Home School Curriculum - Maths
Once you make the all important decision to home school your children, your next step is choosing the home school curriculum you will use when teaching them. You will need to choose maths, writing, reading, science, and history curriculum. Here we will look at how to choose the right maths curriculum for the needs of your children.
The first thing you need to understand is there is no "right" home school curriculum. The curriculum you choose will be right for your family, but there is no one size fits all. If the curriculum is good in quality, where the math content is concerned, it's an easy choice. The main thing to realize when choosing a home school curriculum is that it is not the curriculum itself that is important, but the teacher, and that is you. As your children's primary teacher you will want to understand their needs and choose the math curriculum that is right for them.
Even if you were not the best math student, you need to lead your child to believe that you love math and are passionate about it. By showing your child you are excited about math, they will see that and also become excited about it. When teaching, you should incorporate drawings and pictures to show the concepts. Use the book that is provided with the curriculum, it will give you teacher's aides to guide you with instruction. If you do not feel comfortable with the instruction, there are many support groups and training programs that will get you more familiar with the subject.
There are many math curriculums for home schooling to choose from, it is hard to narrow it down to what will work for your family when home schooling. Here are a few suggestions for some good math curriculum:
Horizons Maths - This uses colorful pictures and each of the lessons has different topics.
Modern Curriculum Press - This is based for grades K-6 and uses simple instruction that is easy to follow for home schooling parents.
Saxon Maths - Great for high school students and is very popular in the home schooling community.
These are just a few suggestions to get you started on your search for the right math curriculum.
You might be thinking - how do I choose with so many options? Maths curriculum is usually mastery based or spiraling, which means most problems are review and new content is not practiced often during the day. For many parents who home school, cost is a large factor when choosing a home school curriculum. Many places sell used curriculum, which is a great deal for those on a budget. If you are teaching younger children, you might want to take into consideration choosing books that are colorful rather than black and white. Even older students prefer this, it keeps them focused when looking at charts and graphs in color rather than black and white. If you are new to home schooling, you might want to choose a home school curriculum that includes teacher's guides. These are extremely helpful for those that are new or not very familiar with math in general. Another consideration is the religious aspect, for math this is usually not an issue, but if you want to teach religious based you will be able to find curriculum to fit your needs.
If you find the math curriculum you have chosen is not working for your child, you have a few options. The first is to purchase a new one, though this can be quit costly. You can also take a break from doing math for a week to a month and then revisit it to see if you can work with the content. If you feel like you are doing the same exercises over and over, skip some of them and move on. Try doing some of the home school curriculum online; your child may like the interactive nature. Regardless of what curriculum you choose, make it work with what your family and children need.