Homeschool Math Curriculum Guide

Our homeschool math curriculum guide gives a taster of the options available to you, recognizing that every child is different and what suits one homeschooling family may well not suit yours.

One thing you can be sure: it's easy to waste money on an expensive homeschooling math curriculum so look before you leap!

A very experienced Maths teacher has this to say:

"When I started teaching Maths, I spent hours...looking for the perfect textbook. I just assumed that, given the fact that children have been learning sums for hundreds...of years, someone must have written the perfect textbook by now."

"Eventually I came to understand that no such thing can ever exist. Each child approaches maths from their own perspective and you have to react accordingly."(Gareth Lewis, Unqualified Education.)

So the only thing you can do is take a good look at the homeschool math curriculum available to you and use that as a guide to what to try.

What's the best math curriculum you've found? - Click here to share...

Let's start with a guide to the problems you need to be aware of when you come to compare the main homeschool math curriculum choices:

• Buying a homeschool math curriculum can be really expensive. Do you really need one? You'll see from our Fun Math Activities pages that for years we have done homeschool maths perfectly fine without using a curriculum.

  The photo of Mah-jongg says it all; we started playing when Catherine was 7 - so I suppose I could write a guide to the games that formed our homeschool math curriculum!

  Homeschool is one-to-one; this is not a teacher with a class. If you have too many battles trying to follow the a maths curriculum your child isn't interested in you could end up giving up homeschooling altogether.

• Having said that, it's very clear to me that a homeschool math curriculum guide has to take account of the fact that the best way to learn math varies - not only according to your child but also their age. What doesn't suit your child now may work fine when they're older.

William hated maths workbooks when he was younger. Now he's High School age he really likes following a math curriculum and answering workbooks.

Your Guide To Homeschool Math Curriculum

Here's a guide to the main curriculum choices available to homeschool parents:

• Saxon Math (Grades 1-12). Probably the most popular homeschool choice. Uses an incremental, systematic approach with lots of repetition to re-enforce learning - good for some, boring for others.
• Horizons Math (Grades K-6). A curriculum which follows a 'spiral-learning' format, introducing new concept(s) each lesson as well as revising of old material. Colorful. Teaching manual not very comprehensive.
• Math-U-See (Grades 1-12). Invented by a homeschool Dad teaching maths with blocks so you can 'see' the concepts first. Comes with a teaching DVD. Books are basic black and white format.
• Switched-on-Schoolhouse (Grades 3-12). A computer-based curriculum on a CD-Rom. Can be difficult to follow the explanation to problems.
• Abeka Math curriculum (Grades K-12). Uses a spiral method with lots of revision of topics in the early grades.
• Singapore Math (Grades 1-10). Probably considered more challenging, focusing on mental maths and problem solving. Comes with Home Instructor's Guides for each level.
• RightStart Mathematics (Grades K-4). Hands-on visual curriculum using the AL abacus and Maths Card Games.
• Modern Curriculum Press (Grades K-6). Inexpensive, simple maths workbooks.
• Miquon Math (Grades 1-3). Stimulates creative thinking with exploration and observation. Not much revision of topics.
• Harold Jacobs (Grades 9-12). Popular for High School.
• MathsWhizz (ages 5-13). Another online maths tutoring system. It's worked really well for friends of mine.
• William likes Letts and Lonsdale books. They go all the way up from Wizard Whimstaff at Key Stage 1 to the GCSE series. Catherine hasn't liked anything yet!



• ConquerMaths (ages 11-16). I am on a homeschooling forum for parents looking for the best homeschool curriculum and resources, and ConquerMaths has many followers. It's for ages 11-16 (KS3 and KS4) and takes you up to the UK GCSE standard with 10 minute lessons complimented with marked worksheets and progress reports. If you click on this link and use my voucher code HSACTIVITIES you get a 40% discount.

This gives a homeschool math curriculum guide to some of your main choices. You can get a very good in-depth guide to each curriculum here: Homeschool Math.

The important step now is to let us know how you've got on; you'll save others from making expensive mistakes.

What's the best maths curriculum you've found? - Click here to share...

Homeschool Math Curriculum Guide: How To Choose

Some things to consider:

• Cost.
• Will the curriculum you choose work with your other children too? (you can save a lot of money that way). Can you buy it used?
• Can you try it out first or borrow it from a friend?
• Will you have to do a lot of teaching, or could your child do a lot of the maths by themselves? What are the parent's instructions like?
• Does it look appealing to your child?
• Does your child like repetition and spiraling or do they get bored easily?

Homeschooling is all about helping each other. I'd love you to add to this homeschool math curriculum guide by sharing how you teach maths to your child, what works and what doesn't.

What's The Best Math Curriculum You've Found?
Tell Us...

It's very hard to choose the right math curriculum for your child. It would be great if you could let us know how you got on so others can benefit. What's worked for your children? What didn't? What advice would you give to others thinking of using the curriculum you chose? Please tell us...

Find out what homeschool math curriculum other visitors recommend

Click below to see what other visitors think about the homeschool math curriculum they've tried..

New! Comments