Almost done with Miquon...

[Hera]

...and I can't believe it! They grow up so fast, sigh...

I'm trying to figure out where to go from here. Dd is pretty smart with math, she's doing fine. We could probably stand to do more arithmetic drill (times tables and such) but we can do that on our own. More workbook pages like that will drive her nuts, she's ready for pre-algebra.

I'm looking at Life of Fred, it seems like it might be fun...but I do not want to have to dodge religion. Can any non-religious homeschoolers chime in with their opinions of this program?

Thanks!

[moominmamma]

We have not found any religious stuff in Life of Fred. Besides the author's dedication on the title page, quoting Bach in Latin (with English translation), dedicating the work to the greater glory of God.

Miranda

[theretohere]

I don't think I've heard about anything religious in it, just that kids love it.

[Lillian J]

You didn't mention how old she is - this may be a lot more than you're looking for - but for pre-algebra, there's a nice little program designed for children around 3rd grade level and up - it uses a placemat with a picture of balance scale, dice, and pawns: Hands-on Equations. It comes with worksheets, but she wouldn't need to get into all that to have some fun with it.

Here's a YouTube piece with an 8 yr. old demonstrating.

Lillian

[LionTigerBear]

When I was a kid, I did Miquon, and then switched to Saxon. I hated it. Hope you find something that works for both of you!

[moominmamma]

We went from Miquon to Singapore 3A through 6B because my kids were quite young and I didn't feel they were ready for pre-algebra, having not formally studied any multi-digit computation algorithms nor done much work with fractions, decimals and percents. (I must confess I'm not quite clear on what pre-algebra is, not being familiar with the US scope & sequence, but I was under the perhaps mistaken impression that pre-algebra was not the place where these things were introduced.) Anyway, we loved loved loved Singapore. They were certainly ready for it and breezed through the four years' worth of it quickly, in the space of a year or two, then went directly into algebra.

We do love hands-on equations. It's an introduction to algebraic problem-solving for young children (they say ages 8-12, but my almost-6yo who is just starting Singapore 3A is loving it). Limited in scope, but very fun and brilliantly realized.

Miranda

[Mallory]

My 9yo is about to finish Miquon.

We are going to do a few months of manipulative things that we have.
Activity guides for dominos, geoboards, base ten sets, ect.

Then I think we are going to do Life of Fred. I am athiest, but this ds is very christian, so I might not have noticed things that might bother you, because he enjoys a little religion

[mama-aya]

We're almost finished with Miquon too, and we're doing the Key To Measurement books this year. DS (3rd grade) LOVES them even more than Miquon- still hands on, but with TONS of real-worls kinds of questions and applications. I wish I'd bought the whole series- well, next year.
FWIW- he is 8, and tested at the beginning of this year 7th-12th grade for math, and is just now thinking that actually memorizing the times tables and basic math facts might be a good idea. So we're working on that, too. But the Key To series is so far very cool, inexpensive, and simple, non-cartoony black and white pages, really well thought out problems and sequence, interesting for my kid- with good math sense, but not so dry and textbooky that a third grader can't keep up.
If you ask him math is NOT his favorite subject, not even close, but for some reason he ASKS to do the Key To books even when I don't have it scheduled.

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by mama-aya

We're almost finished with Miquon too, .... and tested at the beginning of this year 7th-12th grade for math

Holy toledo, that's amazing! Has he worked through advanced concepts in geometry, algebra and trig in informal ways? I'd love to find non-curricular ways to help my youngest learn some of that more advanced content. She's also an end-of-Miquon kid. Have you got any suggestions?

Miranda

[Hera]

7th grade sounds about right for the end of Miquon...

Thanks for the replies, guys. I'm thinking that we're going to check out the Life of Fred fractions book to begin, but also spend some time on a few things that are still a little weak- multiplication tables and long division, primarily.

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by Hera

7th grade sounds about right for the end of Miquon...

I thought it was a 1st- to 3rd-grade program.

Miranda

[momtokea]

I thought it was a 1st- to 3rd-grade program.

Yes, that is what I thought, too. I'm pretty sure that is how it is 'advertised', two books per year from 1st to 3rd grade.
We use Miquon and it certainly doesn't line up with our provincial curriculum, it is way advanced. But we love it, I think it's a brilliant program.

[mama-aya]

Yep, Miquon is 1st-3rd. I think it is ahead of the public school curriculum around here, though. They're bigger on memorizing than we have been, but way behind on math sense, and real-world application.
I was really anxious about whether DS would even meet the local standards for his grade in math, since he doesn't really have much math memorized, hates oral math drill type questions, and didn't have any experience taking tests.
So... as far as advanced math stuff I'm kind of at a loss- just trying to keep up with my kid, you know? Wondering how long I can put off paying a math tutor without stunting his growth.... This year we're happy with practical math of the waldorf curriculum- measurement, time, money- there's a lot there. But after this? Yikes. I'm counting on the rest of the Key To series to keep up.
Mondays we have a Waldorfy-style math story I make up-, (a lot of times these are about basic math facts, not anything very advanced at all) or a story chapter, pick out all of the math problems we can find, and work through them hands on, draw a picture, etc... Wednesday and Friday we do workbook stuff, sometimes more often. Every day starts with a logic problem, complicated story problem, or a paper-folding challenge, something like that. That's probably his favorite part of the day. He comes up with these questions all the time-well, bedtime, usually (dividing zero/dividing by zero, changing a ball into a triangle or a square) and we just try and work it out, to see what would happen.
And I love the Living Math site and yahoo group for ideas that I would probably never come up with on my own.

[Roar]

We had a Miquon kid too. I liked the look of Keys and bought them but ultimately was frustrated with some of the explanations which just didn't seem to be very good for our math curious kid. For a kid with lots of interest and ability in math I'd suggest the Challenge Math books by Ed Zaccaro.

[larksongs]

Originally Posted by LionTigerBear

When I was a kid, I did Miquon, and then switched to Saxon. I hated it. Hope you find something that works for both of you!

I think that using Saxon as a stand alone would KILL math for my son. I got 6/5 for my 8 yr old and had to bypass some chapters. I think the practice that the kit contains is good, and I think the arithmetic practice it contains is good for practicing arithmetic but there is no 'ooh-la-la" to it kwim?For the 'ooh -la-la' I use a host of other books from logic puzzles , to books like the Number Devil, or Singapore New Elementary Mathematics and so on and so forth. I worry that Saxon alone would get very dull for my son and make it just a chore to get through each day.

[tankgirl73]

You might also look into RightStart. It's great for hands-on kids and isn't "worksheety". If she's truly "finished" a regular elementary level curriculum, then she'd be ready for their "Intermediate" program. It's really cool -- instead of going into "pre-algebra" and focusing just on manipulating equations and arithmetic operations and all that, its basis is in geometry. The kids use a drawing board and tools (like the t-quare and 30/60 triangle) to explore 2-d shapes and patterns and concepts, and there are constructive tiles for exploring 3-d shapes.

The concepts like equations and artihmetic manipulation and all that, come OUT OF the explorations with geometry, rather than being stand-alone. So IMO it's much more interesting for kids of this age. The Intermediate program is intended to cover an entire middle-school curriculum, after which they're probably ready for high school programs, with 'pure' algebra and all that.

If, on the other hand, your dd is still a bit weak in some elementary concepts, then you can do one or two lower levels first. That's what we're doing with DS, he's technically finished grade 6 (Teaching Textbooks) and had started Pre-Algebra, but that course was just too dry for him and he was bored and disappointed (he had loved the grade 6 program and looked forward to Pre-Algebra). We're doing level E in RightStart now, and finding he needed a lot more reinforcement than I realized. He's memorized and forgotten his times tables so many times lol... but now he's learning them in different ways, exploring the patterns in more interesting terms and it's just so great. We'll be going to Geometry after this and can't wait to draw his math all the time!