HIGH SCHOOL EDITION #4 - Math Choices!
By Heather Idoni
Added Monday, May 25, 2009
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The Homeschooler's Notebook
***SPECIAL SERIES - High School Homeschooling***
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Vol. 10 No 39 May 25, 2009
ISSN: 1536-2035
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Copyright (c) 2009 - Heather Idoni, FamilyClassroom.net
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Welcome to the Homeschooler's Notebook!
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IN THIS ISSUE:
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Notes from Heather
-- Grateful Readers
Feature Article
-- Choosing Math Curriculum
Helpful Tip for High School
-- Video Math Explanations
Readers Share
-- Real Life Math and More
Additional Notes
-- Newsletter Archives
-- Sponsorship Information
-- Reprint Information
-- Subscriber Information
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Notes from Heather
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I just love getting encouraging emails from readers! Here are
a few I got just after sending our last high school issue. :-)
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"Hi Heather,
I just wanted to express how much I appreciate the High School
Editions of HS Notebook. So many homeschoolers find the teen and
high school years difficult, and having such a valuable resource
to turn to again and again is a treasure for me. I have forwarded
it to others in my situation. I always appreciate the newsletter,
but I just wanted you to know how much encouragement and support
a focused newsletter is for those of us in the trenches. I love
homeschooling my kids, but I have to admit that without support
from my fellow homeschoolers and folks like you, the high school
years would have been daunting at best. Thank you again for all
that you do to make our days a little brighter and to keep the
focus on the important task we've undertaken as parents of
today's teens." -- Tammy H.
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"Hi Heather!
The information has been invaluable in the first few of the High
School editions and has allowed me to stop having to breathe into
a paper bag! Thank you SO much!" -- Tina B.
---
Do you have comments to share? Please do!
Send your emails to: mailto:heather@familyclassroom.net
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Feature Article
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Homeschool High School Math - Choosing Curriculum
by Lee Binz
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The key to choosing a high school math program is recognizing that
your preferences and learning style may not be the same as your
teens. They may learn differently, and require a different program
than you would choose for yourself.
Teenagers will sometimes have pet peeves and personality quirks
that interfere with different textbooks and videos. A teen may be
so annoyed by a person on a video tutorial that it distracts them
from learning. What if they don’t like the teacher's accent? Or
they can't stand learning from a white board? What if the imitation
classroom setting drives them crazy?
For these reasons, I suggest that parents give their children choices
in math. Choose some equally good, but different, math tutorials,
and then allow the teen decide. My son Kevin totally shocked me when
he chose Saxon Math. I hated the way Saxon looked. I'm a visual
learner -- and I wanted photos, pictures, and graphic illustrations.
But my son loves numbers. He liked Saxon because it had so many
problems on each page -- with no pictures getting in the way. Can
you believe that? Shocking! I would have never thought that Saxon
would be a fit for my family -- it would have never occurred to me!
But I gave him the choice, he chose Saxon, and now he's in engineering
and getting a minor in math!
Here are some video samples for you to look at to help you compare
choices with your teen. Click on each link and open the video tutorial
in each one to 'Algebra 1'. Then compare them, compare them with
your child, and allow your child to give feedback. To us the differ-
ences may not matter, but to the teenager it might. Sometimes simply
the choosing will provide 'ownership'. They may (hopefully) be less
likely to complain when they have chosen it for themselves.
DIVE CDs coordinate with Saxon Math. It is a Christian curriculum:
http://demos.diveintomath.com/DIVEMathDemo/DIVEMathDemo.html
Teaching Textbooks are very popular, and they demonstrate every
problem in the book:
http://www.teachingtextbooks.com/v/vspfiles/tt/Algebra1Lectures.htm
VideoText has been around for years: http://videotext.com/sampler.htm
Chalkdust: http://www.chalkdust.com/algone.html
Abeka uses a classroom setting in their video:
https://www.abekaacademy.org/AcademicPrograms/DemoVideo/Default.html
(Scroll down to Algebra 1)
Aleks Math is computer-based program: http://www.aleks.com/free_trial
Math-U-See: http://www.mathusee.com/demo.html
Ask Dr. Callahan: http://www.askdrcallahan.com/Products/algebra.html
Not videos? Here are two options for serious bibliophiles. If your
child loves literature and hates numbers, you may have success with
these books:
Life of Fred - many say it qualifies as a 'living book' or quality
literature:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0970999518?ie=UTF8&tag=hsaudio-20
Algebra the Easy Way - a story that happens to be written by my son's
economics mentor:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0764119729?ie=UTF8&tag=hsaudio-20
There are so many math programs, I couldn't possibly list them all.
I'm just providing a few here for you. I hope that will help you
find a math curriculum that perfectly fits your student. Remember
that it is about how your STUDENT will learn best. It doesn't really
matter how we, as the parent, learn best.
---
Lee Binz, The HomeScholar, is an expert in helping parents homeschool
high school. Both her two boys earned full-tuition scholarships at
their first choice university.
Her e-book, "The Easy Truth About Homeschool Transcripts" will show
you how to how to package that great education into an AMAZING
transcript that will impress the colleges!
http://easyfunschool.com/truth.html
---
***A note from Heather:
I'm going to add ONE more non-video book choice to Lee's list!
They are 3 books written by Harold Jacobs titled simply "Elementary
Algebra", "Geometry" and "Mathematics, A Human Endeavor". They
read like LIVING books, so if your child loves learning through
literature, they will probably go nuts over the Jacobs books for
math. These texts have *never* been revised, so you are good with
the original editions. Unlike some textbooks that are revised
almost yearly, the Harold Jacobs math books hold their resale
value VERY well and are well worth the initial investment.
Read the *25* 5-star reviews at Amazon to learn more!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0716710471?ie=UTF8&tag=hsaudio-20
And you may also want to consider another video Algebra option --
Uncle Dan's Algebra. I've heard great things about him, too!
http://www.homespun4homeschoolers.com/about.htm
---
Here are some comments received from readers of Lee's article:
"This was probably one of the biggest challenges, especially with
my youngest son, who will be high school age next year.
He's an auditory learner and when he sees a HUGE textbook, he flips
out and can't see the forest for the trees. At the same time, he's
brilliant at math. I think that a lot of pictures (other than
examples) just distract him.
This year we've been using the Key to Algebra from 'Key to...'
series and he's done SO well with it. Since it's a thin booklet,
it doesn't overwhelm him at all. And I love the very inexpensive
price tag!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155953088X?ie=UTF8&tag=hsaudio-20
Thanks so much for all your great tips, Lee!" -- Diane
---
"I remember when I found out I couldn't hand down my older child's
curriculum to her sister. I tried, and it bombed. My younger
daughter is currently doing very well with a curriculum I can't
stand. I add hands-on activities, and she's absolutely thriving.
But I can't stand that curriculum. It's perfect for Little Sis;
I still hate it. It was heartbreaking to pack up big sister's
old books and sell them to fund little sister's curriculum. I
LOVED those books.
I have to remind myself that it's just the same as the situation
with jeans -- Big Sis can wear jeans, but jeans just don't fit
Little Sis right -- so she has to wear slacks and sweatpants
instead of Big Sis's hand-me-downs. I love jeans. I don't much
like slacks or sweatpants. But it's not about my personal
preference, is it?" -- J.W.
---
"The one thing that I have learned, homeschooling 4 kids (grades
4-12) is that it is OK to not use something you bought or have.
Being able to 'walk away' from a text is hard -- I felt I needed
to use it because I bought it -- wrong!!! Recognizing that a book
or style of learning does not work for a certian kid is a wonderful
thing. Acting on that and trying something else is even better!"
-- Lara
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Helpful Tips
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Math Video Sites
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"Hi there -- For all of you that have trouble with higher math,
this site provides individual lessons via YouTube.com and even
has college subjects and SAT prep." http://khanacademy.org/
---
"Hello -- I have created a website with over 4,000 videos of my
students and me working problems from basic mathematics through
calculus. The reaction to the site has been overwhelming positive.
The address is http://www.mathtv.com -- the videos are free.
We are getting ready to launch a series of online textbooks that
will be available at a significantly lower cost than the current
textbooks." -- Pat M.
---
Do you have an idea, experience, or tip to share? Please write!
Send to: mailto:HN-ideas@familyclassroom.net
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Readers Share
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"Regarding the reader question answered in the May 4th issue on
math diligence problems with the reader's son --
There were some great answers but I didn't see this one.
How about finding opportunities to observe and experience WHY it
is important to get the answers to math problems correct from
REAL LIFE?
I would suggest:
Building projects - Measure Twice Cut Once - There is a video
(Franklin Films), but I mean hands-on work. There are many ways
to follow this through.
-- Do-it-yourself projects that he could get involved in at home,
like a father/son project or a treehouse
-- Helping a neighbor
-- Habitat for Humanity projects
-- Drama - building theater sets
-- Shipbuilding - make your own or just find out about and observe
-- Drafting - architectural drawing - there are some curricula in
this area for homeschoolers. Try Timberdoodle or Rainbow Resources.
-- An internship or work with a mentor on real life projects
-- An aerospace or other type camp - something to build interest
in science/math related fields of occupation
-- Trips to science museums or volunteering in such a place
-- A bit of volunteer work in an accounting or other office where
detail is important
-- Have him help you with your accounts or business -- or better
yet, set up his own business and business bank account
Holistically speaking, any project or endeavor which requires
attention to detail will assist in gaining better attention in
other areas as well, for example, math computation.
It is the very best if you can follow the person's interests in
your choice of these endeavors, but they are valuable experiences
even when not his idea or choice or when approached as a family
unit.
We all want to know HOW things work and WHY they matter -- and
real life teaches us these things.
Just a thought!" -- Michele
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