I am considering homeschooling my children. I have been looking at teaching methods and curriculum. For math I am looking into Singapore or Saxon, does anyone have experience with these? I worry about math, because I am not good at it and I want a better math education for my kids than I had, but I worry that I wont be able to teach them/help them, since I struggle with it so much myself.
My youngest just turned 5 and missed the date to start K in public school, but I have been working with her at home. I have Singapore Essential Math for her and it has been going well so far, but we just started it.
My oldest is in 1st grade at public school, she does well in their math program, but I am not sure what they are using. I have heard that it is harder for kids to start Singapore after 1st grade because it is such a different method.
I really want to homeschool, but if we are able to, it probably wont be until next year (with my oldest, since I already am with my youngest).
Any thoughts, suggestions, etc.?
November 5, 2012 at 2:23 PM
I use Saxon. It has worked well for our family. There is a lot of repetition which some people don't like but I do. The only advice I can give you for Saxon is that 1 is really kindergarden 2 is first grade and 3 is second grade and so on. Each lesson is laid out for you. It is very easy to use.
November 5, 2012 at 6:24 PM
We used Saxon some last year and it was okay.
Since you don't feel that confident in math you may also want to consider a computer based program where the lessons are taught on the computer, and you can just monitor what they are doing.
I really like the math and the way they teach it in time4learning.com.
I also love Teaching Textbooks.
I hear good things about Aleks.
Take a look at those!
November 5, 2012 at 10:48 PM
November 9, 2012 at 2:08 PM
When DD was in ps (K. and almost all of first), they used Saxon. It was ok, had a lot of drill, seemed to get the job done. We continued to use Saxon for second grade after DD was removed. She really wasn't being challenged and I wanted a math program that would give DD a real solid conceptual understanding of math. We switched to Singapore math starting at third grade. It was the best choice for her. She has a much firmer grasp on the concepts, is forced to use critical thinking skills, and mental math. We also use Teaching Textbooks at the same time. I struggled with math myself in school starting around 6th-7th grade. I've been working on middle school math, using the Danica McKellar books, and did just purchase TT Pre-Algebra for myself and then will use it with DD. Teaching Textbooks are so handy because you have your own personal tutor right in your house. TT starts in third grade, but I think that some kids could begin using it at least one or two years earlier. They have a placement test that is very helpful.
I don't know if you have made your decision yet, but I thought I would give my input. I use Singapore with my kids and it is really working well. I am so far only using the text books and not the work books yet (I plan on getting them as the work gets more difficult and they need extra practice), but I reinforce the concepts in our other subjects and in everyday (you literally use math all the time, so there are plenty of opportunities to ask them regular-life-inspired math questions). My husband also teaches them some general math concepts to help them understand how math works.
My oldest was in second grade when we pulled him out of public school and he started Singapore Math. He had no problems with it (whereas the curriculum the public schools around here use had strange math terms I had never heard of, and had them do math problems that didn't seem to help them understand, and he had difficulty understanding what was going on in some cases--and my husband, an engineer, didn't understand why they were trying teach concepts with the method they were using. He hated their curriculum. (He learned in elementary homeschool with Saxon, by the way.)
Also, please remember that even if you don't feel absolutely comfortable with math now, you can always review and then teach. I have to go back and make sure I'm doing certain methods correctly. Other subjects I teach, I have to go back and review some of the material, or even learn it for the first time.