As we moved through the levels I began to notice that although we touched on several concepts we typically didn’t stay on them long enough for my crew to develop mastery over them. Even with enrichment/support activities I started to see the girls struggling in areas of basic number sense. As my oldest worked through level 2 I got nervous thinking about how she would do with multiplication when the time came. Having strong number sense (number representations, place value, number bonds, mental math etc) will make a world of difference as students move toward higher levels of math thinking. I knew we needed a step back to strengthen and add depth to their number sense. Mastery of concepts was a missing element I know that we needed.
Another issue that arose this year as I began to officially homeschool multiple littles was time. The lessons were beautiful and included several games and activities (using materials from the tool kit) but they were also pretty lengthy. Looking ahead to next year when I’m homeschooling three (!) I know I need a curriculum that will give me a greater capacity to meet the needs of all three of my little students.
In addition, I wanted a gentle curriculum that still incorporates literature and a biblical worldview.
Which leads me to…Where did we land?
2 Comments
Brooke
May 7, 2021 at 1:19 pmThank you for your honest review. I know TGTB is revising the math and releasing it this summer, so I am eager to see if the things you brought up may be revised. I look forward to hearing about your new curriculum. I am currently busy trying to decide what I would like to use with my son next year who misses our public school cut off for kindergarten by a day. Thank you for sharing your honest opinion it is so helpful.
joshsnipes
May 7, 2021 at 1:26 pmThank you so much for your kind words. I think you’re right the writers at The Good and The Beautiful did say they are definitely making the new curriculum more concise and I bet they’ll touch on the other issues too! I genuinely think they write beautiful curriculum and I have no doubt the new version will be excellent- just not a fit for us. 🙂