Math

Math at our school is blocked school-wide. Every class has math at the same time so that students can group according to their own individual level. The school uses Saxon Math, which at first I was skeptical of, because I'd heard mixed reviews about the program. It seems that it's the type of curriculum that people either love or hate.

I think I fall somewhere in the middle. I think Saxon is a great starting point, but I don't like the idea of having to follow it exactly. Thankfully we have a little bit of flexibility and are able to supplement the program as long as we cover the main points in each lesson.

I do like that it puts everyone in the school on the same page, so that children in one class are not missing key material before moving on to the next teacher. It makes it really easy to assess students as well, because the whole school is using the same program, the same assessments, etc.

It really standardizes everything, but as a whole, it seems to work for our school.

Since we differentiate for each child, leveling the math classes allows each teacher to only teach one grade level, as opposed to 2 or 3 levels, as is the case with the reading curriculums. Students who are able to do 3rd grade math go to a 3rd grade math class. Students who are able to do 1st grade math, come to a 1st grade math class, regardless of which grade they are actually in.

In a way, this is challenging, because developmentally a 5 year old and a 7 year old are in completely different places, but for the most part, this structure works. The attention span of some children is much different, so it really takes a skilled teacher with good classroom management to handle the different age levels within each math class.