I would like to thank everyone who chimed in on my Math & Latin surveys. I now owe half my curriculum to you!
No kidding.
When I asked the question “Math-U-See or Saxon”, I had no idea that I would eventually be steered in the direction I headed, which turned out to be…
[grin]
The idea for Teaching Textbooks came my way via several solid recommendations. (Thank you, my friends! You know who you are.) I freely admit that I am not “staying the course” in switching programs, and had, in fact, already purchased the workbooks for Saxon 5/4 and 6/5 when I found myself starting to waver.
Anyone want to buy them?
Here, then, is the line-up that we’ll have chez nous:
- Math-U-See Alpha for Angela (age 4 ½)
- Saxon 2 for Felicity (age 6 ½ )
- Teaching Textbooks Level 4 for Cate (age 8 ½ )
- Teaching Textbooks Level 6 for Jem (age 10)
I love Saxon Math, don’t get me wrong. It’s a rock-solid program, as you know, and my kids have done really well with it. Unfortunately, my temperament is such that I feel guilty for not doing everything in the program—not the 2 lessons a day, we’ve never done that, but the longish lessons have gotten to be a bit too much for me.
For us, really.
Well, thank goodness my husband understands. He knows that he’s living with several free spirits and that our wings start to droop when the workload’s too…redundant. Thus, our compromise: Teaching Textbooks for Jem & Cate and Saxon 2 for Felicity.
Felicity, being the 4th child, thrives under the extra “Mom” time.
She’s graphing the weather as we speak. : )
Ad Jesum per Mariam,
It's freaking me out that Angela will be starting in Alpha. My son just turned 5 and we are waiting another year. I'm feeling paranoid now.
After I saw the comments on your post, I went and checked it out again, too. I have a friend in Fargo who uses it and they really like it. I think that if any of my kids started to struggle with Math-U-See this is the direction I would go, too. The self correction is a great feature … it will free you up for other adventures. You'll have to post a review of the program after you've been using it for a while; I'd appreciate hearing your take on it after a couple months or half a year.
No- NO-NOOO!! Don't tell me this! I already bought my Saxon books for the year, although my older boys just aren't doing well with them. We end up skipping so much that I've been thinking of making a switch. Then my friend was absolutely gushing over Teaching Textbooks the other day. Now this. Please, I just wanted to stick my head in the sand and pretend everything was fine. Saxon as usual. AHHH- now my conscience won't rest until I investigate this Teaching Textbook thing. Way to go, Margaret! 😉
Jenn, breath. We are going to go v.e.r.y…..s.l.o.w….with Angela, as in lots of counting, lots of playing with the blocks…
And plus she just loves that Mr. Demming guy. Seriously. She could watch his DVDs for HOURS.
Suzie, is your friend MY friend? As in former roommate? I'll tell you what got us hooked on Teaching Textbooks–it was the self-correction, yes, but also those awesome little Math buddies on the left of the screen!
Anonymous, breath. It will be okay. 🙂 Do what I do and talk it through with your husband. If he says yes then it's divinely blessed. Truly.
i LOVE teaching textbooks!
my kids never cared for saxon, but we use it faithfully until 4th grade-thankfully they came out with the 4th grade this past year or so.
i don't think you'll regret it one bit.
it is the best invention for busy mamas.
it even improved my kids SAT test scores.
Wow, you have smart little kids. We got bogged down in lesson 9 or ten of MUS Alpha and gave up. We're doing MCP and he's liking it better so far.
We're using Teaching Textbooks for Geometry this year. First time. First time teaching Geometry, too, which is exactly why I'm getting the computer to do it for me!
We used Saxon for yeeaaarrrs. I think it's okay to do half the problems. For a child who really gets math, we occasionally just let him do the practice problems on each chapter, no review. If he got an A or B on the next test, he just continued that way. Maybe I should blog that instead of clogging your combox. 🙂
Ladies,
May I suggest that if you are using Teaching Textbooks you have the kids take the placement test. We have used TT for grades 6,7 and now Algebra. My 6th grader flew through grade 6 and found out she should have started w/ grade 7. This may have been just her but, I have heard from other moms that the placement test helped them know "exactly" what level their child should be in.
We love TT and hope it'll be a good fit for your family.
God bless,
Elizabeth
We love Teaching Textbooks. I do believe you will be quite the happy mom to have this program 😉