We're beginning week #3 of our first ever year of homeschooling! Woot woot! So far, most things are going fairly well and so I'm excited about that. My question is, should I backtrack a bit with my son (age 8) and take him back a level in math? Background: He went to a charter school for K & 1st, and did an EXCELLENT job in all areas there. He was ahead in math according to his teachers and just seemed to "get it." We moved at the start of his second grade year and made the very hard decision to move him out of the Charter and put him into the PS. In the PS in 2nd grade, he seemingly learned nothing. His folders came home empty, etc and it seemed like the work they were doing was way lower than where he'd been at the previous school. Because of this, he seemed bored, and then uninterested, etc. This year, we're starting HS, as you know. I purchased Abeka Arithmetic 3 for him, but it seems like he's not ready for it. It's almost like he had no new learning during all of Grd 2, and doesn't seem ready for Grd 3 math. What I don't know is - does he just not remember how to do the math, or is he really not ready for it? Abeka did review for the first week or so of Arithmetic 3. Comma Placement, $, simple addition, simple subtraction, telling time, etc. He did fine with all the review work. Then, the second week, it started moving quickly into Addition with Carrying and Subtraction with Carrying, and now he's freaking out and crying and saying he doesn't know how to do it! I did the supplemental exercies in the back of the book, and plan to take this week and just do review again of Carrying problems, but is that enough? I am not sure that if he feels that shaky with + & - facts, that he'll be ready to start multiplication in a week or two. And again, I don't know if it's because he honestly does not KNOW how to do these kinds of problems, or if he's simply lost his confidence having 12+ months "off." If it were your kid, what would you do? Keep doing review and then in a week or two move into Grd 3 math? Or go back to grd 2 and make sure he knows all those concepts very well? (FYI, he does not seem behind in any other area of Grd 3, just the math.) Sorry this is so long!
Check Abeka's scope and sequence online. See what their 2nd grade does. It's quite possible that the public school 2nd was far below Abeka's 2nd. I wouldn't know for sure, but it's way possible; in fact, way probable. Maybe you can pull some instructional worksheets from the internet for the skills (according to the scope and sequence) that will get him up to speed for Abeka's 3rd grade, and just postpone the full 3rd grade program a bit until he's really up to speed. Whether you just go back a full year by buying Abeka's 2nd, or pull worksheets to get him up to speed, be sure to let him know that it's public school's fault, not his. They just didn't teach him enough to be ready for what you bought. So you and he are going to go back some and make sure he knows all he needs before going on to harder work...
With Abeka I'd probably go back a grade, not because he isn't capable of grade 3 work, but because Abeka is very advanced and generally is ahead at least one ps grade level.
I disagree that Abeka is ahead a full grade level of ps. I have Houghton Mifflin 2 and Abeka 2 here and they cover the same skills. Abeka just expects memorization and really teaches the math. I like Houghton Mifflin as well, but it is more learning tricks to do the math facts. In Abeka, you learn the facts period. They may teach you the doubles as a speedier mental method later after you know that math fact family. In Houghton Mifflin (the same book my dd's used in ps), they teach tricks such as doubles + 1 and number lines to do the math facts problems and it is one chapter and then move on. So I wouldn't say that he didn't get any math at ps. It was probably just way different than a mastery approach. Abeka is traditiional math. PS uses new math and "tricks" to get answers. Does your son know the math facts to the 18 fact family? 2nd grade Abeka teaches the facts to 18. Double digit edition/subtraction and introduces mult. family 10, 5, and 2. Houghton Mifflin introduces math facts with quick number line and "trick" methods. They do not learn rote memorization. They also do double digit addition/subtraction and again use manipulatives and helps (the child doesn't have to know the math facts to get the answer). They also introduce mult. family 10, 5, and 2. So it isn't very different in scope and sequence as much as very different in methods and expectations of the child. As some one who pulled their dc from public school and kept going backward with math last year, don't go back a grade. Shore up the math facts to 18. Buy flashcards. Drill 15 min. a day. Buy something like Calculadder or buy Abeka's 2nd speed drills book. Take a month or 2 and shore up the math facts, then start Abeka 3. That is what I would do if I were you.
I can't comment as to A Beka's math being advanced or whatever, but I will say that IMO, math is the one subject where I wouldn't hesitate to backtrack or spend whatever extra time I needed to in order to be sure my child had a full grasp of the basics before moving on. I didn't realize it until I was an adult, but I missed something really fundamental early on in my math learning, and it affected me negatively throughout my schooling. I nearly didn't pass 9th grade, and in order to move onto high school I had to register for the 10th grade "dummy math" class. I graduated from high school without knowing my times tables. And feeling so math stupid in my required University statistics course was a huge factor in my dropping out. I wasn't able to truly do "mental math" until I was an adult. So yeah, I'll be sure that my kids have a firm grasp on each math concept before moving on to the next. We're currently taking a break between adding/subtracting and multiplication, and doing lots of games and drills to ensure ds really knows his addition/subtraction facts before moving on. He's always been "advanced" as far as grasping math concepts really quickly and easily, but he has trouble retaining/memorizing things like addition/subtraction facts, and so he gets frustrated when trying to solve more complicated problems and has to keep stopping in order to work out the simple facts first, kwim?
Thank you ALL so much for your opinions and insight. I really, really appreciate it. This week has been much better for T for math. I've back tracked a lot and just gone back to the basics. He's seemingly less stressed in general about it, and that's a good thing. I have been doing flashcards with him to get the basic facts down. Each day I time him and it's his goal to beat his previous score. Here's his scores - + 55 cards, 5 min 59 cards, 5 min - 21 cards, 5 min 36 cards, 5 min 41 cards, 5 min (today) So you can see he's doing better and building his confidence. Openminded - you hit the nail on the head with his learning last year. They did do a lot of trick stuff because a lot of what you said sounded familiar. He learned Pair Facts and +1s, +2s, etc. Again, thank you so much everyone for your thoughts! I'm thankful you were willing to share them with me!
My experience with math, after doing Abeka 1st & 2nd grade and having knowledge of other math programs, is Abeka IS advanced, and faster paced. We went straight from Abeka 2 to Teaching Textbooks 4 last year. We now do TT 5 and she is doing great! If you don't want to invest in the extra expense, check out my website CurriculumShare.com....there is a bunch of Abeka posted on there and you could likely find something for free! You just have to read the rules before posting. Do what it best for your son. Placement tests are wonderful!
