I know how intimidating the thought of teaching math at home can be. When our family began homeschooling over 9 years ago, my greatest fear was having to teach math to my girls. And I don’t say that lightly. When I was in school, which was quite a long time ago, math was my most dreaded subject. So, naturally, I didn’t look forward to the idea of teaching it. Afterall, how could I teach the very subject I struggled with the most? (There’s a reason I frequent the calculator on my iPhone!)
In spite of my original terror at the thought of having to teach math at home I have great news for you. There are excellent resources to make teaching math at home completely manageable – even for me. And if I can do it you can do it too!
When Brooklyn was in kindergarten, I vividly remember having a conversation with my good friend Ashley, whose daughter was in 3rd grade at the time. She told me about a math program called Teaching Textbooks. I actually wrote it on a piece of paper and filed it away in my school file box so that I wouldn’t forget about this revolutionary math program and the answer to my math problems (pun intended). When we hit 3rd grade I was ready! I new the answer to our homeschool math needs. We could finally use this fantastic tool and could focus on the things I love most like reading to my girls, studying history, playing games, and spending time outdoors with them. I have to admit that even though I couldn’t wait to get started, I knew I could effectively teach kindergarten, first grade, and second grade math skills while we waited.
As soon as we could, our family jumped on the Teaching Textbooks bandwagon and we have never looked back. We LOVE Teaching Textbooks! The program is so well thought out and executed. It’s easy to access. The concepts are clearly explained. It’s fun and interactive. It’s visually appealing, especially to its young users and, I don’t have to grade math papers or keep track of grades. The program does it all for me. I honestly couldn’t ask for anything more. And my girls love it too!
I asked my girls what they thought about Teaching Textbooks and here’s what they had to say about it:
I love the interaction from the instructor and the fun, animated characters. It’s easy to understand and I like how short the lessons are. I also like the “encouragement” from the automated program when I get a problem right.
– Brooklyn (age 14)
“I like how it’s fun and how it makes math seem so easy. And I like that I can do it on my own. I like how I can put little characters up and check my grade book anytime.”
– Lacey (age 9)
One of the greatest blessings of homeschooling is that we are able to teach for MASTERY. While students in a school classroom are forced to move at the pace of the rest of the class, homeschool students are able to spend extra time to really learn the subjects that they are struggling with or move ahead if they are excelling in a subject. This is especially important with math, as math is progressive. Math concepts build on themselves and if you miss steps as you are learning you will definitely struggle with learning more complicated concepts in the future. In my experience, Teaching Textbooks has been great in this area. At times, my daughters have been able to move more quickly or slowly through lessons, without feeling rushed or frustrated. This has allowed my girls to actually enjoy learning math – something that I was never able to do!
If you are looking for a solid math program for 3rd grade throug Pre-Calculus, Teaching Textbooks is definitely worth looking into. The program is very reasonably priced, and they even offer a large-family plan.
You can even try the first 15 lessons for FREE! If you are considering which math curriculum to use, take advantage of the Free Trial of the first 15 lessons of any Teaching Textbooks level. This means you will have access to their lectures, their audiovisual solutions (to each problem), their eBook, and the automated grading feature. You have nothing to lose.
If you haven’t tried Teaching Textbooks yet, you’re missing out! Give it a try and let me know what you and your kids think.
Photo by Science in HD on Unsplash
We feel the highest responsibility to faithfully serve and support the homeschool community. One of the ways we do this is by recommending the BEST homeschooling curriculum, products, and services. We use every product we recommend, and we paid for these products for many years before we ever received any free products or financial support from the companies we recommend. We would like to thank Teaching Textbooks for sponsoring the Homegrown Generation Family Expo and for sponsoring The Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast in the past. Their support of the homeschool community is greatly appreciated. While they are a valued sponsor they are a PRIZED RESOURCE that we couldn’t live without!
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