4Real Forums: No Formal Math - old topic revisited

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Topic: No Formal Math - old topic revisited

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mamaslearning
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Posted: Nov 11 2011 at 12:44pm \| IP Logged

Here's the original post about no formal math program in which the Benezet article is linked. I've been reading about him in Free Range Learning by Laura G. Weldon, and searched for his name on the forums.

Some of the orginal posters on the above thread are still around, and I was wondering how they've adapted their math approach or what they've learned since the original topic in 2005?

Does anybody know of more resources for Benezet or of any followers of Benezet's work?

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Lara
DD 11, DS 8, DS 6, DS 4
St. Francis de Sales Homeschool

Willa
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Posted: Nov 11 2011 at 1:34pm \| IP Logged

Well, I'm one of the original posters. We still do very little math in the early years and the kids still stay around grade level or a little ahead.   I notice a pattern with my own dc and I do not know if it's widespread or just our weird family.

With little formal math, my kids stay about or ahead of grade level until about middle school.

During middle school they fall "behind" (this is from informal measurements and from various standardized tests)

Around the midpart of high school they start coming even again -- usually they have a couple of math gaps that they address at this time.

All the grown ones have done well in college math, in different ways according to their natural gifts, but getting A's in their math classes.

About the "behind" years -- my theory is that kids in school do a lot of drill in topics that aren't necessarily fundamental to math, but that show up on standardized tests. Whereas in the early years my kids keep up because of natural math development, they lag a bit during the middle years because their "curriculum" doesn't precisely correlate with CA middle school math standards. By high school the gap is going away because my kids by that time are pursuing a more formal curriculum in readiness for college.

There's my 2 cents worth from my own experience.

The 9 year old I mentioned in my original post is now 15, a sophomore, and finishing high school geometry.   So he's not advanced but he's not "behind" either. He feels like he has some gaps, which is typical of how my kids feel at that age, but when I quiz him informally or we do SAT home practices he seems to have all the basics down. However, we include a fair amount of review in his curriculum because I think it's good to have that foundation down -- I know so many adults who are shaky on math now even though they've taken math classes in high school and college, so I want to make sure he feels that confidence in problem solving that I think is a useful thing to have in adult life

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AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
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Willa
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Posted: Nov 11 2011 at 1:34pm \| IP Logged

Oh and I am just reading Free Range Learning too, on my Kindle!

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AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
Take Up and Read

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