight into how the program works.  I can share more when we’ve had a little more practice with it.

Did you know that there is a returning student discount for Mr. D Math? You just have to email customer service and their self-paced classes have a 50% discount for the new year. That makes it that much more affordable!

All of that being said, I don’t think we should get worried about what grade-level math our kids are doing. They should be doing the level of work that they are ready and capable of, period. If that means they are two years ahead or two years behind typical public school standards, then so be it. The beauty of true homeschooling is there is no reason to be tied down to those standards. This is something I’m only just truly beginning to understand, even after all these years.