The Homeschool How To
I don't claim to know anything about homeschooling, so I set out on a journey to ask the people who do! Join me as I chat with homeschoolers to discuss; "why are people homeschooling," "what are all the ways people are using to homeschool today," and ultimately, "should I homeschool my kids?"
The Homeschool How To
Curriculum Series: Math U See for the High School Years
Unlock the secrets to choosing the ideal homeschooling math curriculum with insights from our special guest, Carmen Spotts. Carmen candidly shares her journey with Math-U-See, a program that champions flexibility and self-directed learning. Discover how this curriculum's use of DVDs, workbooks, and manipulatives transforms abstract mathematical concepts into tangible learning experiences, especially for young learners.
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Welcome to the Homeschool How-To Find my Curriculum, a series where we talk all about curriculum. I've been interviewing homeschooling families for over a year now on my main podcast, the Homeschool How-To, but I really wanted to zero in on curriculum. There's so much out there. How do I know what would work best for me and my child? How do I know what works for one child would work for the other? I might like the curriculum I'm using now, but how do I know there's not a better one out there, especially if I don't know all the curriculums? And what about supplemental curriculum? Should I be using that too? This series is to help you decide just that. I'm going to interview parents who are using all the curriculums so that you can decide the absolute best way to unfold your homeschooling journey. The absolute best way to unfold your homeschooling journey. Welcome, and with us I have Carmen Spatz. Carmen, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you for having me. So my favorite math curriculum was Matthew C.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's what we're using right now Cool.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:But he's six.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's what I loved. So you used it as they got older. I did use it as they got older. Um, I was told by a couple of friends that I think their kids went into like math at the college or something afterwards and there were some gaps like around the algebra, geometry sort of area. I guess maybe algebra was not quite what it needed to be. But my boys Ben he just my older of the two got licensed and bonded and now he's running his own contracting company. So he's not going to go to college, probably anyway. But yeah, that's what we used like from primer all the way up to, I think, geometry or algebra, whichever one was last. Yeah, we loved it. I loved that they had the manipulatives. I love that they had the videos. So I didn't have to necessarily like try to teach them because math makes me cry. I hate math.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I did have a woman on my podcast to talk about Matthew C, but she had little ones, so you know she got into like the very beginning stage.
Speaker 1:But I'd be curious to know what this is going to look like all the way through, because my kindergarten year with my son, we did the Good and the Beautiful, which was a lot more like okay, today we're going to tell time and can you, you know, add these ducks up together for me and let's do a cutout and that sort of stuff, like definitely more geared towards little kids. So we started Matthew C the alpha, and my son he keeps saying to me he's like mom. I don't know, I kind of liked the other one better, but then I kind of like this one too, because it is a little bit more. I don't want to say rigid, but less fluff.
Speaker 1:It's not fluffy, it is he's learning place value and he's doing that with the manipulatives, which I had no idea what that meant before, but it's literally like like almost like Legos that they can put in their hands so that as they're counting in the hundreds, you know the hundred spot has a brick of um basically little 100 Legos, all like glued together, and then they've got ones for the tens, and then they've got ones for the ones which are they call units.
Speaker 1:So, he can. If it gives him number one 135, he's going to build it first, so he's taking the brick of 100s and then he's taking three of the tens, manipulatives and then, five of the single units. So he's really getting this concept of what that is, and I love how they talk about how counting from 0 to 9 versus 1 to 10 makes so much more logical sense because, you do zero to nine, then you start the double digits, then you, you know, then you start the one hundreds.
Speaker 2:Everything starts with a zero.
Speaker 1:It makes sense. And when he talked about okay, 10 should really be not called 10. It should be called one T, because he got 20, 30, 40. It should be one T, one T one. And I'm like, yeah, this stuff does make sense. I don't know where we're going with this, but it makes sense, right?
Speaker 2:now.
Speaker 1:So what does?
Speaker 2:it look like through the years.
Speaker 2:So the thing I liked about it was that, um, like my kids, if they were on different um lessons, I just had like mini dvd players for them and they'd pop their dvd in and watch whatever lesson they were on um.
Speaker 2:And then I liked also that the workbook it gave you gosh. I want to say like seven or nine worksheets for each lesson. But my boys were able to like, if they understood it through the first worksheet, I didn't make them do the rest of the worksheets, they could just move on and take their test for that whole unit or whatever that whole lesson and then they would move on. And if they didn't understand it with the first or the second or the third, there were enough worksheets that like, oh okay, you know, now I get it. And they didn't have to do the last two of the how many ever there were. I did like that.
Speaker 2:Really, as the boys got older, the last two or three years they really just taught themselves. They used the DVD if they needed to, but they really didn't like the guy on the video, they didn't like having to take the time to put it in, and so I just gave them the teacher's guide that would show them how to do the work and they would teach themselves. Really, I mean, they were very, very self-disciplined and very self-directed. And it was a lot easier for me because, like I said, math makes me cry If I have to sit and, like, teach it, it's hard. Um, I'm, I'm learning and I'm growing, like my daughter. Now she's in pre-algebra and, um, she was last year too.
Speaker 1:Since your daughters are in private school right now and your son's homeschooled the whole time and used Matthew C, do you see any differences, like as far as how they're learning or how they're excelling one versus the other, or like is it completely foreign concepts from what one is to the other?
Speaker 2:I would say, because my 14 year old daughter was so difficult to come under my leadership and like actually do what I needed her to do. And then the last two years of private school, their school was more of like a glorified daycare and did not prioritize education, which seems really strange for a school. You know, don't call yourself a school if you're not a school. They didn't really do any favors for her. So then when it came time to put her in as a freshman at this other school, she's quite a bit behind, honestly. So it's hard for me to really gauge. But having the older two had gone through public school and then the boys teaching themselves basically the harder math, I don't know I think that the boys did fine. They they both like scored really well, okay and yeah, their finals they did great. They didn't love it, but neither did my kids in public school.
Speaker 1:They didn't love school yeah, and kind of what the guy um that created Matthew C talks about is that he's more trying to get them to learn how to figure out a problem versus like memorizing a times table just because yes you should be memorizing. He wants them to understand. When would I use multiplication, when would I use division, when would I use you? Know, addition and subtraction so I like that because I was thinking about that.
Speaker 1:today too, my son asked a question, and, uh, every every time he has something he's like oh mom, don't make it a whole thing, so I'll try to get to well, how would we come to that? You know answer, but it is. It's like getting him in the mindset of I don't need him to memorize stuff, I need him to figure out how to get the answer.
Speaker 1:I think he was trying to spell he was writing his aunt a birthday card and he's trying to spell l-o-v-e so we could write his name under it and he's like what's the v look like again, I'm like well, where in our house do we have the alphabet? Go there, say your abcs and when you get to V, stop, that's the one. So you know he did that, which, um, I, I like that. It seems like Matthew C has that sort of uh concept behind it.
Speaker 1:They. They really just want you to understand how to get the answer when you need to get it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep, yeah, that is true, awesome Well, thank you so much for chatting about.
Speaker 1:Matthew C.
Speaker 2:Now did it go through like I don't, I don't even know, is trigonometry a thing and like all that stuff I don't even know. You know, literally took my boys through pre-algebra, algebra and geometry and there might've been two algebras like an algebra one, algebra two okay yeah, but I think so.
Speaker 2:I think there were two. But I mean I only went as high as, like, our public school system, you know, makes the kids to get their high school diploma, because I I don't know, I guess I just wanted my boys to kind of have the same level. I don't't remember it being like a requirement for graduation through like Washington state them having to have a certain level, but I just wanted them to.
Speaker 1:So when you said they passed the exams they had to take, like a that, that self exam either that you know you do at home, or a proctored exam at the school that they did fine on uh yeah, yeah, okay, that's great. Yeah, all right, carmen, thank you so much for chatting about matthew c yeah, yeah, no problem, have a great day I hope you enjoyed this episode.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening. Please consider sharing this podcast or my main podcast the homeschool how-to with friends, family on instagram or in your favorite homeschool group facebook page. The more this sharing this podcast or my main podcast the Homeschool how To with friends, family on Instagram or in your favorite homeschool group Facebook page, the more this podcast is shared, the longer we can keep it going and the more hope we have for the future. Thank you for your love of the next generation.