Math

Suddenly middle of errands yesterday it hit me that I had gotten an email earlier in the day about Calvert’s 30% off sale.  That sparked the sudden urge to make a decision on next year’s math, even though we are no where near the middle of this year’s math.  Saving 30% is a bit of big deal, it’s also a great deal.  I had considered changing over to something different than Calvert’s classic math, though we love the look of this math, the method isn’t always working.  Calvert also offers Math in Focus now, which actually seems to be the main math now since that’s the only one in the virtual catalog.  I looked at grade 3 Math in Focus just to compare what we have, and it looks like the bar method I had heard about from a friend is used in that.  So I had instant regret about our current math, because that bar method makes a lot of sense and I’m a bit lost about how to teach multiplication, it’s coming up soon but not here.  I might have to look up the method itself and try to integrate that into what we have now.  Then switch to Math in Focus for grade 4.  I asked Hubby for his opinion but in setting up samples for him to look at I completely ruled out Math Mammoth, which seemed great because of the bar method (another mom posted a sheet she had), but I wasn’t too fond of the look of.  Would be a great extra workbook (still might look into those) but we are used to the big colorful Calvert books.  I rejected Saxon Math just on aesthetic and feel of the paper, same for Singapore math.  It looks like Math in Focus gives us Singapore method with the colorful look we want.  After narrowing it down to the two Calvert offered maths, I consulted with Hubby and Mini Riceball.  It looks like a decision has been made for Math in Focus, it still doesn’t stop me from questioning my decision to go with Math in Focus next year.