Today, we are going to begin a new series on "What We Do" in our homeschool by discussing the subject of math. This is going to be an eight part series, with a post each Tuesday through the end of the year, examining our approach to different subjects, so be sure to check back. I'm always curious to find out what works for others and thought some of my homeschool readers might feel the same. I enjoy hearing about others curriculum and ideas because there are often tips and tricks that I can incorporate into our studies to enrich our learning. So read on to learn what we do for math.
Why Math U See
We have tried several approaches to math over the years, but one thing has remained consistent - our curriculum. From Britt's very first year doing organized school work we have used Math U See by Demme Learning. Several things drew me to Math U See in the beginning.
Way back in the day, I checked out Cathy Duffy's book from our local library 101 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum. She had lots of information on learning types and homeschool styles and philosophies, and so ever since I have used her website to evaluate curriculum I'm considering using. Each year for who knows how many years in a row she has recommended Math U See. So what we do for math has been Math U See ever since.
Aside from it being a very well known and well loved curriculum, it met some key requirements that I wanted in a math curriculum. Math U See uses manipulatives up through Algebra, in order to help their students see math concepts and thus gain a greater understanding of them. It was highly important to me that the kids not only be able to do math, but understand how and why it works. This method of learning is a little slower because it's more than just telling you that two plus nine is eleven. It tells you that nine has to become a ten and move up place value leaving only one behind, and that's why it must equal eleven which is a ten and a one.
Additionally Math U See uses a mastery based approach to learning. Many curriculums that we used in school used a cyclecar approach to learning, meaning you use a concept and then continually circle back around to it. I always felt like we were continually having to relearn something we had already done, rather than moving on and growing. Mastery based learning is where a student learns a concept well enough that they can do it but also teach it, and it demonstrates a deeper and more complete learning of the material. The material is then built upon for the next lesson, and is used to advance the next concept. I feel like math naturally lends itself to this style of learning, and I want this flow for our studies.
How We Use Math U See
In the beginning, I used Math U See in a very traditional way. We watched the video where Mr Steve taught the lesson and then did every workbook page and did a page a day. However, I quickly realized that it was burning the kids out, especially when they understood a concept and I kept them doing more pages of the same. I was beating a dead horse, and in effect doing exactly what I hated in school.
It has been a work in progress for me to break out of the public school mind set. It's what I know and what I trained to do, so I often instinctively resort to public school methods. I'm also a bit of a perfectionist. When I let go of the "need" to do all the pages; however, I realized that it made more sense to do the pages they actually needed. (Which is what Mr. Steve Demme recommends in the first place.) This is where another aspect of Math U See came into play. For each lesson they provide three pages of practice problems, and then three pages of integrating that concept in with their previously learned material. It quickly became evident that we only needed one or two days tops doing practice problems, and then another day or two doing integrated problems. So lessons went from taking us seven days to complete a lesson to three to five days most of the time.
Now that we are entering the upper grades with our two oldest how we use the curriculum has changed again. Now, the kids may rewatch the video provided again, more than just watching it the first day of a lesson, in order to reinforce the more difficult concepts involved in Algebra. We also are doing fewer problems most days since they take longer to solve, especially with ADHD in the mix. We are also slowing down our pacing with math in the upper grades. I want to be sure that we have complete mastery, and with a heavy school load, there are even days that we skip math if they don't have the focus and stamina remaining for math that day. Math is everyone but Kate's least favorite subject. We use to do math first each morning, but then everyone was in a poor mood for the rest of the day and it left them with very little focus and energy for the remaining school subjects. This year we moved it to the end of the day, and while focus is no longer at it's peak, so it takes a little longer, they only have it to complete to be finished with their school day which does provide some needed motivation.
Reinforcing Learning
One thing I've learned though, is no matter how great the curriculum is there is a need for what we do for math to reinforce learning in a fun way. We have found a few regular ways to do that. Around once a month we find a way to "gamify" learning. We have done this in numerous ways primarily by turning basic facts into a game, finding a game that uses skills we want to practice, or turning a real life moment into a challenge to solve.
First, we turn basic math facts into a game. We have taken chalk and written on the drive way numbers up to twenty and let the kids jump on the number to addition problems, only giving them a few seconds to answer. We have played nerf math, where I hung up papers numbered to fifty in the living room and had them shoot the answer to lower level multiplication problems. One of the kids favorite games to play is Multiplication Bang, where they pull a popsicle stick with a basic multiplication fact on it out of a large can and if they can within 5 seconds answer the problem they keep the stick for a point, if not it goes back to the can. There is always the possibility of drawing a BANG instead and then they have to put all their points back in the can. We play it for a set amount of time and then determine which kid won.
Another way to practice math skills is to play actual games. Practicing money is easy to do with Monopoly or Money Bingo which practices coins as well as bills. Adding and subtracting is easy to practice with Sorry and other board games where you need to move around the board. Multiplying and dividing is necessary's for computing damage and healing in Dungeon and Dragon games or Pokemon. Matching, sorting by type, and other strategy type games are also good for math skills.
Finally, finding real life uses for math is key in getting your children invested in learning math. For practicing money, we either let them figure out how much money they have earned when doing a week's worth of chores or we let them figure out taxes and if they have enough money to buy something they want in the store. For fractions, baking and woodworking seem to be the best practical use of those skills. Decimals can be done in the grocery store. And I will do anything to create an algebra equation to solve in real life.
In Conclusion
Math U See has proven to work for all our kids no matter their learning style. They have to build (kinesthetic learning), say (auditory learning), write (visual learning) and then teach back the concept (for mastery). It is customizable and even recommended to fit to individual students. And while, math is still not our kids favorite subject it is a subject that they can execute well. Reinforcing what the kids learn we stress word problems and find ways to gamify learning, attempting to make learning more interesting while insuring the concepts and when to use them sinks in and takes root in their minds.
I hope today's post exploring what we do for math, that most dreaded subject in most homeschools, has helped you to think about math in your school in a different light. Whether you are looking for a new curriculum option, deciding on how to divide up the work that your students do, or considering fun ways to reinforce subjects, I hope you find some ideas here. Remember to check out next week's post in the series What We Do: History.
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