Yes, one more thing is NOT a good idea! You should see my list of stuff for this year… very impressive. And unrealistic with a 2 yr old and infant added to the mix!! I don’t know how some of these moms do it!!!

Grace… grace… and more grace, I’d imagine. Just seeking wisdom and direction from the the One who knows what the next year will be like FAR better than I do, and who understand my children and me MUCH better than I do!!

Thanks again. We’ll start by opening the Family Math book (on my shelf for a year and a half now!) and doing whatever it opens to… and playing all our math games I keep buying all summer long…

I don’t think it matters how or when you start except that the sooner the better!

On my homeschool planner, I have a section for math history and a section for math activity each day. So the math activity may be related to the history we’re reading or it may be a skill from the textbook. (When I say from the textbook, I don’t necessarily mean that we’re using the textbook to learn it. I use the table of contents in the text as a guide for what to do next. We tend to play a game or some other hands-on activity to learn and practice the skill. But we do workbook exercises sometimes too!) So it’s all mixed up — some living math readers plus some hands-on skill building. I don’t try to keep it neat anymore. We just jump in there. I think that the math concepts we learn via the LivingMath material are important. And although they may not cover something listed in our Singapore Math textbook, I feel that big-picture-wise, my daughter is learning math. So it’s okay to skip about. It’s a somewhat spiral approach rather than a linear one.

We do NOT go through the textbook/workbook as quickly as we did before. I’ve stopped trying to do that. Now I focus on big math concepts and comprehension of the skills rather than simply checking off a box. So do do living math, you really should change your outlook on how you use the text. The text becomes more of a reference. If not, you’ll feel that the living math is just one more thing to add to an already busy homeschool day. And it will feel like a burden. Instead, I replaced our old math time with this living math approach. It actually is far more productive. Sprite retains and masters so much better than before. And attitude? Wow-za! What a change! Living math is FUN!

Please be sure to visit Transitioning to Living Math. That’s where I outline my shift to a living math approach. It was not an overnight change but a slow process.

AND would it matter where we started? I think we are doing American history next year (2nd half of WP) – so not sure if that would make a difference.

You are inspirational… but then I’m often inspired, and not too great at living out my inspiration!

I’m looking forward to reading your older posts.