Pebblekeeper

So – 6th grade math. Here is where we are today.  A walk of faith. Resourcefulness with our Resources.  One thing we have lived by during this homeschool journey, is faith. Faith that God will provide the resources when there is a need. We have received/found an eclectic assortment. Sometimes the product comes the day after a thought is born, but a prayer has not been offered. Sometimes the day before. Our experience, after nine years of trusting – is that my God, is heavily invested into this journey with me.  That said,

It is not always easy.  I ask for advice and people give solutions that cost hundreds of dollars. I do have a wonderful source for scholarship money for necessities, and am not shy in asking. However, I want to make sure that when I ask – it is a proven block that is needed for the wall. Not a potted plant, or an ornate addition to the wall, but a building block. So –

I realize that if I were to purchase Teaching Textbooks 6 and 7 my struggle would mostly be over. However, I’m in the middle of the year, with no younger children to pass down. Purchasing a half year’s worth seems a bit much. Same with Math U See. I think it would help, but again, mid year. We may have the opportunity to receive a MUS product in the spring – but my eyes will be on Algebra 2.

Asking myself,

What works? Videos for the instructor. Warm up exercises. Clear exercises to practice the new skill today. A few follow up problems for memory but not every day.

I downloaded the Table of Contents for Teaching Textbooks, Horizon Math and Saxon 7/6.

Sitting on the couch last evening  – made up skill categories, and placed the lesson numbers in each section.

One comment from earlier this week – “Saxon isn’t spiral – It’s ADHD.” Can you see that in the lesson topics? Order of Operations is two lessons. #5 and #84. Huh? Factors moves from 19 to 30, to 56 to 88.  What? Spiral Lessons, followed up by Spiral Practice. Fractions to Capacity to Area of a Triangle to Ratio to Bisectors? No wonder we hit a wall!

In Teaching Textbooks, the lesson topics are presented as Mastery, but the practice problems are given as spiral. At least every day, one builds on yesterday.

Horizons was harder to follow. It seemed to mimic more of the Pubic School Scope and Sequence – more words than explanations. More ideas than solid skills. Very strange combinations of skills presented. But this helped me as well. After looking at the Knowledge Map for Khan, the Table of Contents for EnVisionMath (Public school book), and many others – there really isn’t a clear path for 6th grade. Each publication had different ideas of how much time to spend on topics. Some were heavy on the basic 4 – add/subtract/multiply/divide. Some heavy on Fractions/Primes/Percents. Some heavy on Geometry. Khan seemed to be the most eager to set up the 6th grader to perform Algebra 1 the next year.

I’ll stop here – and write the next post on what we will actually do with all of this information. Still there with me? Cool.