Learning to Live with Math

If you have read past posts here, it is no surprise to hear that math has been our most challenging subject. With dyslexia, you may guess that reading would fit that bill. But, no, once we knew what we were dealing with, we got over that hurdle relatively easily (although not quickly - slow and steady wins the race). Accommodation is key. But, dyslexia can affect more than just reading.

In the same way that learning to read is contingent on readiness, I believe a certain level of maturity is required to move into the more abstract concepts of math. And, as with anything, this is not necessarily associated with reaching a certain age. This is why one size education does not fit all. Some kids take longer to reach that ability. This year we seem to have finally reached a point where we can truly move forward.

This year we have seen a huge growth in maturity and a huge improvement in his ability to work with numbers. When we got stuck with Math-U-See, I decided to hop over to Easy Peasy's Middle School Math, Step 1, and work through that for a while. I had the intention of going back to Math-U-See when we got to fractions again, but he is doing pretty well with Easy Peasy. So, we're just going to keep trucking along.

We are in the "Fractions" Section of the page linked above and need to get all the way through the list (Fractions, Decimals and Percents; Ratios and Proportions; and Exponents) before we can start Algebra. So we'll be plugging away at that through the summer, and maybe into next year. But when we get through all that, we do not need to delay algebra any longer. We can dive right into VideoText Interactive's Algebra, A Complete Course, which begins with pre-algebra.

I do not expect the young man to love this program. I really don't expect him to love any program since he'd rather just not do the math. But, I do expect that he will be able to understand the math. The visual aspects of this program are a huge benefit. Another key aspect for us was the lessons being taught one small bite at a time. And the main focus is not just to learn the formulas - but to understand why you are using them.

One thing I've learned this year is the need to tackle a concept from different angles or perspectives when we get stuck. In addition to Easy Peasy, I also have a subscription to Math Antics. When we get stuck, I have him pop over there and view how Rob and Jeremy teach the concept and work through the printable worksheets. Then we pop back over to Kahn Academy and do the lesson there again. It has also been very helpful to have our math tutor friend go over concepts his way from time to time. 

I intend to continue to use this strategy once we move into algebra. We will work through VideoText and utilize Math Antics and other resources (Kahn Academy, YouTube) when we get stuck. And hopefully, our math tutor friend will continue to be available. He has been a Godsend. 

I hope sharing some of our math stories is encouraging to others that have similar struggles. Mainly, be patient. Your struggling student may just need to grow and mature. Continue to provide opportunities to work with numbers in real life and try lots of different strategies for figuring things out. Even if you find you are dealing with dyscalculia, I believe your student can, in time, learn how to live in a world of numbers.

Hello Again

I have not been here in a while. In all honesty, I have been on the fence as to whether I should continue with the young man heading into high school. I think I can still share about homeschooling in hopes of encouraging others out there and maybe even help someone find a resource they were needing. But I probably do need to change how much detail I share about the young man, himself. We'll see how that goes.

So we pretty much did follow the plans I had for his year 8. Not surprisingly, math has continued to be a challenge and we've tried different things. But I'll get to that later. I do need to say that we did not start high school yet this year. As we started to look at what his goals are and what it's going to take to aim for those, we decided to take another year before starting high school. So, this has been a level-up year that we've called year 8.5. And since it is already April, I can safely say it has been a good year and he has met the challenge to level-up.

The first thing we did this year was to switch to another co-op so he could take a photography class. In this co-op, he also took General Science and a literature class. In addition to the co-op, he took an English class at our local One Day Academy designed for getting up to high school level writing. Yes, that is four outside classes. At home, we did math, Foundations from Easy Peasy, and history.

Having four outside classes proved rather challenging for both of us. But we learned a lot from each class and they helped us meet our objective to level-up. We learned some things that work for him that I never thought would be a good idea, like IEW style writing instruction. We also learned some things that didn't work so well, like charts and tests for vocabulary study. He has learned how to study more effectively from the General Science class. His favorite class was photography and I believe he will continue that.

For math, we started the year with Math-U-See Epsilon. While we didn't stick with that, it did help us over that wall with fractions. Once we did that, the way he was teaching seemed to confuse him. So I switched over to Easy Peasy's middle school Step 1 math, which primarily uses Khan Academy. We also had a friend from church offer to tutor him. While it's been slow, he has continued to make progress and I believe working through the summer will have him to a point where he'll be able to start algebra in the fall. That's huge y'all!

Our mantra for the next couple of months is, "Finish strong!" I have enjoyed watching him grow in both his academic and athletic abilities. As I am beginning to plan for next year I am excited to see the directions his interests take and watch him continue to grow. High school, here we come!