Teaching Mathematics

When we started homeschooling, what I did was use a lot of pretty close to free stuff. The dry erase board and markers, and some flashcards and paper pretty much was the sum total of our mathematics curriculum. I used some worksheets from Sam's Club. You can get about a TON of math worksheets in some of those workbooks from Sam's Club for about $7 each. The only thing I don't like about those workbooks is that they tend to repeat themselves... that is, the first grade workbook has a bunch of sheets you already did in the kindergarten book, or the book on "time and money" would include the same worksheets you just did in the first grade book, etc. But for 300- odd sheets per workbook, the kid doesn't notice so much when you repeat a few. Plus it's extra practice!!

The Emperor gets all the easier worksheets or ones with a lot of colouring to do. He will do homeschool with us while he is home in the morning. If he is a good boy, he will get a "homeschool star" at the end of the day just like the Elf. They also can get one star for memorizing a verse in the Bob Jones Bible lesson. I have a sticky note for each boy with 20 little boxes in them. When the sticky note is full, they can trade it in for a PRIZE. There are some old discarded Happy Meal toys the older boys are done with, as well as some cool pencils and google-eyed notebooks to choose from. It's a lot of work for a pencil, but the boys are VERY into getting that star for the day!

Now we are at the point where I am ready to follow a curriculum. We have the basics of adding and subtracting down. Elf can add and subtract columns of numbers including the borrowing and carrying. He can add and subtract money if the decimals are lined up nicely. (That's KEY!)

I have purchased the Miquon Math Blue book. They are beginning to multiply fractions like 1/4. When I think about it, they are basically teaching the Elf algebra but using little shapey boxes instead of x and y. **I** have to pause sometimes to figure out how to do these things. But Elf seems to have a talent for mathematics. So does the Emperor. He is learning his times tables with the Elf.

I am concerned that when the Emperor goes to public school kindergarten next year, they will not realize that the kid has a brain. He tends to run around and act goofy a lot of the time. He also has a LOT of trouble with his handwriting, despite my teaching him and the really GREAT work they do at the public preschool. So they'll see this bouncy kid who scrawls instead of the little math fan who is reading some basic Dick and Jane. We are sending him to public school on a "we'll see how it works out" kind of basis.