Thoughts About High School Math...Looking Ahead

For your reading pleasure, some stream-of-consciousness musings about teaching high school math in my homeschool.

Keep in mind that my degree is in teaching high school mathematics and computer science. But, other than student teaching, I never taught in a classroom. I worked for a large insurance company instead. That is not to say that I feel my education qualifies me to discuss it...only that it will tell you that I really like math.

My goal for our homeschool is to give our kids at least as good of an education as I had (public school). That was easy to surpass in elementary school. For high school, it will be easy to surpass in English and history. However, I had an excellent math and science education, so that will be harder to achieve. I tested into Calculus 1 at a great state university, and I passed that class with an A. My high school course of mathematics was:

8th grade Algebra 1
9th grade College Algebra
10th grade Geometry
11th grade Trigonometry & Analytic Geometry
12th grade Calculus

At the time I was in high school I remember that doing Algebra 2 immediately after Algebra 1 was considered unusual. But, the teachers of the program I was in specifically organized it that way because they thought it made more sense. It worked well for me, so that's why I'm planning to do it that way. (There is one good argument for taking geometry in tenth grade. The PSAT test is taken in the fall of eleventh grade, and it includes geometry. If you're not planning to do the PSAT, then it doesn't matter.)

Because my daughter is going to do Algebra 2 in the fall, it means I haven't looked specifically at geometry programs yet since we won't need that for a year. My high school geometry was a very traditional approach with many proofs. I understand that many geometry courses no longer emphasize the proof. But, again, I haven't researched the possibilities.

I would love to be able to do my own high school math program with just me and a textbook, and I would probably do that if I only had 1 kid. But the reality of having four kids means I need a program that will allow them to be more independent. But, I think most kids will encounter mental roadblocks at some point with any curriculum. They will need help to get over those.

We used Horizons through sixth grade, and I thought it was a little advanced. Then, in seventh grade we switched to Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra, which my first two daughters both did very well in. The oldest did Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1 this past year in 8th grade. She did well, but I wouldn't call it easy. I've been very happy with Teaching Textbooks, and I felt the girls understood what they were learning. I thought they could've used more practice problems, but overall I was pleased.

Then, I saw on Jay Wile's blog that he recommended VideoText, and I started wondering why he didn't recommend Teaching Textbooks, so I started researching. I emailed with a mathy friend (who actually did teach in a classroom), and I emailed several homeschool moms with kids in college asking their opinions. They older homeschool moms almost universally used Saxon...but there weren't as many other options back then. I also looked at reviews on the internet as well as the internet forum at welltrainedmind.com. I also compared the table of contents of TT Alg 1, Alg 2, and Pre-Calc with VideoText and others.

I've decided that Teaching Textbooks is not bad, but it is not as rigorous as others. Rigorous is not necessarily a good thing. And, if I was not a math person, I might continue with Teaching Textbooks with this caution: I think that to be able to do very well on the ACT, you would have to go through Pre-Calc. Also, if my kids were seriously considering a math/science field like engineering, I'd probably use something else. But how do you know that in eighth grade?

I finally decided that since I am a math person, and since I want the kids to have the same type of math education I had, I'm going to switch to something else. I'm not completely convinced in my mind own mind about what curriculum is best for us. I still haven't decided for sure about next year (Algebra 2). I have sample DVD's from VideoText and Chalk Dust. My student and I are going to watch them soon.  I've also heard good things about the Lial's textbooks. I happened upon one of those in the church library a couple of weeks ago, and I brought it home to look at, but haven't had time yet. I figure I can always go back to Teaching Textbooks if something else isn't working.

Also, if you're interested, my high school science courses were:

9th grade Biology
10th grade Chemistry
11th grade Physics
12th grade (I can't remember, so I must not have done science that year)

That's why my kids have done General Science in 7th grade and Physical Science in 8th grade, so we would be ready to follow this same sequence in high school. I'm using Apologia, but I think we are going to attempt to CLEP the science classes, so she will have to do extra studying following the regular Apologia coursework in order to pass the CLEP test. Haven't decided for sure about that yet, though.