I know this has probably been discussed a hundred times, but could you help me out any way? Please!. I need an elementary spiral math program that helps know how to teach it. I know about McRuffy, CLE, Signapore, and Horizon. Out of those I like Horizon but I need some guidance in the teacher guide and their guide doesn't give that. Math just comes easy to me, I just get it, but it doesn't come easy to one of my DS, so it is hard for me to teach. I need some help. Thanks ladies.
Hehe! I know! I looked at McRuffy again tonight and I like K and 1st but I don't much care for it after that. I would like something that can get us from 1st to 6th grade so we don't have holes and gaps.
mom24boys - We have used many Math curricula throughout our 21+ years of homeschooling. We use the BJU Press curriculum in our home. The Teacher Editions are "scripted" so that it makes it easy for us moms that don't know how to teach math (or any other subject). ~Belinda
Thanks! I'll check them out. And thanks for the word "scripted" I knew there was a word I was looking for, just couldn't find it!:roll:
What about 2nd don't you like? It does get heavier feeling, we fixed that by dropping the journal and day speed drill. We do the response book work because its good for mental math and Reagan likes it. We don't always do every step either, ESP if its something I know we have a good grasp on already. Ry is doing TT and loving it. She did McRuffy K and 1st and easily tested into TT 3...she could have even gone into TT 4, but I wanted her to have the confidence boost since she began to struggle with how fast McRuffy moved along. McRuffy is a good solid program but it does move fast (you could slow it down) and is very advanced.
I want to second checking out Saxon. We didn't start using it until 6th grade and we plan on keeping it for the long haul. I wish I didn't listen to the naysayers and used it from the beginning. I think it explains the concepts beautifully and the spiral review is awesome for ds. I never knew he would love math this much, lol.
It depends. Before each lesson there's a "mental math" section. I love this because figuring things out in your head is a great skill to have. Then there's the lesson - just read through that together. Then there's about 10 practice problems on the new lesson. Then there's 30 problems that are a review of past lessons, with a few from the new lesson as well. It can take a lot of time if you let it. Ds and I zipped through the mental math and read the lesson. Then he did all the practice problems and most of the review. He uses a whiteboard for each problem. For some reason, the whiteboard makes it more fun. Since I'm there with him and I know what he has down pat, I mark off 12-20 (out of the 30) for him to do. Math takes 45 minutes now. Last year, we did 1/2 a lesson each day for 30 minutes (day 1 was up to the review, day 2 was the 30 review problems). Do it the way that works best.
I find that CLE is very thorough, and it's written to the student so you don't need a lot of scripting in the TM, although there are some hints and tips. ALL of the TMs now have reduced-size student pages with answers overprinted, just like the 1-3 always have. I've seen it turn math haters into ... well, math tolerators, if not math lovers.
