I asked the homeschooling forum on Reddit for tips on how to maintain momentum on math curriculum this year. Here is a snapshot of the tweaks suggested.
I photocopied the table of contents in the Rightstart math curriculum (not consumable, needs to be returned when finished). I've been scribbling dates a lesson was completed here to have a quick view of our velocity. It looks like this fall, we have been averaging 1 lesson/calendar day. This is full calendar-- we often do 3 in a sitting, skip a day while she is at the learning center. I am also experimenting with annotating with which kinder learning standard it might cover for uploads to the teacher, but based on the first upload, I may just give my daughter a quick busywork worksheet to fulfill that requirement since she is in a text that is a bit above expected grade level.
Based on that velocity, I skimmed the next 7-10 lessons ahead to see what worksheets, games, and manipulatives were called for. I made copies of the worksheets. If I'm ok with a little visual clutter, I sometimes leave the worksheet book directly in the photocopier since this is the main thing I am photocopying. I suppose I could use the worksheet book as a consumable and not worry about copies at all, but we went through a perfectionist season where a small mistake would result in tears, torn and crumpled worksheets, etc. And it was nice to have the "insurance" we could make a copy and return to this in a calmer moment. Based on other Reddit feedback, I gave myself some grace to not beat myself up if I don't attempt to cover every card game or manipulative activity if my daughter seems to grok it with a quick discussion.
I crammed the said 7-10 lessons worth of materials in with the table of contents tracker and leave the spiral bind open to whatever the last lesson was. Redditors suggested doing this prep weekly. I had a "prep math" weekly action item but it would often fall off my to do list. I can put it back, but I don't feel like I've done anything that would massively increase compliance...
I have contemplated the productivity approach of block scheduling to dos rather than working off a list, but find that in general in this season of caregiving, my work is too interruptive to plan on a reliable increment of time to sit down and work without being asked to prep a snack, play a game, etc. Plus the to do's themselves are usually pretty quick to execute (move the laundry) and wouldn't make sense having a management system that takes longer to keep up to date than it would take just to knock the task out.
Above is my general tasking approach now. I have the left 2 pages in a Keep app on my phone, but sometimes find it satisfying to cross off a physical page. Also Keep cross referencing can send me down a media rabbit hole that analog would not. Finally, in printing these lists out, I have a better sense for "yeah," I can crank through a column of stuff today versus the more amorphous anxiety induced by a doom scroll through the Keep app. Page 1 are daily habits copy pasted off a fixed list. There is 1 for 15 mins ELA, 1 for 15 mins Math. Page 1 also has appointments occurring that day. Page 2 is the backlog that I've grouped loosely into cleaning/cooking/yard/errand/desk work contexts. I chip away at that where I can but have no illusions I'll ever zero that one out. Page 3 is a weekly quad coloring page with a bunch of fitness activities. I use this as a general proxy for how much fitness and movement I've incorporated into my life. There are some gross discrepancies-- like a 2 mile walk or 4 mile bike are a bigger effort than knocking out 5 push ups, but so far, this is better than nothing. I have an end of day habit to reconcile these lists and print a new 2 pager since I've usually scribbled follow up actions or shopping list items on the hardcopies throughout the day.
Right, back to math. So skimming the next lessons revealed that even in a manipulative-heavy curriculum like RS, you aren't using all of them at the same time. In fact, some, we may never need again (i.e. Yellow is the Sun song book, flashcards holding up hand signifiers for numbers 1-10). All this other math manipulative stuff I was keeping in a grande Ikea tote close to the kitchen got shunted under the bed. I will dig out new pieces the next time I'm planning a couple lessons out.
This left me with a svelt art cart basket of abacus, dry erase board, place value cards, and 100's cards for the upcoming lessons.
I stuck the teacher text and the handwriting text on the next tier up. An audited set of most reached for art supplies are at the top.. and dice, we always need dice for something. We are experimenting with "wampum" currently. I give a bead for 15 minutes of a task completed. We have a 15 min sand timer, but I would keep my eyes peeled for 2 more since sometimes we get 5 good minutes in, need to tip it sideways to pause it, and then start working on another subject that would also benefit from being timed.
Some redditors mention no screens or excursions until their big 3 R's are covered. I love this in theory. In practice, we have just clawed back from a summer of "All iPad All the Time." I started by offering bonus bead/bribes -- 2.5 hours of youtube time budget/school day, but if it wasn't spent, the minutes could be cashed out for shopping at Target. Yeah, I know, I felt gross about enabling the consumerism too. We ended up spending a lot of the day negotiating about when school would end and the beads would not need to be turned in because Daddy could unlock the iPad as wind-down to bed for free (yeah, I know blue light before bed, gah!) but what of the days when he works from home? etc. So I moved to a new rule of "youtube is open for scrolling between the hours of 7 and 8 (AM and PM)." That has been a lot more seamless to enforce and I am impressed that even with the ancient iPad doing a system update that completely broke my ability to parental control lock it, my daughter has stuck with this guidance. Sidenote- she does have free access to Khan Kids all day when she wants to take a more passive learning break. A Redditor mentioned our car school math experiment (Beast Academy) has an online option as well. In this season, we don't have any curriculum that *needs* online access, but as she gets older or more fascinated with the Minecraft charter club we might consider exploring that because we've hacked the Khan settings to the highest grade level they will go and she doesn't seem to find much challenge there anymore. But I digress, so yes, on the less scheduled days (M/W/F) I will follow the Redditing consensus to start with math in the AM and limit fun discretionary activities/screen time until it is done. When she starts to lose it, I will switch to 15 mins of handwriting. I'm not worried about reading so much because she did that precociously, and have you seen our backseat?
We are forever driving somewhere for piano, gymnastics, swim, water polo, girl scouts. So the arrangement I have for carschool is: A. Let her free range at the library periodically and leave a stack of books in arms reach of her seat to read while we're driving. I've also seeded it with a couple library holds on topics we are studying like Mesoamerican civilizations and social emotional learning. She doesn't really spontaneously read while in the house, but she does a lot of spontaneous list making and game constructing. B. keep a clipboard with storage compartment loaded with Beast Academy math, doodle paper, pencils, erasers, and a compact crayon. This is what we reach for in those awkward situations where we've arrived somewhere early (because I'm compulsive like that) and need to wait/cause as little disruption to others while doing so.
So that's where we're at at this point in our homeschooling-math journey. Hopefully I'll look back on this in a couple years and laugh at how earnest and intense I was about the whole thing. Bonus photo-- the math balance doesn't really fit that great in under bed storage, but is quite a hit for working on math facts in the backyard pool. If she's having a really off day, I'll chuck the hanging tabs in the deep end and have her dive to retrieve them and make an equation that balances. This might be a segue into what some Redditors said about they do math subject home school year round. I found with morning camps and with telling her she was on summer break, it was hard to keep hitting the textbooks last summer. But I did find myself annoyed that there were so many lessons of review in the beginning of the Level B text, almost like they expected the student to have forgotten everything. Maybe going year round and giving ourselves permissions to very lightly skim/skip the first 15-20 lessons of Level C is the way to go.
