abeka math woes

M

mamaof3peas

New Member
Hi all. I am from Illinois, we live out in the sticks but have the modern conveniences of walmart 20 minutes away. The best of both worlds lol. I have issues with my daughter in 2nd grade math. We have used abeka and up until this year we liked it. But I find that this year they are moving way too fast and instead of mastering anything she is just gaining a touch of knowledge about lots of subjects and then when we come back to review she seems to have lost that already. I think it is the spiral approach that doesnt work for her. So I want to try a more mastery program and will use abeka as a review next summer to see how we did. Has anyone tried math mammoth or any other math mastery programs? I need help!
 
I haven't. We use Horizons which is also spiral. Does the Abeka TE have extra pages with extra practice?

The Horizons TE have LOTS of extra worksheets and basic computation drills that the teacher can copy....which means you could slow her lessons down (unless you're enrolled in the Academy) and just sort of which it to a more mastery approach by adding Math Mammoth's free pages (or the paids ones too).

Math-U-See is a good mastery program for some kids. We haven't used it but I have some friends who LOVE it and others who liked it for Alpha & Beta and then jumped elsewhere for various reasons.

Rhonda C.
 
Hey there,
We just switched from Math-u-see last year to Saxon math this year. The kids love it (we're using 2nd grade for ds and 1st for dd) and it seems to cover everything and it is somewhat repetitive so they seem to get a good grasp on the concept before moving on. The worksheets even continue to cover certain things as we move on.
Ds is loving it, plus it's a good mixture of manipulatives, written work, timed facts sheets, etc. My ds had a pretty POOR base of math before we began this year and it started off with a refresher of things from last year (which is great because I think he missed a lot) so I love that.
he didn't have any math facts memorized and he's actually learned the doubles, +0's, +1's and +2's in just this short 1 1/2 months that we've been working because of the timed fact sheets (we make it a game).
Also...last point (I promise I'm not a saxon provider, lol!) I love that it includes the morning meeting which does calendar work, time work, patterns, etc. each morning.
Best of luck and I hope you find something that works for you! :)
 
hi rmcx5! thanks for the reply

I went ahead and ordered the 2nd grade book for math mammoth. abeka doesnt have any extra worksheets. every day it gives you about 10 problems to practice for each of the 10 different subjects that are new and unknown for my daughter. it was just way too fast and i dont like how the tm was laid out. i hate have to improvise on a subject i spent good money on. so your husband is in the army. my husband wishes he was but i vetoed that. i do support the military, but i would have a hard time letting him go overseas, although i believe it is necessary. I also have a dd who will be 8 in 3 days and a ds who is 6
 
I'm late but I've used abeka math since 5th grade and before that math u see. I loved m-u-s but I was buying the entire kit from abeka so I didn't want to purchase another program. The two flowed together very well when we switched over. Abeka does continually repeat alot so if they missed it they will mostly likely catch it again. It does move fast though. Good luck with your new math.
 
mamaof3peas said:
I went ahead and ordered the 2nd grade book for math mammoth. abeka doesnt have any extra worksheets. every day it gives you about 10 problems to practice for each of the 10 different subjects that are new and unknown for my daughter. it was just way too fast and i dont like how the tm was laid out. i hate have to improvise on a subject i spent good money on. so your husband is in the army. my husband wishes he was but i vetoed that. i do support the military, but i would have a hard time letting him go overseas, although i believe it is necessary. I also have a dd who will be 8 in 3 days and a ds who is 6
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Well, I married my DH when we was already a soldier and had been enlisted and then officer so he had lots of years under his belt. I'm a super independent sort so I love it when he's home but tend to do fine when he's not since his job requires so much that I tend to take care of everything on the homefront (bills, house, etc) except the yard (when he's home because I'm allergic).

Obviously, when he's home, he's helpful when he can.

He's spent 35 of 54 months in the Middle East but we're glad that he's been home over 18 months and hopefully we can keep him "pushing paper" for a while longer.....no simple feat since he's an infantryman :lol:

Hope the Math Mammoth is a better fit!!

Rhonda C.
 
thanks for all the replies.

Thank you for all the help you guys. It is nice to meet everyone here. Thanks for the ideas.
Rhonda,
Well, we are proud of your husband and everything your family has given up so he can defend our country. Hurray for you guys! I hope he can be home with you for many months to come. What state do you live in? We are so looking forward to fall. Do you guys have any good crafty ideas for fall?
 
I am surprised that you feel Abeka is lacking. The spiral learning means there is a lot of review of previously learned skills which reinforces what is already learned/retained and they also have a lot of extra seat work if desired. The extra work is available so students can have the extra time with a particular concept if necessary.
 
Katie dont get me wrong

Its not that it is lacking, just that it is moving too fast for her. I would like it better if it would focus more on the new topic a couple of days while still reviewing and then move on to the next new topic. like measuring for example. I wish it would focus on that for a few days and then go into new things. I know that abeka is a very complete curriculum. And I really like the phonics. But it is just how my daughter learns. I feel like if we do the math lesson, all the review there and then the seatwork it takes forever to get done. i know that it is important to review but i feel like if it would stick with one thing for longer we wouldnt have to review every thing so much. kwim?
 
mamaof3peas said:
What state do you live in? We are so looking forward to fall. Do you guys have any good crafty ideas for fall?
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We're currently assigned to Ft. Monroe, VA (coast of VA near Norfolk).

I'm NOT crafty so hopefully someone else will chime in.

Rhonda
 
mamaof3peas said:
Its not that it is lacking, just that it is moving too fast for her. I would like it better if it would focus more on the new topic a couple of days while still reviewing and then move on to the next new topic. like measuring for example. I wish it would focus on that for a few days and then go into new things. I know that abeka is a very complete curriculum. And I really like the phonics. But it is just how my daughter learns. I feel like if we do the math lesson, all the review there and then the seatwork it takes forever to get done. i know that it is important to review but i feel like if it would stick with one thing for longer we wouldnt have to review every thing so much. kwim?
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I would suggest taking advantage of the extra work in the back of the book for extra practice. That is the beauty of hs-ing, you can work at your own pace.

Are you saying the spiral learning in Abeka doesn't have enough review, perhaps I misunderstood your original question?
 
no, plenty of review, but not enough mastery

I guess maybe im confusing even myself. Heres the thing. I feel like if we didnt move on so quickly to a new subject it would be easier for her. math mammoth is mastery approach. the way I understand the difference in mastery and spiraling is this. Mastery focuses on a new topic until it is "mastered" and then moves on to a new subject while still reviewing other skills. Spiraling touches on a new topic for several days all the while touching on other new topics and reviewing all the other topics already learned. I just feel like with abeka we will have to really slow down and adjust the schedule. I hate doing this because mentally I will be thinking how behind we are. I realize that is the beauty of hsing, setting your own pace, but I also want to feel like we are somewhat on a schedule and not way behind.
 
mamaof3peas said:
I guess maybe im confusing even myself. Heres the thing. I feel like if we didnt move on so quickly to a new subject it would be easier for her. math mammoth is mastery approach. the way I understand the difference in mastery and spiraling is this. Mastery focuses on a new topic until it is "mastered" and then moves on to a new subject while still reviewing other skills. Spiraling touches on a new topic for several days all the while touching on other new topics and reviewing all the other topics already learned. I just feel like with abeka we will have to really slow down and adjust the schedule. I hate doing this because mentally I will be thinking how behind we are. I realize that is the beauty of hsing, setting your own pace, but I also want to feel like we are somewhat on a schedule and not way behind.
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Have you thought about using the section in the back of the book for more practice work?

I talked to my ds when he came home from work to eat and asked him what he thought about the Abeka math program and he said that it is a fast moving curriculum in his opinion but didn't ever feel it was moving quicker than he would like. He said that on occasion he felt the need to do the extra seat work but felt that was sufficient for him. We did a lot of our own practice on the dry board and notebook so I knew they were totally getting it! You might try that. Just an idea.
 
Hey, remember this is home schooling too! YOU can slow down or speed up as you need to, Mak eup some side sheets for her if you need to?
 
well im still working at this

well until we recieve the math mammoth in the mail, I am continuing abeka and just trying to really work on things she has trouble with. But I am going to try the math mammoth. I looked at the scope and sequence and it is practically the same as abekas. I figure if we can go with math mammoth and just do whats in the book instead of adding in all this extra work, Im all for that. I dont want her to hate math and right now we are both in tears every week with it. I am going to use the abeka workbook inbetween and in the summer to assure that we covered everything. It is covering the same stuff just doing it in a different order kwim. i hope i dont sound lazy its just that if my dd would excel using a diff approach then why break our backs working 3 hours aday with abeka just to say we used abeka. i love abeka i just think it doesnt fit well for us right now.
 
mamaof3peas, I am learning that what is important is that we cover the bases, not do extra, when I was mentioing doing stuff on the side I meant instead of the moving so fast along sort of thing. Take your time teach a concept all th eway through dont go on thier time schedule but on your dds.. kwim?
 
oh, well that does make more sense.

thank you for all your time and thoughts. i am going to try that and just add in the math mammoth on things that arent clicking. you have been helpful. so do you think it is ok to do spelling as a pretest and then work on what she doesnt know? I find this is easier than going over a whole list when she already know half the words but i would still be making her do all the assignments? what do you think?
 
SPelling and Pre test--- YES! Last year ds was doing acsi spelling he was doing everything correct and his spelling tests came up correct each friday so I allowed him to pretest early if they were correct say even on Wednesday , if he got an A he did not have to take regular test because he already knew the rest.
This year I am putting his Spelling WOrd list together myself, starting next week btw, I am slow starting but I am going to give him the words have him write a sentence for each, then test him with a pre test, I think I will try giving him only the ones he got wrong on the pre test for his spelling test... assuming he gets any wrong he is good at spelling unlike his mother! Lol
 
I agree, that sounds like a good idea for spelling. We don't really do "tests". We are using Spelling work out and we do the exercises related to our 6 words each monday (or tuesday, you know how schedules are) then we just spend 5 minutes or so spelling them aloud each day, then on friday we "take the test" which just means that I have them write them down and whatever is missed goes up on the wall and we'll review that with next weeks words.

I want to remind you of something....Homeschooling is YOUR CLASSROOM! It can be HOWEVER you want it to be. If you don't like doing something as suggested in the books,then don't! :) If you feel like you want to add something that's not in the books, then do it! :)
It's all about making it work for your child and yourself! :D You can do it! Just have have to have the confidence in yourself to know that you can! And that's what we're here to help with, lol.
 
MO3P,I am just reading this, we have used A Beka since K. Elijah is in 8th grade and has done real well with it. We don't do everything that they suggest. He is able to keep up, but we do go back and review if he doesn't get it. I know that all children learn differently and if that is the case with your child, you need to adjust. Don't feel bad, it's your classroom. We are all here to support and give you suggestions:)
 
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