We are well into the new year and looking forward to thawing out after a very cold and snowy few months. These months have been full of change and surprises. My hubby started a new job, which was a welcome change since it would mean more money and a chance to save a little money too. I continued my part-time job that began last fall. Also a good change, although it does bring some craziness to our daily lives.
The other changes have been small, some personal and some educational. I have found a little time to explore my spiritual path. Wish I had more time for it but alas I will have to make due with late nights and stolen moments.
Homeschooling has offered up its own group of surprises. I, as always, began to plan for next year early. I like to have plenty of time to research all options when it comes to curriculum. This year is even more important since I will be planning for a high schooler. The surprise came along when I began searching math programs. I always look at the scope and sequence of each program and was in shock to find that many of the hs programs were very advanced vs. his programs this year.
He is just now getting into doing some real algebra and it is very basic at that. I sat down and discussed the situation with him since it is he who will be faced with the Algebra 1 next year. T was not surprised but concerned. So we decided to order a stronger pre-algebra curriculum to work through the rest of the year. I will start by testing him through the easy chapters and hitting the new material hard. What was hard to recognize was that the curriculum we were using was failing him. We were using Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra. I did a lot of research before I ordered it because it was so expensive. But even the best research will not prepare you for the real deal.
What brought all this to my attention was when Poogie was given TT 4 to try out. We use Saxon 3, so this was new and interesting for her. She loved it of course, it was really easy. I waited and waited for her to be challenged and so far that hasn't happened. Needless to say we did not stop using our Saxon program. But I did begin to look closer at T's TT to see if it too as behind. Not surprising it was.
So here I am mid February ordering new curriculum. I have ordered a few other things and made some more changes but will post that another day. Enjoy this warm weather.
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