Mathematics

Homeschool day 20 of 180

I had quite an interesting experience with Kelly and Christian yesterday evening. Christian is currently working on the last two books we are planning to use from Singapore Math. The concepts are pretty difficult to understand the first time through and they require practice. It can be pretty frustrating in the middle of the learning process, but it is very satisfying after the light comes. The next step in the process is algebra. The kids really start into algebra at the end of their Singapore Math program. Next comes Teaching Textbooks. It spends the first two months on pre-algebra which is mostly review for Kelly. She is a little frustrated with that because it seems to0 easy for her. Imagine being frustrated with not being frustrated. I have explained to her that even if it seems very simple, it is very important to practice everything she has learned so she is very clear on it as she moves into algebra. She only has a couple more weeks until she moves into the real algebra section of the program. It should be pretty straight forward for the rest of this year, but start getting more difficult through the early to middle part of next year. Christian will continue to engage with difficult concepts while he finishes the Singapore Math through the first half of this year. Then he will move into Teaching Textbooks.

Both Singapore Math and Teaching Textbooks are super programs that have served us well. If I had to choose math programs over again, I would do it exactly the same way. After we finish Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry, we will move into calculas using a different program. Our goal is to have them ready to go to the community college for calculus starting their junior year in high school. They are on track to do that fairly easily right now.