More on Everyday Math and How to Get Help

Wow, I just came across a great resource for math help. It is called Kitchen Table Math and was started by two moms concerned about their childrens' math achievement because of the town's adoption of the Everyday Math curriculum. They have taken to using the Saxon Math curriculum at home -- a far greater personal commitment than what I am currently making with my daughter by using Aleks. Please check it out.

BTW, I'll be writing more about this, but my daughter made it into the "accelerated" math class for next year based on three things: her test score, her grades, and her teacher's recommendation. What a difference working with a traditional curriculum makes! Of course, her success will be attributed to the Everyday Math curriculum. But helping my daughter is much more important than "proving" a curriculum is broken for a lot of kids.

For background, read this If Your School Has Everyday Math -- especially if you don't have the time to devote to the problem or the knowledge of math that the Kitchen Table moms do.

However, I plan to read Kitchen Table Math every day -- and also get my hands on those drill work sheets, including the fraction worksheets and the fraction square manipulatives that they talk about.

Comments

[Catherine Johnson]

Thank you so much for the very kind mention!

This makes my day!

And congratulations on your daughter's move to the accelerated track! I'm going to check out ALEKS right away.

Yes, Carolyn and I both came to the conclusion that we should teach our own separate curricula at home, alongside and in addition to the school curriculum.

In my case, I was motivated at first by a desire to do what you've done, which is to boost Christopher onto the accelerated track, but starting from a position of his having failed the last two major units of 4th grade math. (His school was using SRA Mathematics, which is not a 'fuzzy' text, but is quite difficult to teach from).

I had read MATH COACH, by Wayne Wickelgren, who said that when a parent wants to accelerate his or her child in math, he or she should teach the child 1/3 of the content of the accelerated course before he joins the class . . .

This meant I needed to do a lot in a brief period of time.

The only possible way to go was to institute an intensive home program using my own text and setting my own (fast) pace.

(This worked, by the way. I began teaching Christopher last July, and he moved to the accelerated class in February.)

As I've gone along, though, I've come to feel that teaching one's own mathematics curriculum at home is a good thing to be doing for other reasons, as well (not least of which is the fact that most American math curricula just aren't very good).

Thanks so much----what a terrific site you have!