One of my biggest frustrations with our school last year was their seeming lack of a formal math curriculum. I am sure that there is one, however the implementation in the classrooms my children were in was disappointing at best. One week John would be doing addition, the next week he would be doing the multiplication, then he'd hop on over to fractions, maybe dabble in a little money the next week etc. I never could sense any sort of strong foundation being built. And to be honest, I'm really not all that sure what Madi was doing in kindergarten with her math. John, especially, became very frustrated and determined that he hated math. Although he was doing fine with the classwork, he couldn't see how all the pieces worked together. The other glaring issue I had with the math was that memorized math facts were nonexistent. I am a firm believer that you must give the child the tools in order for them to successfully build the structure. Enough ranting about this issue.
We will be using the Saxon math curriculum this year. I LOVE this math program. Having actually taught this curriculum in a formal classroom setting, I know that it works. I love that each lesson builds upon the lesson before - hopping around is eliminated. I also love that there is an emphasis on math facts. I'm sorry, you just can't do math if you have to stop and work out what 5x2 is every time you come across it. John hates math so I have my work cut out for me. However, I am confident that with this program his hatred will be eliminated.
Our district hits memorized math facts hard and the kids have weekly timed tests. However, they do the whole spiral math idea where you touch on a concept, move to another concept, then eventually touch on the original concept again. They also teach the strangest ways (yes plural) to multiply and divide. I seriously had to have a teacher show me how to do it during a parent/teacher conference! Best of luck to y'all!
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