Please help! Overwhelmed by Maths curriculums..

[Fredflinstoneswife1]

Have started Home Ed with my 6 year old. A friend advised me to use scottish heinemann maths 3 so I bought the workbooks and the textbook and then realised there is absolutely no guidance for teaching or for how much to cover per week. And I realised that all of that info is contained in the fabulous three hundred quid teaching file that I cannot afford to buy.

What do I do? He is on his third year of primary school as we are in northern Ireland.

Where do I get solid information for teaching? And how do I know how much to cover each week and each day?

MEP math is free: https://www.cimt.org.uk/projects/mepres/primary/index.htm
When buying curricula, I recommend using stuff made for homeschoolers like Math With Confidence, Singapore math with the Home Instructor Guide, or Right Start Math.

Mine (6 and 11) are with Darren Elgar maths. Possibly one of the best HE decisions and investments we’ve ever made. The man is so passionate about the approach he uses, and such a gifted teacher.

Ex teacher

I wouldn’t use materials designed for schools. Totally different set up. Get something suitable for homeschooling.

We use ‘math with confidence’. It is American but it’s is ‘open and go’ as in you can turn to the days lesson and it has notes for the parent and also gives you a bit of a script of how to explain things to the child too. There is a workbook that accompanies it. I like it as the lessons are all quite hands on, not just workbooks. We’re only on the kindergarten book though and I got ours second hand for £20 but not sure how much it is new.

We also use math with confidence, I have seen other home ed families use white rose maths if you didn’t want to use an American curriculum or the twinkl planning but that will take more work from you I think.

As others have said, you're looking for an open and go maths course.

Math with Confidence and Singapore are two I've heard good things about. I personally use Maths - No Problem which is what some English schools use, but maths is my subject and so I'm very confident adapting for a home ed setting. I don't think it would meet your needs. You will need to do some stuff with UK money separately as I don't think either of those courses have a UK version.

Unless you're only home edding for a year or something, I wouldn't worry too much about exactly following the curriculum where you are - most of the courses built and designed for home edders won't, but they will cover all the maths needed if you keep going.

As others have said there may something out there that is more appropriate for home schooling but if you want to try a school type approach then Oak academy is available and completely free. Think you would need access to a printer for workseets

I home edded my 3 who are grown up now. I agree MEP is good if you’re happy to follow a structured programme. We didn’t manage to keep up with it though - mostly as I was juggling three of them at different ages.
At 6 we did a lot of playing with number cubes and fraction blocks and weights and measuring things to get hands on experience.
Sometimes used some workbooks like CGP for the relevant school year.
I also found it reassuring to use an online programme like Mathletics which is not too expensive and you can do the sessions for the stage they’re at.
There are lots of maths online games - including learn your times table games - that mine quite enjoyed playing.

We use White Rose Maths. Booklets all printed and in order and there are videos that go with each section. Obviously not free but I think it's good value. We use their science too.

Do you or anyone on here have experience of importing ,Singapore maths or math with confidence from the USA? To the UK I mean.

Buying it here you mean? I brought math with confidence from Amazon

Oh - I thought it wasn't available here, only by buying it in! Have you ever bought singapore maths from the states?

Isn’t one of the reasons for homeschooling to be guided by your child and not follow it is Monday we must be on page 7?

No

I really like White Rose Maths when mine were primary age! I could order the workbooks from their website and then they have free videos online. We'd watch the videos together and do any practical work ourselves.
It was very thorough and only took 10-20 mins a day.
Once they were 8ish they could do it independently.

https://amzn.eu/d/0dKgUmrM

Guided by your child... really...

Maths No Problem is Singapore maths just done for UK units. We did a page a day, maybe two at that age. I found this curriculum really good, careful explanation, I swerved the white saviour parts of the story aspect but because the maths was well done it was worth it. There is plenty of room for workings and good explanations. We also did Life of Fred which whilst quite different was engaging. He’s had no problems moving from any of these onto GCSE. You might want to consider joining PopArt Home Education on Facebook they get a lot of good discounts.
https://www.re-vived.com/products/math-lessons-for-a-living-education-level-3?variant=42874547994778&country=GB&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&utm_campaign=gs-2018-09-19&utm_source=google&utm_medium=smart_campaign&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17510223583&gbraid=0AAAAADP_t_fq71rsOZK0PlpXkFsy2g40I&gclid=Cj0KCQjwh4TVBhCWARIsAG0czmoPhnIhztL-4ZXfHBiBe2HJ20mzNzfIqWocNwGIGuipEggdw74RAJYaAkb5EALw_wcB

Guided by your child's need to learn maths!

Inspire maths is also Singapore with English units. You can usually pick up a 2nd hand version of the teachers guide pretty cheaply.

Another fan of white rose here. And maths genie (which is free).

Maths and literacy (and probably science too) are rarely best left to just following your child interests.

Quite apart from the fact that people homeschool for a variety of different reasons.

In the sense that some people do it like that, yes. Not at all in the sense that everyone who home educates does.

(Actually I've never met a home edder who thinks maths is optional. I have met some who do a lot of work to fit maths round their child's interests, but none who would go, "Oh, okay, we won't bother with maths then.")

I never said Maths should be optional.

When I said guided by your child I meant set the pace according to your child.

If your child finds a topic really hard you should spend longer on it.
If your child finds it easy you should go through it quickly and/or find extension work.

I don’t understand why when you are working with a child one on one you feel the need to be told on Monday you need to do these three exercises rather than responding to the child themselves.

Who is telling anyone on Monday anything?