The rest of us are a bit behind in everybody's favorite subject...Math. Unfortunately we've just had one of those years, what with packing, moving and unpacking right before the holidays then getting more involved in "The Seven Last Words of Christ"...Math is just one subject that you can't read about or learn about effectively in little snippets. It has to be done on a regular, consistent basis in order to get through it.
So, needless to say, we have four students who are behind in their math books. With Mr 9 yo and Ms 11 yo I decided to put the brakes on and go back and spend some time reviewing. I've been in the situation before with math where I press ahead so we can stay on track and finish the book, but I've realized now that it doesn't get us anywhere if the student is having issues with some of the basics.
To help them out, I found this great website that has all kinds of math review problems on it. I finally decided to just go back to the beginning and see where the holes are. Boy was I surprised. The extra practice that they've been getting has really made a difference. Of course they moan and complain through it all, but they'd do that no matter what math we were doing.
I'm glad I decided to do this, even though it means they might be "off-track" for awhile. As much as I'm not a summer homeschooler, we will have to press on through the summer with this so that they don't lose the ground they've been working so hard to gain. Hopefully we can stick with it and catch up for the fall, but even if we don't I know that going back and working on the basics was definitely the right thing to do.
