MATHS

For the past two years, my older kids have been using Math Lessons for a Living Education.

This is a literature based approach to math, not quite like Life of Fred, but similar in some aspects.  I was fairly hands-off, unless they needed help on something.  There is a story to read and then questions to answer based on the story and concepts talked about in the story.  It worked fairly well.

I actually got them for "free" unless you consider the amount of ink and paper used to print out a couple hundred pages per student!  They do come in workbook format though and are fairly inexpensive.

photo cred amazon



The two younger kids used Horizons for math this year.  My first grader will be continuing with this program for the next school year.  It is laid out nicely and is colorful.  This program doesn't usually have too much overkill on concepts.  Ya know, 600 addition problems and 400 subtraction problems for one lesson..... ;P
To finish up Kindergarten, we are actually using dollar store workbooks on addition and subtraction.


One of the changes for the next school year is in our math curriculum.
The three older ones will be using Teaching Textbooks.  It was pretty pricey, however I anticipate using them for subsequent years.  I know several people that have used or are currently using this program and they speak highly of it.  I liked that they also offer a placement test prior to purchasing.  Teaching Textbooks offers lessons via cd and will grade and keep track of student progress for me.  They also offer a workbook for those students that would rather do their math on paper rather than computer.  

In addition to our "regular" math curriculum we have used xtramath.org--especially on co-op mornings.  One of my students also uses the following book:

If you have never checked out these books, by Sarah Janisse Brown and published by The Thinking Tree LLC, I highly recommend them!   They have all sorts of homeschooling journals and curriculum.

We had a couple of requests for Life of Fred this year, so we may use that at times as well.  As of now, I only have one LOF in my possession.

I guess that about sums up our math curriculum.