N is for New

 

Spring is often a time when things are considered new.  The new babies being born on farms or in families.  The new buds on plants.  The hustle and bustle of the bees getting ready for the season. I love it all!

In the homeschool world it often means old.  The curriculum is almost done. Your kids have been working in many of the same books all year. 

Not here. 

We have some new math in the house!

I have recently purchased a variety of new curriculum.  I switched out Katey’s math.  We are going completely back to Math U See with her.  I used it with her, with all my kids actually, I just didn’t have the level she needed, so I put it off, not wanting to shell out the money.  But I ended up doing it anyways.  I bought it new from the company.

One struggle that I have with Katey’s math is that I have had a hard time teaching her the times tables.  Well, teaching them in itself has actually been easy.  She gets the concept amazingly well.  She just can’t memorize them.  It has been like this with addition and subtraction as well.  I have been drilling her, playing games with her and she plays Timez Attack often.  We just have to keep at it and she will get them. Right?

I also have finally got my hands on a few levels of Teaching Textbooks, something that I have always wanted to use for Emily.  She has been working at it, and I have been letting her “test out” of the first few quizzes of level 7, while I gauge where she is at with this math. 

Even though Summer is almost here I decided I didn’t want to hold off on starting these math programs until the Fall. 

Both girls will most likely be doing math all Summer, and since it is new math, they are actually both excited about it!

I am also back to my real normal life.  So I am resuming with my duties on The Homeschool Crew. So we have also had some new curriculum with them. 

Emily is very excited to be learning about Poetry from Moving Beyond the Page and I am excited to do a quick WWII study with the older kids.  I am hoping to peak their interest enough that we can continue it into a Summer study.