Does this homeschooling curriculum seem crappy?

[alba]

For our 9th grader:

Illuminations 3, including Mystery of History 3

Friendly Chemistry

Key to Decimals and Key to Percents {and hopefully some pre-algebra}

Electives undecided.

If "electives" means the same to this family as it does to me - that is, a course that broadens the education but isn't fundamental - then there are serious gaps in the 9th-grader's basic education. The most glaring is the lack of any English study. Other arts like music are absent, but those fall under "electives" so I'll give that a pass.

As for the maths, I could manipulate decimals, fractions and percentages by the end of grade 5, and was doing algebra by grade 7. Either the curriculum is poor or the child struggles with these concepts and the parents are taking advantage of the flexibility of homeschooling to focus on them. I would hope it's the latter, but regardless with this level of maths I wonder why the only science being studied is chemistry. If the maths were likewise advanced I'd assume the student had already reached a basic level of competence in bio and physics and had chosen to only continue with chemistry. Without algebra, however, there would be gaping holes in the physics education and, while the student might have reached as far as s/he can learn without algebra, taking a 2-year break from physics until s/he can do the maths would be a mistake.

[NjoyingNsanity]

I think her kid is pretty far behind my oldest is going into 6th grade this year and she's already had two years of pre-algebra they did decimals and percentiles in thrid and fourth grade.

[smores]

Chemistry is mostly decimals and fractions and algebraic equations. No way is this going to go well if the kid only hopes to do some pre-algebra this year.

[AmyP]

This 9th grader seems a little behind to me. The curriculum choices don't seem bad, but they do seem more appropriate for middle school. Some 9th graders just aren't ready for high school level work, though. Without knowing the child's academic history its hard to say if this is low education standards, or a child who has had some learning difficulties and still needs to work at the 7th or 8th grade level. I'm more concerned about the lack of language arts in this curriculum. Perhaps this is an imcomplete list.

[chaotic life]

Well, the original post said this was the curriculum for next year so far. I assume it is not a comprehensive list thus far. Perhaps mom has identified weaknesses that need to be focused upon first and is then going to make her decisions on what other subjects she needs to tackle.

Personally, I had my stuff decided for my two middle schoolers by February. However, I am re-vamping some of how I normally handle kindergarden and have not yet made all of my decisions for my incoming Kinder kiddo. Her brothers finished their materials by March and already started into the materials for their new school year. She is just starting out so I'm still firming up exactly what I want to use with her. Specifically, I haven't decided if I am going to change what I normally use for Math or not. I need to do some more research before I make a final decision. So, if I listed what I've decided *so far* others would see the glaring gap in mathematics. That doesn't mean I'm going to fail to teach her math. It means I cannot decide if I want to use Saxon as I always have, or if I want to use MathUSee or Singapore Math---both of which would keep her more consistent with her likely caregiver in the following year where she would get some of her schooling while I return to work and school.

Honestly, it is my special needs children who I have kept in homeschooling at this point. My normal, at-grade level children were sent off to Public School where they are all honor roll students. So, someone not knowing the history, nor that I homeschooled successfully for a decade for ALL of my kids might see the two middle schoolers still homeschooled and assume I do a poor job educating children. Afterall, my incoming 6th grader only reads at an early 3rd grade level. They wouldn't see that he is severely dyslexic and this is HUGE progress from a year ago when he was stuck perpetually at an early first grade reading level. They would be very confused on why he is also pre-algebra with this deficient reading level because they would fail to grasp that his math program is via computer program that reads the material TO him and allows him to work at the pace he can grasp the math concepts and not at the level he can read them.

I really don't think that cryptic post is enough to make an opinion on this child's education and what the mother is teaching.

[dairyfreelife]

I don't see any English or Literature on that list for her 9th Grader and maybe her idea of electives include that, but in the education world electives are the other and non-core, like art, music, PE, languages, etc. Her 1st grader still showed undetermined, but all she has so far is handwriting and math. While writing and math are the most vital at that age, reading is also just as vital and she doesn't list that or what she plans do regarding that part. Science and social studies and citizenship skills are also part of a public school curriculum for that age, though it's not as vital as language arts and math. Hopefully she'll add a little of those to her youngest's curriculum.

At least she's not using Everyday Mathematics. The schools here use that program and I did not like it at all. It doesn't teach the children to learn how to really add or subtract on their own and could only do it with a number chart and count forward or backward. :? the schools here use Saxon for language arts and I didn't mind that program. Not seen it for math though, so not sure what their math is like.

[skrmom]

DS attends one of those ebil public schools. I think he had decimals and percents in about the fifth grade.

He had:

8th grade: Algebra

9th :Geometry

10th Algebra

11th: College Algebra/Trigenometry (Dual Enrollment)

12th: College Calculus

He will have about 30 hours collge credit when he graduates HS next spring due to the dual enrollment option. I'm not sure if home schoolers have this option.

[Conuly]

DS attends one of those ebil public schools. I think he had decimals and percents in about the fifth grade.

He had:

8th grade: Algebra

9th :Geometry

10th Algebra

11th: College Algebra/Trigenometry (Dual Enrollment)

12th: College Calculus

He will have about 30 hours collge credit when he graduates HS next spring due to the dual enrollment option. I'm not sure if home schoolers have this option.

Homeschoolers have other ways to earn college credit even if dual enrollment isn't an option. For example, there's always AP tests or, for the dedicated, taking the GED early and entering college at 16 or so.

[sableduck]

I graduated from homeschooling with 26 college credit hours. I did dual enrollment at a community college. Most of the homeschoolers I know graduated with some college credits.

[Whydoyouask]

Just my 2c as a homeschooler. *Most* math and science classes have pre-requisets (sp) for them. For example, you can't take Chemistry with out having Algebra completed, and you can't enroll in Algebra 2 with out taking Geometry etc.

My 11 yr old finished Algebra 1 last spring as well as middle school: physics, bio, chem and earth science- in the past year. We don't have a formal language arts program but he does read during the week, about 1000 pages of his choosing. Also for history we are using a textbook. Next year we might abandoned American history and focus on French history as that is where his interests are right now.

As for a 9th grader doing math that comprises of decimals and fractions. I would have some concerns. Algebra is a rigorous course (again, if done correctly) and Algebra is meant to get the student up for critical thinking, problem solving etc for a multitude of classes, not just math. There are topics on graphing, word problems, geometry etc.

My kiddo learned about decimals and fractions via money and making change. Converting fractions to decimals and such topics took a bit longer but were mastered by '4th grade' level. Fractions and decimals are ever present in math (algebra, geometry, calc, etc) and need to be mastered as a good foundation so the student can continue on.

As the rest of the material. Well, you really can't do chemistry if you don't have a good understanding of numbers. It's just not going to happen. But I have a feeling this person isn't going to be solving any chemical equations. There is probably only going to be slight conversations about matter, elements and such things.

History, Language, Foreign language, Arts, I would build on what's been presented in the past and continue to stress the importance of research tools, research papers, research methods etc. How to construct a paper, and use topics in LA, history, Arts, etc to not only teach the subjects but to teach research methods as well. (oh dear, did I just try to combine several things into one??)

Needless to say my soon to be 12 yr old would not be satisfied with that class schedule posted, but each kiddo is different and each family has different goals. This kid could be an 'early' 9th grader or he could be a year behind. We really don't know. The kid could be working 30 hrs a week somewhere and school is taking a backseat to income. - This happens alot, even in public school.

[Conuly]

1. Prerequisite. Also "prereq", which saves us the trouble of spelling "prerequisite".

2. All this talk about Algebra and Geometry and whatever as classes - is that really still common in the rest of the country? Like I said, in NYS the math curriculum is integrated and you don't have separate classes for each of those, it's all mixed up together.

[sugarpie]

To be honest, it's hard to tell just from looking at the book titles. I'm not familiar with a few of those titles. One would have to actually open them up and look at the scope and sequence to really make a judgment on what's considered "good". As for decimals and percentages being not on 9th grade level, that would depend on where you're located. Each state has its own set of standards (all developed from national standards). A typical 9th grade math curriculum would involve statistics, number operations (radical expressions, decimals, percent of decrease/change, fractions), algebraic sentences (It costs X dollars to buy 2 pounds of beef--how much of each pound cost, etc.), polynomial fraction simplification, using formulas for calculating solid surface area, etc. etc. (That taken from a K-12 standards printout that is 8 years old.)

A typical public school's emphasis would depend, obviously, on the student's academic station. If a student is struggling with basic mathematics, they're obviously no going to be able to enroll in a geometry class, but that doesn't mean that their mathematics class won't include some geometry basics. Like CanadianHippie mentioned, curriculum builds upon itself each year, especially integrated mathematics curricula.

That includes homeschooling curriculum (or most that I've glanced at/used anyway). Some folks might harp on "fundie" curricula but most are actually really good and from my experience compete with that of the public schools' curricula that I worked with while I was teaching in the school system.

Just to share some info about math standards, here are a few links. I had a hard time finding one specifically for 9th grade but you can get a general idea:

http://www.education.com/reference/arti ... de_8_Math/

http://www.nctm.org/standards/content.a ... 4294967312

Basically, I don't think the person's choice of math work for the child is far off the mark.

[Smithie]

2. All this talk about Algebra and Geometry and whatever as classes - is that really still common in the rest of the country? Like I said, in NYS the math curriculum is integrated and you don't have separate classes for each of those, it's all mixed up together.

Most people I know--Midwesterners, Californians, and New Englanders alike--took them as distinct classes as recently as five years ago. My high school definitely still makes a distinction, as do the vast majority of the middle/high schools in my state.

[snarkykitty]

Most people I know--Midwesterners, Californians, and New Englanders alike--took them as distinct classes as recently as five years ago. My high school definitely still makes a distinction, as do the vast majority of the middle/high schools in my state.

I have no recollection of when I learned fractions or decimals (although I distinctly remember learning multiplication tables in 3rd grade), in high school - mid-late 1980s, New England, private, Catholic, Honors track, college-prep (only 3 people out of my graduating class of 230ish did NOT go on to a 4-year college) - I took:

F (9th) - Algebra

S (10th) - Geometry

J (11th) - Algebra II

S (12th) - Trigonometry first semester, Analysis second semester

If you took Algebra in junior high (believe it or not, the public schools taught Algebra in 8th grade, Catholic schools did not), you took Algebra II freshman year and Pr-Calculus your senior year.

I don't know what the non-honors track took for math.

I took Calculus in college and sucked the first time I took it, so I withdrew from the class. The second time around, with a different professor, I earned an A- in the class (and understood what I was doing!), which was unbelievable because math was always my weakest subject.

The crazy thing about math is that I often could do it in my head and get the correct answer, but sucked on the "show your work" part. So doing "proofs" was always very difficult. Even now, I do math in my head differently than I would on paper.

[bananacat]

Yeah, those subjects seem a little behind, but I have a much larger issue with the lack of so many things. Those curricula seem very light and I hope there's more to it. Each child should be getting at least the core four (math, science, English, social studies) and several more to round things out. The 1st-grader gets math and some semblance of English, but nothing for science or social studies. The 9th-grader is getting math, science, and social studies (history) but no English. Those kids should also be getting music, art, computers, foreign languages, and a bunch of other things that get no mention.

Also, it seems like the 1st-grader will only be learning how to write or print letters. They should be learning to read this year if they haven't already, and reading practice should be included in the curriculum.

[bananacat]

Just my experience with fractions, I clearly remembered the day that I learned fractions are the same thing as division. I was in 3rd grade so I must have learned about about fractions in second grade or earlier. I do remember learning more about fractions in seventh grade pre-algebra and learning more about manipulating decimals in sixth grade, so I'm really hoping this kid at least knows the basics and will be expanding. It still seems pretty far behind, but maybe it's not as bad as I think it is.

[Mommy22alyns]

I was wondering about LA until I went to her site and saw the full post; that Trail Guides to Learning includes copywork, dictation, reading, spelling, and read alouds. I also see mechanics and editing work (just from a very quick skim through a sample lesson). For the first grader, Horizons math is a solid curriculum. It looks like she's edited the 9th grader's math, so I can't comment much on that. The Key To series is solid as well; I've been considering the fractions set for my rising 4th grader. Hopefully pre-algebra for the 9th grader, I'll just say my goals are a bit higher. But if she's filling gaps from a previously attended school, there might be nothing wrong with that.

ETA: Oooh look, I've hit the ebil 666 post count!