This thread is parallel to my newer mess on the
Certainty among educators thread.
My eldest got to the point where he is now primarily through afterschooling with me. His only true math instruction in school was for two years at a wonderful defunct private school.
I've been thinking back to DS12's experiences. He was held back by the schools. He should have finished algebra 2 last year but didn't. He should have started algebra 1 years ago but didn't. Etc. No amount of evidence or parent-teacher conferences was able to change that.
I realize now that my daughter won't get what she needs unless she gets it at home. The vast majority of schools simply can't or won't see past their own preconceptions and we are truly living in a Dark Age of education in this country. I can't fix it (though I can make contributions through grant app. review). So I'm going to do two things:
1. Continue working with DD on the wonderful puzzles in the Beast Academy books (see end of message).
2. Accelerate her into algebra using the
Brown textbook. We'll just backfill anything from 5th or 6th grade math that she needs as we go.
Beast Academy: These are new books from AoPS. They're for younger kids. They teach basic ideas like multiplication and division but go into real depth. They only have books for 3rd grade right now, but the problems are a lot of fun. Examples:
- Here is a list of numbers (one list has 16 numbers). Order them so that adjacent numbers add up to perfect squares.
- Write the following number as the sum of four perfect squares....
- Three congruent rectangles are laid out to make a square. Each has a perimeter of . What's the area of the square?
These problems are
great. They're fun puzzles and make my DD think. Even DS12 and I enjoy some of them!
(I have no connection to AoPS apart from using their books and the class DS12 has enrolled in).
