Math-- Curriculums we love!

I posted here about my thoughts on lower elementary Math. After building back the confidence level of my children the curriculum we have had the most success with is Teaching Textbooks. 

Each lesson is clearly taught and practice problems are assigned. It is a self graded curriculum. I can easily see areas the children need additional help and we can revisit those. This is a very slow paced program.  I personally have had my children go through 2 lessons per day, but only make them do one set of practice problems. 

When they advance to a new level, I have them start by "Quizzing Out" of the beginning of each new level. They begin by taking the quizzes and they stop taking the quizzes if they score below a 90 on  the Quiz. 

Another supplementary Math curriculum that we love is 

Life of Fred

Life of Fred is a Narrative about 2 characters named Fred and Kingie. It starts with basic addition and goes all the way up through Calculus, I think.  Some people do use this as full curriculum, but I use it for my kids to read about how Math is used int he real world through the life of Fred and Kingie! They love it. 

And I think it goes without saying....that lots of Math can be practiced....in the kitchen! 

My Math Journey

Math was always difficult for me as a child. I don’t remember my mom having me “tutored” though until Jr. High and High School level Math. I vividly remember staying after school daily beginning in the 8th grade. My 8th grade Math teacher, to this day, is still one of my favorite people on the planet. I have only positive memories of her constantly telling me “you can do this!” As I moved into high school, I remember meeting a Math tutor at my church every Wednesday night prior to Wednesday night activities. In college, I dated my Math teacher’s son…..so I passed. {not fully joking here}

This experience however made me a good elementary Math teacher! I understand kids who struggle. When I taught in public school, I was chosen to attend the Marilyn Burns Math School to teach kids Math through experiences. This was a life changing experience for me and I realized why I struggled so much as a child. I loved teaching Math in my elementary classrooms. I loved watching the kids faces light up when they would finally understand a concept through experiencing it verses a bunch of problems on a page. 

Fast forward a few years into homeschooling……I picked a workbook full of problems without experiences? SAY WHAT? I knew better, but the time monster got the better of me in the beginning. {I had to check it off my list!}  I vividly remember the day, one of my children started crying and said “I can’t do this!” I stopped in my tracks remembering immediately the words of my 8th grade Math teacher to me. I remember closing the book and THROWING IT AWAY! I did not want this child to go down “my Math road” thinking they could not do Math. That very day, I dug back out my  Marilyn Burns Math files and just started playing games with this one child.  I don’t remember how long I took this approach with this child, but long enough to build back the confidence level it would take to make them successful at another Math curriculum. 

For this reason, I love Math literature to teach Math skills, especially in the lower elementary years! Looking back, you don’t even need a Math curriculum in the younger years.  If you need a little bit of guidance on what Math skills are recommended a different ages, that is easily accessible online. Grab the list of skills and find Math literature and hop on over to https://mathgeekmama.com/ for some awesome lessons and games per topic.