Race to the Finish

This is the fifth part in a series based on this cost/benefit analysis.  Here you can find Part 1:Scoping out the Sequence, Part 2: Making the Grade, Part 3: Unscheduling and Part 4: Why DIY?.  Next I want to talk about this "plus" for us in letting go of our math textbooks:

• I'm not bound up by a need to "finish" a purchased curriculum,  or "get  my money's worth"; no need to weed through and pick out which parts of a lesson to do.

Yes, I have hang-ups.  Yes, I have first-born perfectionist tendencies (though you wouldn't know it to look at my house!).  Yes, it somewhat bothers me to purchase something and then leave it incomplete (more on that in a moment).  But that's not really the pivotal factor in this benefit for us.

We all want to make sure we cover our bases in teaching our kids any subject, but especially one as central (in our world, at least) and developmentally sequential as math.  How does one make sure she covers all the stuff she's "supposed" to cover?  Well, the simplest way to achieve that is to let someone else (usually someone who has a lot more background in the subject) do the research and planning.  You purchase a textbook.  When you've covered all the things in that book, then you move on to the next one.

Sure, you can take a textbook and pull it apart and mix it all up and use it differently.  But unless you are committed to finishing everything in that book, you need some other system for keeping track of what has been covered and/or criteria for deciding what should be covered and what should be omitted or saved for later.

As I mentioned above, it does somewhat bother me that we've got these half-used textbooks on the shelf.  But I got myself into that situation on purpose.  I wanted to experiment ... but I wanted to experiment with a safety net.  I figured that if we tried this system for a couple of months and it didn't work, we'd just pick up our textbooks again.  I also figured that I wanted a few months to test the theory before convention came around (for us that's June) and I needed to decide whether or not to purchase new textbooks for next year.

At this point, I am so enjoying what we've been doing here that I don't see myself wanting to go back to the textbooks.  In fact, I've been letting the kids use up the pages doing "school" with each other in their free time.  I thought that perhaps they would come in handy in case I was in a pinch and I needed something quick to pull out and give the kids to do.  Here's why that hasn't been an inviting option (yet):

• There are tons of problems on a page.  Deciding what to have the kids do takes some work in and of itself.
• If I'm there and I don't have 5-A-Days prepared, I can just put some problems up on the whiteboard, everyone can do them on their dry erase "slates" and we're done.  (If I really want to, I can even open up the spreadsheet and track as we go.)
• For days when I am going to be out (such as to appointments with the orthopaedist!) there have been so many things I've wanted the kids to have more time to do that it isn't a problem to leave them with other activities, like snuggle number!

So, in summary, the real benefit behind not having to "finish" a textbook stems from the fact that we've un-linked progress tracking from textbook scope and sequence.  We keep track of what we've learned, mastered and practiced elsewhere, so we are free to use or not use whatever we want from the textbook - and many other sources as well!

Scoping Out the Sequence

Back here I gave a rough outline of my cost/benefit analysis of going without textbooks (at least in math).  Since I've gotten some questions about the the reason behind them, I'd like to do a brief post expanding on each of the items I mentioned as "pros" for us.

• I'm not constrained to a particular scope and sequence (order of topics) and can order them based on learning opportunities, whole-family instruction and the developmental abilities of each child.

I want to stress (again) that there isn't anything wrong with purchasing curriculum with a scope and sequence or following one.  As mothers, our resources are limited.  It is not a cop-out to choose materials that take some of the work off of our plates!  However, at this point in the life of our family, the scope and sequence in our textbooks felt more like a restraint than a help.

As I looked through the children's textbooks (grades 6, 5, 3 and 1), I realized that there was a great deal of overlap in topics - at varying degrees of complexity, but related to the same general ideas.  However, these topics were not presented in the same order in each grade.  My first impulse was to tear all of the pages out of each of the (consumable) books, rearrange them by topic and use binder clips to clip together all of the pages that fell under the same general concept.  The problem with that idea was that since I'd be teaching the topics out of order (according to each individual textbook) and since an Abeka math page is about 25-40% work on the current topic and 60-75% review, the children would potentially be assigned "review" problems for concepts they had not yet learned.

Sure, I could create a system for keeping track of what each kid had already learned and then assign or skip over review problems accordingly.  But if I am going to keep track of those details and have that close of a handle on who needs to review what, the limited options offered on each math page actually become more of a restraint than a boon.  More on this when we talk about ...

• I get to create the lessons and activities myself.

DIY Math on the Level

As much as I have raved about Math on the Level (and I DO love what I know of it and WOULD recommend it if anyone was considering it) I haven't actually purchased a copy of the material.  I have looked over a friend's copy of the material, read everything there is to read on the website and taken a few webinars with the author.  But at the moment, part of our "experiment" is testing out a kind of a home-grown version of a Math-on-the-Level-like system.

From what I know (and chime in if you know better than I do) here are the essential things Math on the Level offers:

1. What to Teach - Math on the Level clearly outlines and describes what your children need to understand and what skills they need to master in order to be ready for Algebra.
2. How to Teach - Math on the Level books are full of very detailed explanations of each topic and lots and lots of good ideas about how to teach math and specific suggestions about how to help your children encounter individual topics, especially in "living math" ways.
3. How to Assess - The primary means of assessment is in face-to-face interaction with your student as you teach the lesson.  The material also includes many, many practice problems (and answers) for each topic so that you will have plenty of options for making up their Five-A-Days.  Also, the record keeping system (either by spreadsheet or paper/pencil) enables you to know what has been mastered and what needs review.

At this point, my working theory is that I have resources available to accomplish all three of these these things.

1. What to Teach - Using a combination of the table of contents to the math textbooks my kids have used in the past (because I still have the answer keys), the Mathematics Common Core lists and the Math on the Level list, I've put together my own list of topics.  (It's basically the same as the Math on the Level list, with a few additions/modifications.)
2. How to Teach - This is the part I love best and that I most appreciate having the freedom to do on my own.  However (ironically?) it's also the part where I feel the most insecurity.  If I purchase my own copy of Math on the Level, it will be mostly for this reason - because I want to make sure that I teach each concept completely and thoroughly.  We've also been making use of Math Antics and  Kahn Academy to help us out with the how-to-explain-this aspect.
3. How to Assess - I love the Math on the Level method.  I've basically adopted that method by use of a free spreadsheet I found on-line (which saved some time, but could be easily made from scratch by someone who had some basic knowledge of spreadsheets).  I already believe strongly in assessment by conversation (even in math) and am liking the new method of only five practice problems a day just to ensure that skills stay sharp.  Also, since I have teacher answer keys from all of the children's past Abeka textbooks, I have an enormous supply of practice problems (and answers).  And, of course, the Internet (including  Math Antics and  Kahn Academy) contains abundant resources for practice.  Of course, the benefit of the Math on the Level practice problems is that they are arranged and indexed by topic making it much easier to grab just what you need.

So, will this DIY method work?  Or will I end up purchasing a (used?) copy of Math on the Level?  Or, will I throw my hands in the air and just order everyone an Abeka textbooks for next year?  Stay tuned to find out.  Or, watch paint dry.  Either way, should keep you on the edge of your seat and provide great family entertainment. ;-)

The Slow Trickle of Math Change

From the beginning, we've use the Abeka Arithmetic series.  And honestly, the truth is that I really like it.  Full disclosure: I've only ever purchased and used the student (consumable) books and the answer key, so I really can't speak to the teachers' guides or how they recommend you teach a concept, what learning activities they suggest, etc. - I'm sure they are great.  For us, the ticket was that Abeka approaches each new concept in tiny baby steps.  That made it simple to give each kid a little five-minute briefing on what was new in the daily lesson and send them off to do it.

If you read reviews of Abeka's math program online the one thing you'll hear again and again on the "con" side is that there are too many problems.  Too much review.  The benefit is that there is plenty of opportunity for more practice if needed.  But it also means the potential need to fight against your complete-all-the-problems-on-the-page obsession, should you happen to have one.  (In my case this wasn't a "perfectionist" or OCD thing.  It was a fear thing.  What if we don't?  What will happen?  Will they have what they need?  Will they be ready?)

One thing I've learned as a homeschool mom is that I may not (no, rather, I AM not) an expert in any subject area.  But I am an expert on my children.  Nobody knows my kids like I do.  And it's my job to use my expertise to their advantage.  This gave me the confidence to start tailoring their assignments a bit.  I started by not requiring them to do every problem in every section - do a few; do more only if you need more practice.  Then I got bold enough not to require them to do every section in the lesson  - why practice addition, subtraction and multiplication when you use all those skills when doing long division?

Then, last spring, as the homeschool machine got up and running again after a new baby arrived in February, I got a really radical idea.   I decided we didn't need to do all the lesson in the math book.  About a third of their lessons were "review" lessons - no new concept is taught.  This is good if you need to keep students up on their math skills for 170 days of instruction and don't have that many new concepts to teach.  But we were facing down summer and wanting to get math wrapped up!  As I said, Abeka is review-heavy within each lesson, so entire lessons devoted to review was kind of superfluous for us at that point.

In other subjects (like science and history) my theory has been to teach to the older kids and wrap in the little kids, counting whatever they pick up as a bonus.  Henry, my four year old, can tell you that some things Britain exported to the colonies were "tea, fancy dresses and fancy dishes".  Nevermind that he doesn't know what "Britain" or "exported" or "colonies" are - there's time for that later.

So why not follow the same strategy with math?  Sure, the other kids couldn't handle everything Luke was doing with fractions.  But could it hurt for them to sit in on a discussion or exploration of the concepts, glean what they could, and then practice at their own level?  Since Abeka is a consumable math program and the pages are perforated, I had debated tearing out all the pages from everyone's book and sorting them into topics so that I could teach everyone together on overlapping topics.  And then a friend said "You need to check out Math on the Level."