What are you doing right now with math? Are you using a cirrriculum or winiging it? Are they stedily improving or are they stagnet. if they are steadily improving but everyone is a grade or two behind the test will only reflec tthe behind and not the fact that everyne s steadily improving. how are thier basic skills. really that is all you need. the rest is covered in freshman level college classes. If you aren't using a cirriculum maybe adding that to your routien will help. Your children aren't very old right. a little practice everyday goes a long way in my opinion. also on the upside if they are all at the same level you can do stuff as a group. That will make it easier. My oldest dd sucks at math. She doesn't see patterns and mathis all about p[atters and building on those patterns. she can't even distinquish a + from a - from a * or / . they are all the same to her. I am not to worried. I doubt she will ever feel led to a career in a mathmatics laden field and that is OK with me. As long as she has enough to balance a check book, figure out how much the muffin mix is per ounce, how much a dress is at 35% off, and how much tax on an item is she will get along just fine. anything she really needs to know for college or whatever can be learned at a college level. Alsoif she is still counting on her fingers at 30, like her mama, I won't hold it against her. i know it isn't my teaching because her 4 year old sister was answering the questions the other day. My goal is to prepare them for life, not the ivy league. that is thier responsibility if it is thier desire. kids can do amazing things in short amounts of time when properly motivated. I don't think you need to go crazy and buckle down or anything but perhaps doing some decided math work 3-5 days a week isn't a bad idea (as I recall you are not an unschooler right). I found a scope and sequence very helpful I go through periodically and check off everything they know, ask about the things I am unsure of, inform them of simple things "hey did you know . . . well now you do . . . " and make a point of addressing everything else or seeing that our math cirriculum does address it at some point (we use miquon which goes all out of order). A couple of good ones are the hirsh books "what your . . . needs to know." I find these every where for $6 in hard back. Not a bad deal at all since all the information you need is actually contained in the books so it is easy to say "oh hey, are you familiar with this fairy tale? listen up . . . " or "did you know this science fact? well check it out . . .". they have all of the math stuff too. Another good basic one is "The McGraw Hill homeschool Companion" a very basic check list and over all good resourse. we also use some of thier workbooks. they are cheap at sams, reletively comprehensive for language arts and math and under $10 at sams club. The topics are also introduced and explained very well and I hardly have to teach her anything as they move so smoothly that she just gets it (the child who just doesn't get anything). and she thinks they are fun too.
