Fall 2020

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FALL 2020 HOMESCHOOL IOWA 7
manipulatives, etc., from the earlier concepts to help her 13 year-old
succeed in the Algebra course.
Kelli K. chimed in and said, “We love Math U See!” She went on to
say that the kids would need the student workbooks for whichever
level they were starting at, and added, “We really loved the blocks at
the younger ages. It helped cement concepts for the kids. As the teacher,
you will want the DVD for instruction and the teacher’s manual. You do
not need the books in between. They [Math U See] do have manipu-
latives for fractions and even Algebra, but you don’t necessarily need
those. We didn’t use them.”
In another discussion about Math U See, Jennifer B. said, “I have
used Math U See since I started homeschooling 23 years ago. Steve
Deme uses manipulative blocks and skip counting throughout the
whole program. It really makes learning easy. My oldest son received
an engineering degree from ISU, and we did Math U See from the be-
ginning to end. There is a daily video he teaches the children before
each lesson, and he’s great. There are only a few areas in his curriculum
I find a bit counterproductive and confusing, but overall, it’s great. It’s
called Math U See because you can see it with blocks, etc. math makes
more sense to me now too!”
Cathy S., Homeschool Iowa’s Regional Representative Coordina-
tor, said that her family switched to Math U See for a variety of rea-
sons and really enjoyed the curriculum and the way it approached
learning math concepts, “It was the one we stayed with once we
changed.” And Holly D. said, “Ditto, Cathy!” adding, “Math U See has
helped my teens self-teach as they got into upper math. They are far
beyond my own capacity.”
In response to a question about how to help your kids memorize
math facts, Nicole L. said that one thing she likes about Math U See
is the strategies they teach for each group of math facts. She says,
“After my kids finish the lessons on a certain number (like +9), the fol-
lowing week I use those facts on flash cards once each day for the fol-
lowing week or until they’re fluent... Math U See has strategies for each
groups of facts. These aren’t the strategies I learned as a kid but they
seem to work well for both of my kids. When they’re stuck on a fact, I
can remind them of the strategy. Math U See also has an online fact
practice generator. If they’re struggling with a fact, I also write themon
a card and display it on the fridge. I can quiz them throughout the day.”
As a contrast to the Math U See endorsements, Amy V. said, ”I se-
riously dislike Math U See, and the videos really didn’t help my child
understand, so I would have to backtrack and teach anyway. Of course,
everyone loves something different, but that was our experience. We
have moved on to Saxon this year, and it is my favorite of the three we
have tried (Math U See, Singapore, and Saxon).”
Saxon:
Elle S. recommends Saxon as an option that teaches Math in a
spiral method with DVDs for instruction. She said the curriculum in-
cludes “Lots of review, time-tests, andmental math. It worked very well
for my kids (now in college). It has a similar rigor that Singapore has
with great support resources.”
Christy H. adds, “I also really like Saxon. There are videos, but the
textbook was not daunting to teach from. Very little prep time on my
part. I’ve been pleased by how capable my daughter is in math. We are
entering 5th, homeschooled the entire time.”
Singapore:
Teresa O., our Region 8 Representative, recommends Singapore
math to new homeschoolers, starting with the placement tests, and
says, “Don’t be alarmed if your son tests at a lower number than you
are thinking he should. It isn’t aligned with the American Core Curricu-
lum Scope and Sequence. It is also wise to drop back one book than
placed to get a good confident start on the program. Zooming through
a workbook made them feel like superheroes.” Teresa went on to say
that “My college-graduated kids still talk about how much they liked
the way fractions, decimals, and ratios were presented.”
Many other members of our discussion group also use Singapore
math and appreciate the way the curriculum approaches mastery of
the different concepts.
Teaching Textbooks:
Tiffany K. asked if anyone uses Teaching Textbooks for math, and
received quite a bit of feedback. Alicia M. said, “I love that kids work
independently, allowing me time to work with other kids on other sub-
jects. Self-grading is an awesome option too.”
Charise D. likes that “Teaching Textbooks is not common core and
teaches the old way of doing math.“ Dale Gamache added, “I love
Teaching Textbooks! It worked excellently for my child that lovedmath,
and worked superbly for my child that really struggled with math.”
Others:
There were many other options mentioned throughout the con-
versations as well, including the math courses from popular “all-
in-one” or “boxed curriculum” companies where you can purchase
everything you need for a year or pick and choose what subjects to
purchase separately, such as Masterbooks, Bob Jones Press, ABeka,
Khan Academy, and EasyPeasy. For younger students, many veteran
homeschoolers recommend the Montessori approach offered by
Right Start Math, Shiller and Miquon. Additionally, basic math work-
books are often recommended, including those from Horizon Math,
BrainQuest, and 180 Days of Math.
EachMonday intheHomeschool IowaDiscussionGrouponFacebook,wehavea featurewecall“AcrosstheStreet
& Around the State.” We ask questions and seek to learn more about each other. We know that not everyone sees
thosepostsonFacebook,sowedecidedtobringthatdiscussiontothemagazine,choosingsomeofourmostpopular
topics to share and expand on. For this issue, we’re talking about math curriculum! In the next couple of issues, we
will talk about language arts, history, and other electives. If you have resources to recommend please email them to
us at so that we can include your recommendations in the discussion.
Teaching Math with an Abacus:
Jodie H. asked the group one day last fall, “Does anyone teach
math using the abucus?”
Kimberly M. said that her younger elementary girls enjoy using
their IKEA version abacus, and Jennifer B. said that they use a Me-
lissa and Doug abacus (10 rows of 10) to teach their children to
count and to add, and said that it “really helpedmy dyslexic son to be
able to see an example as we learned how to count, and it was super
convenient and not messy.”
Jodie continued to do some research on teaching Math with an
abacus and on how the Chinese learn math. In her research, she
discovered some helpful YouTube channels and shared those with
us, summarizing the process by saying, “You have to learn compli-
mentary numbers in order to add or subtract. I am only through the
first few videos, but this is really cool mathematical thinking. It is said
that those who learn the abacus can compute mentally very quickly.”
Check out the YouTube channels Jodie shared and tell us if you
use an abacus to teach math, or if you learned math with the aid
of an abacus! Email your answer to .
YouTube Channels:
The HEV Project - Abacus Playlist
AnkMitra Abacus & Maths by Mandar Sherbet