This year, we’re using a combination of AOPS, Thinkwell, and Michael Wasky’s Montessori math albums. Why all these?
Montessori Math
As you know, I ❤️Montessori math. But sadly, most albums don’t have practice problems. Because the student is supposed to make it up! Or the teacher provides some. Doesn’t work for someone who doesn’t prep. So I’ve learned to just use other curriculum for the practice problems. In the lower grades, that was Dimensions Math, AOPS, Evan Moore, and IXL.
We use Michael Wasky’s math albums because he’s the only one out there.
Thinkwell
https://www.thinkwellhomeschool.com/
I chose Thinkwell for 2 reasons. 1) It’s an approved A-G high school algebra class for our homeschool charter, and 2) it’s got an honors track. Honors track just means they cover more material in one year. Of course, it actually doesn’t matter that it has an honors track because I didn’t buy the books. All I bought was the test booklet and we look at their books online when we need to.
Math curriculums that make math concepts feel easy are the way to go. And Thinkwell is your traditional program which breaks down concepts into edible steps. It also has videos should you decide to spend money on their program. The practice questions always reflect what was taught.
AOPS
https://artofproblemsolving.com/
This is what we started the year with but we had to abandon it. Maybe it’s because we bought the self study program, which means that often Astroboy was stuck until I teach a concept. I realized half way through the semester that what Astroboy needed is a solid foundation of the concepts before jumping to AOPS. Here’s an example of how Thinkwell and AOPS is different in teaching Systems of Equations.
In Thinkwell, they do your traditional substitution, elimination, etc methods with two equations and then voila you’re done. AOPS tends to present harder problems even in the 2 equations (e.g., using equations where you have to think harder to figure out their commonality), and then it will teach 3 systems of equations, which Thinkwell doesn’t cover. It worked a bit more with fractions, which can throw kids off even though technically the CONCEPT of systems is the same.
So, this means that for a kid who needs more math practice and step by step, it’s better to do the easier curriculum, and then jump to the harder one. In addition, AOPS’s textbook really isn’t laid out in an easy to read manner. I think that’s what makes it hard for me to understand what concept it’s trying to teach.
Note that AOPS’s Algebra covers Algebra 2 concepts.
How we do math now
Because we have to do Algebra 1 for credit, and I was cheap, I ended up needing to follow an A-G guide and mapping the curriculums to that guide. It’s another reason we ultimately went with Thinkwell. It maps easier unit to unit.
With that guide as a spine on topics to teach, I typically either teach with Thinkwell (because it lays out the concepts easily) or I start with Montessori presentation from my album and then use Thinkwell as my practice problems. It kind of depends on the concept. Quadratics and factoring I went with Montessori because it’s so intuitive once you get how it’s all about an area of a square. Graphing I started with some Montessori presentations but we quickly went to paper-based Thinkwell.
I find that in general, visual presentation with real manipulatives, even to teenagers, really helps.
And Montessori kids have completed this square since elementary! Starting in 4th grade! I love how it all is tied together.
