Like many of you, I have spent hours over the years trying to determine which math curriculum to use in my homeschool. Which one is "the best"? Which one is less expensive? How much teacher time does it require? These are some of the questions I ask myself when looking for any curriculum.
I didn't always ask these questions about math. In the very beginning of my homeschooling years, a family I knew nearing the end of their homeschooling years told me that they'd used Saxon math successfully with all five of their children and to great success. Their oldest son was an engineering student at the time and has now completed a master's degree in Nuclear Physics! Saxon was his only math curriculum. is mom taught him all of his math facts before 4th grade and then he jumped into 54 and progressed through calculus. So, I bought a copy of Saxon 54 with tests and answers on EBay for a steal (1st edition) and gave it a go. My two oldest children followed the process described above to great success and I was thrilled. The choosing of math curriculum was easy for this homeschool mom...
Then came child number three. My family had previously lived in Texas where standardized testing was not a requirement for homeschoolers. We moved to Georgia. Georgia law requires homeschooling families to test every three years starting in third grade. So, I made sure to use a formal curriculum before Saxon 54. I started my third son on a formal curriculum in 2nd grade. I chose Horizons 2 since it utilizes a similar spiraling pedagogy that is used in Saxon. My plan was to progress from Horizons 2 to Horizons 3 and then move him into Saxon 54. This seemed very logical and would have been for my two older boys. With this child, it was a major disaster.
Why? Is it the fault of the Horizons 2 curriculum? No. The curriculum was good. I looked through it before giving it to my son. I was very happy with it. So what was the problem? Why did every math lesson turn into 45 minutes of crying and misery for both my son and myself? Well, I was not crying (usually), but I was on the brink of pulling my hair out. Math, a subject that was once peaceful in my home, became something I dreaded on a daily basis. Why? I asked my son this question one day after he cried out in frustration that he hated his math book. He didn't say he hated math. He hated the book. His response left me surprised. It was quite perceptive for a seven year old boy.
"They (meaning the book) teach me something new, and then the next day they teach me something new again. I don't understand what I did yesterday but they want me to learn this too. There is stuff in here they want me to do today that they stopped teaching me a long time ago, and I forgot how to do it. They are not teaching me anything about how to do the stuff I forgot. I still don't understand the new stuff from yesterday but I'm supposed to do this too!"
He was sad. He felt like he was dumber than his younger brother who was doing just fine in the same book. (They are only a year apart and do school together). He wanted to be able to learn something and really understand it before having a new and unrelated concept thrown at him to learn and do. He was introduced to something weeks before that was dropped from the lessons soon afterwards and then put back in with no instructions for how to do it. He was expected to remember how to do it on his own (He thought he was. His little brother did). At that very moment I knew in my heart that Saxon, the curriculum I'd planned for all of my children to use from 54 through Calculus, was NOT going to work for him.
I got online and began to search for a different curriculum that would better fit my son's needs. I looked on discussion boards to find out why Saxon doesn't work for some people. The words spiral versus mastery kept coming up and it hit me that my third son needs a mastery based curriculum. The spiral was driving him bananas. But what curriculum should I buy? There are so many.
I chose Rod and Staff Math. Rod and Staff math has been a blessing for this child and his mom. It allows him the time he needs to let a concept sink in. Much attention is given to mastering the basic arithmetic facts and other fundamentals necessary for success in upper level mathematics. Peace with math has been restored in my home.
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