Can we just take a minute to acknowledge how fast this year has just flown by? I mean, wasn’t I sharing curriculum picks like two weeks ago for the 21-22 school year?
Le sigh… time flies when you are having fun! That’s what we did this year and I am anticipating lots of fun for this upcoming year as well!
I won’t bore you with all the deets as this will be a series of blogs. I value your time and attention span. Today’s subject? You guessed it! Math!
True story, this was the easiest subject for me to choose. Per what we used last year, I added a few things to our math manipulative stash and quickly decided on Saxon Math 3 and Singapore Math 3 as James’ main loop and we will throw in Horizon’s math grade 2 as a review and confidence boost. Saxon and Singapore worked so incredibly well this year and I feel like the math gains were significant but they weren’t painful for us.
For Jude, we will continue with Singapore math as well and I’ll bring out our faithful Math U See Primer from demme Learning. Jude’s math gains were great but the Demme learning provides a number sense foundation that is unmatched.
You can check out our math manipulatives here and all our curriculum picks here.
How goes it? Is anyone else in full “back-to-school” mode? Honestly, I feel like I have been in this space for a while, planning, preparing and sharing. I recorded a video of our math manipulatives that some of you requested and I thought I would a draft a blog to say the following:
You do not NEED any of this. Not one thing.
I strongly suggest you hunt sales and buy used.
If your kids need or desire a multi-sensory approach, manipulatives help a ton! I bought these over the course of 4 years. I also had help from the grandparents.
Please please please do not feel pressured into buying anything or stressing over what to get where. I share my favorites in this video if that is what you would like to start with.
We made it! We are at the end of the 2021-2022 Curriculum Picks series. Thanks for rocking with me. Today is everything for our young second grader, James. Like Jude, James’ next year will most likely be 2nd Grade 2.0 and we are so fine with that. My kids did stellar with all 2020 threw at us and yet, we still may need another year solidifying things before hitting the hard stuff of third grade. We are also preparing James for his first year of testing in addition to a full day at our local homeschool program and gymnastics. Whew!
I also would like to kinda see how much James can handle and retain well. I feel like I am always reconciling his age with his intellectual and physical abilities; not wanting to either push too hard or limit him. I think him having his own science and history time with me will work out well as his love language is quality time.
Can you see it? We are almost at the end of this series and-don’t you fret- I’ve got some awesome things lined up to share with you!
This one will be quick. This is a run down of what we are using for Jude’s Kindergarten year. We chose this as well as designed his goals (blog post coming) knowing next year would not be first grade, it would be Kindergarten 2.0 and we are 3,000% ok with that.
2020 was a doozy, yes we made it but honestly, barely. We gained so much but I really feel like another year honing skills and growing will do us all good.
Onward we forge in sharing our curriculum picks for the 21-22 school year. As the title leaves nothing to be desired, this blog is all about Math.
Let me tell you, this is for sure the subject I spend the most time researching, Like, by far. It may be because of my fears and my lack of aptitude for math or because my kids love it so much and I don’t want the way it is taught to ruin it for them or a combo of both. Either way, math is a never ending story over here.
James and I have both enjoyed Horizons Math. It is very “spiral”. So much so that James can easily tell when he is being challenged and, at first, that was hard for him, but now he accepts “that challenge”. I also like how this curriculum doesn’t mandate how you teach things so I’ve been able to apply a multisensory approach and allow James to really understand concepts he can apply to a range of math problems. I will say it took longer than I projected for us to complete book 2 of Level K but my kids alo made it through 2020 with their mental and physical health intact. So, we are starting level 1 for James and maybe level K for Jude. I say ‘maybe” because it starts slow, but like the uphill climb on a roller coaster before you go racing upside down through loops slow. You get it?
Because of that, I also purchased LetsPlaySchool Let’s Play Math to get a very solid foundation while having fun. Originally, I purchased this for Jude but I have a feeling we will all get a kick out of it.
Now, this is the part where I was supposed to tell you that both kids are all set for Math U See. Key word, “supposed”, meaning there’s been a wrinkle in my plan.
As I was hunting for Math for Jude because I am not sure Horizons K will be enough repetition for him, I ended up getting Saxon Math 2 for James for free. Don’t ask how, just know Jesus loves me. James was over the moon for it and promptly declared he was so excited because he doesn’t like Math U See. Umm, what??? Since when? Why? Ugh!!!!
Now, I am not sure why Jesus loves me like this but I have yet to find the Beta workbook used, thus I haven’t purchased it. Also, Beta would probably be the only level I would be ok skipping. So, AS OF NOW, James is not doing Math U See. As you can probably tell, this was much harder for me than him.
I will also add in some musical multiplication and games.
Cheers to Math, for now, because I am still researching.
I am back with another homeschool curriculum update. If you need a refresher on how and why we ended up using these curriculums, check out this blog post.
Let’s start with Black History…
If you follow me on IG (and if you don’t, join in the fun!), I shared my planning method for the Black History curriculum I created for my kids (and still working on for others to purchase). I also shared how Black History is not just a month in our house. It is a tether that anchors us and inspires. Through my planning, so much was erupting in our country and Black History was being made before our very eyes. It was important to me that my children learn about the history being made, as it was being made. Which meant chucking what I planned. Why? That history wasn’t going anywhere. It would still be relevant and valid history in a few months or next year. The opportunity for my children to witness History being made in real time is a once in a lifetime chance. I wasn’t going to forfeit that experience for them.
In return, we’ve had some really good and really tough conversations. Conversations I’d always prepared for but was never ready for. My children have seen me cry tears of mourning, anger, relief and joy. My children also got to play a role in making this history. They got to ask questions and share their opinions on solutions. Honestly, I pray I never forget that.
So, Black History went way off course but in the absolute best way.
Now to math.
If you asked me to choose the subject I am and have always been the least comfortable instructing, the answer will always be math. What is James’ most favorite subject? Math. Yes, this is my lot in life and I have no idea why.
What I do know is that I could either foster and be a good steward of his love for Math and let it rub off on his brother or I could be the reason he deplores it. Obviously, the goal is the former.
So, I knew what we ended the year with, Horizons Math and Math U See, where the ticket. To date, they are still working extremely well for us. James has made more gains than I ever imagined. It is working so well that I nixed the Spectrum math I got Jude and started him on Math U See Primer. I personally love the no-frills, minimal approach to both of these curriculums and I see no reason to change them going forward.
That’s all for now loves. I’ll be back soon with more curriculum updates and other fun things.
As the title says, we are talking all things math for our homeschool curriculum in this post, and the things we will use for what I am calling “enrichment”. “What is enrichment?” you many wondering. Let me explain.
For all my traditional public school readers, you remember “special areas”? The times when you went to art, PE, music and the media center? That was enrichment. In our homeschool enrichment will consist of:
Art: Admittedly, I am horrible with art for my kids. Like, the worst. I really do want to get better, especially because my kids love it. Art is truly therapy. I also think it is a bit hypocritical for me to teach my kids about Artists and not allowing them to process it for themselves. So, I’m making sure we get it in. Water colors, chalk pastels, tempura, guided drawings and illustrations to name a few things.
Typing: Learning Without Tears has a great typing program we got to preview this spring for free thanks to COVID-19. My kids really enjoyed it and it is well constructed. So my computer science husband was all for them having typing added to the round-up.
Computer games/apps: Don’t judge me. We aren’t the family that is anti-screens. I just prefer it to be as quality as the situation allows for and sometimes doing math in a fun game on the computer is the way to go.
Game school: I think I’ve said this before but in case you haven’t heard it, I am not the fun mom. It hurts to say that out loud. Or maybe, I am not as fun of a mom as I want to be? Either way, my kids deserve fun and I am doing what I need to do to make sure they have it. The funny part? They want to have fun with me! What??? They are always asking for me to play with them. So, I am making sure we break out the games we own and actually play, together!
Nature Study: Y’all. If I was bad at the above, I completely and totally failed at Nature Study. I mean, total bomb here. The cold, rain and, well, the nature deterred me from making it priority. So, I am adding to enrichment because baby steps, friends, baby steps.
Now to Math… You ready?
I hope so because I am gonna move through this like a freight train.
So, No Name A was beautiful and that’s it. The lessons were tedious and so much to get through. Even shortening lessons and sometimes not using the “required” manipulative didn’t quite cut it. After book one, I sold book two and level 1 and got on the hunt for something we could really grow with. I had a laundry list of requirements, stated in my YouTube video showing everything here. I knew it was a hard-sell and there was a lot stacked against me. (Dramatic, much?) Finally, thanks to the mamas who make the time to do flip-through videos and share them with the world, that is how I found Horizons. Blessed are these mamas! Because of the flip-throughs and the reviews, we started James at level K because NoName A left too many wide gaps and did not build a solid foundation. I have Horizons level one ready when he is.
We will be looping Horizons with Math You See (MUS). MUS is a mastery curriculum, opposed to Horizons being a spiral curriculum. It worked very well for us last year and we are both looking forward to it this year. (Pssssst if you haven’t read my review, you can find it here.)
“Why two?” You may be asking. Well, frankly, my kids have a unique way of learning and if I just had offered one, they would be bored and over it quickly.
For Jude, he also gets 2 math curriculums for the same reason, I am not fighting boredom. I’m also not fighting the “why do I only have one?” I’m just not. So, we already had Mathematical Reasoning on hand. I bought it used for James a few years ago and I like it for this stage so we are using it. I paired it with this preschool math from Spectrum that has a few more hands-on activities. Jude’s eyes lit up like fireworks in the sky when he saw it so I guess I did something right.
Whew! I am doing my best to wrap this up. I explain is much greater detail in my video here. Until next time friends!
