Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Math Anxiety

I don't know if it's true for all homeschoolers, or even most homeschoolers, but for me the subject that can literally keep me up at night is math. How to teach it, what order to teach, what program and style, how many pictures on a page. All of these are huge questions. And I was going blissfully through life not unlike the grasshopper, saying that I'd get to those decisions later. After all my oldest is only ten and in fifth grade. We've had one major math issue and I switched him from MathUSee to Singapore to solve it. And it seemed to. Things have been pretty smooth sailing since then.

But then Harry decided that his life's dream is to take Pre-Algebra in sixth, not seventh grade. This wouldn't be a big deal except that I was counting on that year to figure out which math program to use going forward. And there are so many different choices out there. So many that I'm not even sure I know them all.

Let me list the math programs I know of, and if I have any thoughts about them, I'll list those too:

Saxon: Most likely won't use Saxon. Didn't like Saxon K and while it may be silly to base my decision on something Harry used for one month six years ago, I'm okay with that.
Singapore NEM and/or DM: I'm not entirely sure if these are the same program or what. I like Singapore Primary, so I lean toward these. But I have no real reason to lean that way, just as I have no real reason to lean away from Saxon.
AoPS: I'm not entirely sure what this is or if it will appeal to me, but I've seen it listed in various places and people seem to like it, so maybe it will work for us.

There are most likely lots of other programs out there that I haven't even heard of. There are certain companies I won't use, especially BJU, even if it's a great program. If there is something you think is fabulous though, let me know.

But, if you were picking from the three above, which would you pick and why? Sell me on one of these please. I need to sleep.

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