Beginning with the End in Mind.

There is a great thread on the Well Trained Mind forum (henceforth known as WTM) asking for advice from homeschoolers that have been at it for 10+ years. Naturally, it's filled with brilliance.  My favorite piece of advice, though, was this.

So. My 4 year old son.

In 16 years.
He's learned to drive.
He's graduated high school. Public or otherwise.
He's working. Maybe through college. Maybe not.

But what else?

I hope he is kind. Generous. Happy. That he is passionate about life. I hope, with all my heart, that he knows & loves Jehovah God. Whether he loves Him or not is out of my hands.  That depends on my son alone. But I can give him knowledge.  I can equip him to make his own decisions. That much I can do.  If I can inculcate in him LOVE; love for God, love for others, a love of learning, I will count our journey a success, and I will thank God for leading me.

Of course I want my children to read and write. Fluently. To do arithmetic and beyond. To be well acquainted with the world around them. And how it came to be. How they came to be. I hope he has knowledge of mankind's past mistakes, and I hope he can learn from them.

But that's icing on the cake. I truly believe that success or failure is measured by how we treat our fellow man. I believe it is measured by how we're living up to God's standards. How God views us. And I'm quite certain that God doesn't mind that I'm not fluent in Calculus. 

I hope in 16 years, my boy (now  a grown man) can cook for himself and do his own laundry. I hope he can keep a tidy home. I hope he is a good, loving man. A humble leader. Whatever path he chooses, I hope he walks it with confidence.

These are the things I hope for my son. The things I hope to help him accomplish in the next 16 or so years.

Right Start Math: Why I Chose it & First Impressions

I don't think I'll ever be NOT overwhelmed by the resources available to homeschoolers. Which, of course, is wonderful, but it does put cause me to feel a lot of pressure over curriculum choices.

Our math curriculum is especially important to me because, well, I'm terrible at it.  And you really, truly cannot get away with not doing math in day to day life. It 's very important to me to lay a strong foundation. That being said, here's some factors that lead me to Right Start.

• It's conceptual: I've heard Right Start described as a good program for an 'American taught' instructor to teach the Singapore method of mathematics. Singapore math focuses on the why before the how, rather than the other way around.
• It's heavy on manipulatives, light on worksheets: My boy doesn't mind worksheets (and I love them) but I think it's important at this age and for firm foundations to be able to "see" things. I love that it's hands on.
• It's a combination of spiral & mastery-The spiral vs. mastery theory gets my head spinning every time. I see benefits to both, and both will be a better 'fit' for a certain type of learner. The fact that Right Start claims to be a combination makes it an easier choice for me.  
• Based on mental math rather than counting by rote. 

Some concerns (prior to seeing the curriculum first hand):

• Cost: Choosing Right Start for our curriculum turned otu to be the easy part. From tehre, I had to decide whether to start with level A of the 1st Edition or the 2nd. The 1st edition costs $110 for the starter kit. The 2nd edition? A whopping $255. Why the price difference? The 2nd edition kit comes with ALL of the manipulatives....for all of the levels. And Right Start says that most of these things will be used in Level A, too. But, after talking to a homeschooler who HAS the 2nd edition; most of the manipulatives are NOT needed for Level A.  I ended up buying my 1st Edition kit gently used.
• Teacher intensive: I'm actually ok with this. At this age, pre-reading, pretty much everything is teacher intensive. Besides, I'm truly looking forward to 're-learning' math.
• It's conceptual- for someone who didn't learn math conceptually, teaching math taht way does give me a bit of pause.

 Once I received the curriculum & flipped through it, here's some things I noticed:

• Very few worksheets. Very. I think I counted 27 worksheets to 77 lessons. This is something that Right Start prides itself in; keeping everything hands on. 
• The manipulatives look very simple. Nothing too "What the heck is this & what would I use it for?" I like that.
• Looking further in on the lessons, I've noticed that they encourage you to say upper numbers differently. For example "ten-1" if eleven and "2-ten" is twenty.  "2-ten 5" is twenty five. This will take some getting used to. Shawn already knows his higher numbers as eleven, twenty, and twenty five, but I don't think he'll have any trouble switching back and forth. 

All in all, I'm anxious to get started. The kids caught sight of the Abacus and have enjoyed playing with (and fighting over) it over the past few days. Surely that's a good sign.