The importance of a strong homeschool math curriculum
Homeschooling gives you the chance to implement an independent math curriculum for your student that suits your needs and interests. We feel that interesting problems, with context and connection to the world, can make all the difference in nurturing a student’s enthusiasm and interest. Working together with other students on problems also maintains a sense of camaraderie, accountability and collaboration, and this can be achieved in a homeschool program too.
A rich math curriculum for homeschool should
- be developmentally-appropriate,
- give your student the tools they need to understand complex math ideas and learn important creative problem-solving skills,
- spark an enthusiasm for learning.
It should help homeschooled students develop mathematical thinking, improve their analytical skills, and establish solid math skills for life, college and the workplace. It should also simply feed their overall life skills like determination, overcoming adversity, and general problem-solving skills.
Overcoming the challenges
Homeschool math teaching can be overwhelming!
Teaching at home gives you independence, but finding high quality math teaching materials is time-consuming and perhaps intimidating. Some curricula will follow the Common Core Curriculum, some will emphasize drilling or repetitive skills practice, and others will take a more discovery-based approach and focus on developing mathematical thinking over skills practice.
By choosing the best math curriculum for your homeschooling approach and your student’s needs, you can ensure they develop important thinking and problem-solving capacities, as well as learn the specific skills they need to succeed in their journey.
Jamie York Academy Homeschool Math Curriculum
Jamie York Academy offers meaningful, content-rich, developmentally-appropriate online math courses for homeschool students taught by master teacher Jamie York. We combine recorded lectures with live teacher-led sessions and live student working groups to maximize the benefits of online learning while building community and student interaction.
Which homeschool math curriculum is best?
The best homeschool math curriculum for your student depends on his or her needs and learning styles. The marketplace is full of math programs with different approaches and emphases, each with its pros and cons, and it’s worth understanding the differences in those approaches before deciding on which to use.
Below are some programs that cover grades 1-12 worth considering.
Jamie York’s Making Math Meaningful™
Grade Levels: 1-12
Key Features: Learn to think mathematically, discovery/problem-solving approach, developmentally appropriate, Waldorf-based
Live Teaching/Tutoring: Yes
Parent Involvement: Parent as “tutor” supporting our teaching
Student Community/Collaboration: Yes
Math-U-See
Grade Levels: K-12
Key Features: Mastery, concept-driven, heavy use of maniuplatives
Live Teaching/Tutoring: No
Parent Involvement: Minimal
Student Community/Collaboration: N/A
Saxon
Grade Levels: K-12
Key Features: Thorough drilling and skills repetition, incremental spiral approach
Live Teaching/Tutoring: No
Parent Involvement: Intensive (grade K-4), Minimal (after grade 4)
Student Community/Collaboration: N/A
A Parent’s Guide: Jamie York Academy and the Making Math Meaningful™ Program
The Jamie York Academy offers a 32-week online Math Academy for grades 5-12, using our Making Math Meaningful™ curriculum, developed over decades of teaching math in Waldorf schools and to teachers around the world.
We pride ourselves on our distinctive method, which we believe combines the benefits of online learning with social community and collaboration.
- Recorded lectures of Jamie’s outstanding lessons
- Teacher-led live sessions covering the material in the recordings
- Live, collaborative student group problem-solving sessions.
The Jamie York Academy bookstore has Making Math Meaningful™ teacher and student workbooks for every grade, as well as supplemental math books and free downloads. We also have recorded teacher workshops available online for teachers and homeschool teachers to learn the curriculum and gain insights into effective teaching methods.
What is the Making Math Meaningful™ Curriculum?
It is a developmentally-based math curriculum that strengthens basic skills, fosters mathematical thinking, and sparks enthusiasm for learning. Through workbooks, source books, and workshops for teachers, Jamie York’s mission is to inspire educators to bring real math into the classroom.
Major Goals
Yes, math skills are important, but there is much more to learning math than working on skills.
Our goals are for our students
- to be enthusiastic about learning math
- to learn how to think mathematically
- to develop solid math skills.
The Three-Year Plan
With important skills topics, we plan it so that it will take three years for students to master the material.
Example: fractions are introduced in 4th grade, practiced in 5th grade, and mastered in 6th grade.
Developmental Stages for Learning Math
What works for 6th graders, doesn’t really work for 3rd graders, nor does it work for 11th graders. That’s why we don’t use workbooks in grades 1-5. This is a time for students to develop a sense of number, to play with numbers, and develop a love of math. In grades 5-6, the students consolidate the skills they were introduced to earlier (like fractions and long multiplication). In grades 7-9, the “real math” begins as they learn to think more abstractly, setting the stage for algebra. In grades 10-12, their thinking explodes as they learn to think more logically and critically, and engage deeply in problem solving.
Why do we Wait?
Education is not a race. The goal is not simply to learn as much stuff as quickly as possible. Learning a topic before the child is developmentally ready, often leads to superficial understanding, and gives a general sense that math is a tedious, meaningless chore. While we do introduce most topics at normal ages, there are several topics where we consciously choose to wait. We find that the students are then more engaged, learn the material more readily, and are able to take the topic to a deeper, more advanced level.
The Role of the Teacher
We don’t produce textbooks. Why not? Many textbooks essentially spoon-feed the teachers so that they can then spoon-feed the students. We do provide workbooks for students and resources for teaching math. Ultimately, the teacher is the author of what happens during the lesson. Only the teacher can create the proper learning space for excitement and discovery in the math classroom. Homeschool parents can fill this role, or students can join us at the Math Academy along with their peers.
What about Homework?
If our greatest goal is to engender enthusiasm for learning, we have to ask if homework helps to achieve this. Certainly, homework should not become a drudgery! While I do believe that (starting in middle school) a modest amount of homework can be helpful (especially for reading and writing assignments), it is clear to me that the best place to practice math skills is at school, where students can collaborate together in the learning process, and the teacher is available to assist the students.
Be Aware of Fear
Many parents today are fearful that their child is falling behind in math. Sometimes this fear is rooted in the parent’s own troubled math past. Often the parent’s fear transforms into the child’s anxiety – anxiety which inhibits learning and can result in the child hating math. Remember that the primary goal is to develop enthusiasm for learning.
Standardized Testing
Our math curriculum is designed to “come together” in 11th grade so that the students are prepared to take the SAT or ACT at the end of 11th grade, which can be a great learning experience at that age. Preparing for these tests before 11th grade is not necessary, and can be detrimental. Likewise, I am not in favor of the students taking the PSAT or PLAN tests in 10th grade or at the start of 11th grade. For government exams in earlier grades, or (in the case of a 1-8 school) for math placement exams for high school, the teacher may need to supplement some extra material – but don’t sacrifice too much!
Key Homeschool Math Topics
Browse an in-depth look at our curricula for all grades on our website.
- Grade 1: Counting (in many ways!); 4 processes
- Grade 2: Place Value; Times Tables (2-12)
- Grade 3: Vertical (+,– ,x); Master Facts (9+5, 8×7, etc.)
- Grade 4: Fractions; Long Division; Review Facts
- Grade 5: Decimals; Wonder of Number; Skills Practice
- Grade 6: Skills Mastery; Percents; Business Math
- Grade 7: Algebra (intro); Ratios; Pythagorean Th.
- Grade 8: Number Bases; Volumes; Unit Conversions
- Grade 9: Algebra (fully); Possibility/Prob; Logarithms
- Grade 10: Proofs; Ancient Greek Geom; Trigonometry
- Grade 11: Cartesian Geometry; Complex Numbers
- Grade 12: Calculus; Philosophy of Math
Enroll now!
Your child can join a class at any point in the year. We will assist them to make sure there is a smooth transition into our program. We have yearly and monthly payment options available.
