 Okay you guys, I cannot believe I'm making this video. Okay, here we go. Hi you guys, my name is Brittany and welcome back to my YouTube channel. You guys, if any of you are new here to my channel, again, my name is Brittany. I am a homeschooling mom to three girls ages 10, three and two, and I'm in my second year of homeschooling. So you guys, I have been on the struggle bus this whole year as far as homeschooling math curriculum and I'm gonna be very transparent in today's video. You guys, I've recently made my mid-year homeschool curriculum update and I talked about all of the curriculum that was gonna be staying in 2021 and the curriculum that was gonna be coming into 2022. However, after me personally watching that curriculum review video, I decided to leave a few more things in 2021. If you guys did watch that video, if you have seen just, I was personally not in love with either one of the math curriculum choices that we were using. I was trying to mesh it together, trying to make it work, trying to be consistent. However, I think it comes to a point where it's time to let something go and I really feel like I have made the best decision by letting both of these math curriculums go. However, I wanna go ahead and go over my brief review and my brief reasons why I decided to dump both of these curriculums and choose the new math curriculum that we are using. And so far, so good. I don't wanna speak too soon on it, but so far our new curriculum choice has been working out for us. So you guys, we started off the year using Abeka Arithmetic 4. I did Abeka Arithmetic 3 with my daughter in our first year of homeschooling and it went very, very well. So we just went on to the next level. So you guys, right here in my phone, I'm gonna go briefly over my pros and my cons about Abeka Arithmetic 4. So my pros is I love Abeka's spiral approach to math. I love how they introduce a new concept. However, they still put that good built-in review of older concepts to be practiced and mastered throughout their curriculum. Another thing I love about Abeka is that it's straightforward. It's to the point, it's simple. You get your math problems, you're done. And my daughter loved that aspect about Abeka as well. Another one of my pros about Abeka, you guys, is that I really, really enjoy this speed drill and test workbook. My daughter was actually able to master all of her multiplication, division facts, reducing fractions. It was so many things she was able to master last year in the Abeka Arithmetic 3 speed drills just by doing these simple drills every single day. You guys, I made them really, really fun for my daughter. I would put a sticker on them. I would give her candy after she got a speed drill done. So I really made that aspect fun and I really feel like that was the reason why she was able to master those division, multiplication facts, and simple, reducing of fractions by using those speed drills. So I really love that booklet. Another thing I love about Abeka is that it has so much built-in supplemental practice. So if it is a concept we need to practice on, I can go on the back, use the supplemental practice. I was actually able to use the supplemental practice worksheets for like summer review for my daughter this past summer. And it was amazing. I didn't have to go out and buy any summer math workbooks. I was able to just use the rest of what I already had and I really feel like I got my money's worth out of that Abeka Arithmetic 3 workbook. So those are my pros. My cons about the Abeka Arithmetic is that I personally did not like the lesson plan setup for the Abeka Arithmetic. When we did Abeka Arithmetic 3, I felt very confident not using the lesson plans. And first, and another reason too, is that it was my first year of homeschooling and I really didn't have the funds to splurge on getting the lesson plan book. I really had to focus on getting all of my curriculum and really getting all of the things to start up our homeschools. So buying the lesson plans was just not a part of our budget for my first year of homeschooling. So I kind of just went without. However, going into my second year, I felt like I needed these lesson plans. Especially when we got to difficult concepts and I was seeing my daughter struggle with Abeka Arithmetic 4, I went ahead and got this. I found this one used you guys. So it was very affordable. I didn't pay like the full price. I'm really happy about that. However, just the lesson plans, it really didn't give me the instruction that I was looking for to teaching her the concepts. So we ended up like, or I ended up like ditching this lesson plan book and I just went back to using the workbook problems where it has the explanation on it to teach my daughter the math concepts. But when that wasn't working anymore, we were hitting some roadblocks with the math. That was when I decided to go ahead and supplement the Abeka Arithmetic. So my last thing about Abeka that I felt like was a big con for me was that I really feel like the math in the Abeka Arithmetic 4, it advances way too quickly for the mastery of these particular items. And that really wasn't my focus in my home school just to continue to push my daughter when she wasn't ready to learn those concepts. I mean, fourth grade, I feel like it's a really, really hard point with math because you're taking these simple instructions with math, this simple addition and you're bringing in these problems with these next multi-steps. And I really feel like fourth grade is when math becomes challenging and I didn't want to just continue to push, push, push my daughter when she wasn't grasping it. So like I said before, that's what led me to wanting to start to supplement the Abeka. I wasn't ready to completely let it go. However, I was willing to pause it, supplement it, slow it down. So I decided to go ahead and print off the simply good and beautiful math for. And supplement it. So we were doing two to three Abeka arithmetic four lessons a week and I was doing two of the simply good and beautiful lessons a week. Kind of just to like break it up. So either we would do three and two one week or two and three the next week just to break it up to slow down that math for her. One thing I can say about my pros with the simply good and beautiful math is that I love the video lesson aspect of it. I never was able to experience video lessons and I didn't realize that that was gonna be something I really enjoyed having in my home school. I mean, having my two toddlers, they're definitely busy. It was really easy for me to get my daughter set up with math, let her watch her video lesson. I was able to get my two toddler set up, whatever they need to get set up. So when it came time for me to make sure she understood that concept from the video lesson, it was really like a smooth transition. So that was just something that I never knew. I needed and wanted in my home school when it came to math. So that's definitely one of my pros. The videos in the simply good and beautiful math for I will say they're very interesting, they're very engaging. I did like how they took real life math concepts and they related it to every day. I mean, sometimes a kid needs to see how and when I'm going to use this math and why is it really important to me? And I really feel like the video lessons in the simply good and beautiful math, it really explained that very, very well. My cons about the simply good and beautiful math is that I really felt like it didn't give the child enough supplemental and practice to really, truly master certain concepts. And honestly, that just might be personal to my daughter. You guys, my daughter is just a type of kid that kind of needs that drill and kill. And I really feel bad to say it, but I mean, every kid is different, but my daughter definitely needs that repetition, she needs that extra practice before she truly feels confident in that concept. And that's just something that I learned about her. And I believe that's why the Abeka worked out so well for her in the third grade, was because it gave her that practice. However, the simply good and beautiful, it doesn't give that good spiral practice of concepts. If it mentioned or if they would do a review of a concept, they will only do it in a few lessons until the next one was brought back up. Now, to some kid that does advance quickly in math that can grasp the concepts, they may be perfectly fine with the amount of practice problems in the simply good and beautiful math. However, again, my daughter, she's just not that kid. Another thing that I didn't like about the simply good and beautiful math for was that it had a still a heavy focus on the mastery of multiplication facts. And in fourth grade math personally, I feel like multiplication facts should be mastered at this point. Maybe it's just a scope and sequence of the simply good and beautiful math and how their curriculum progresses versus Abeka and how they progress. I just felt like my daughter already mastered those skills. I would have preferred to see more multi-digit addition, multi-digit subtraction, even multi-digit multiplication in that extra practice instead of the multiplication and maybe take out that multiplication and put it into some like type of speed drill format to give those kids still the review of practice problems that they need to master in the fourth grade. And again, that just might be my personal opinion about the curriculum. And yeah, but I will say this, after looking up my state standards for the state of Georgia, the simply good and beautiful math for it actually met most of the standards for Georgia's math in the fourth grade. So maybe from coming from such an advanced curriculum, maybe that's just why it wasn't providing my daughter with the amount of practice and work that I was personally looking for. So yeah, so those are my pros and my cons to the simply good and beautiful math for. So you guys, as you can see, I had two curriculums like I said before that I ultimately was not in love with. So I just went ahead and I decided, like I said before, just to drop it and go ahead and start my fifth grade math. So you guys, if you know this already, I am on a no curriculum by year. I am not buying or purchasing any more curriculum for my kids. Last year I purchased all the curriculum that I needed for my daughter's fifth grade year and for my three year old who will be four really, really soon for her pre-K or TK year. So I already have all of those curriculum selections picked out and I knew I was not going to be bringing simply good and beautiful math or a Becca into our fifth grade year. So I decided to go ahead and pull off on our shelf our fifth grade math. And our fifth grade math that we are doing is actually Saxon. Some of you guys may be surprised, some of you may not, but I decided to go with Saxon. Everything that I was looking for in a curriculum, I feel like Saxon gave it to me. It gives me the instruction that I need to teach my daughter the concepts. I feel like it's very thorough in that it has the mental math component that I love from the simply good and beautiful math that Becca arithmetic for didn't have. So I really feel like Saxon is really giving me everything that I really was looking for in a curriculum. And that's why I chose it for my daughter's fifth grade year. I gave my daughter the placement test for Saxon. And you guys, after using a Becca arithmetic three and half of a Becca arithmetic four, we ended off on a Becca arithmetic in less than I believe 55 of 170. She actually tested into Saxon seven six. So as you guys can see, I have both of the curriculums here. Oh you guys, I forgot to mention, I actually purchased both of these Saxons used from amazon.com. And I got both of the sets of Saxon for $60. Saxon is very expensive. This curriculum costs like a hundred bucks per grade level. So if you want to try out Saxon or any type of curriculum, always shop use. That's how you're able to save money. And yeah, let's get back to the video. She tested into this one. However, just after looking through Saxon seven six when it was in my hands, I kind of felt like just for maturity wise, I wasn't ready to put my daughter in this Saxon seven six even though she placed into it. I felt more confident and comfortable putting her into Saxon six five. So she has started Saxon six five and along with Saxon six five, we are also utilizing Nicole the math lady. And I originally heard about Nicole the math lady from, I forgot her name, but her channel is called My Cathedral Garden. I originally heard about Nicole the math lady from her and I looked it up because I knew at that point I was no longer happy with my math curriculum. And I knew I wanted to have like video lessons in my math and that was important to me. So so far you guys, I will say we are only like one week into Saxon six five. However, my daughter, she really said she enjoys it. She says that she likes the video lessons and prefers Nicole's math, the math lady video lessons over the good and the beautiful math lessons. And I asked her why and she told me the only reason why she prefers it is she likes it and gets straight to the point. So my daughter is probably just a no fluff type of girl. She just wants to get straight to the math problems. And I'm happy we have switched to Saxon. My goal for Saxon you guys is to continue it throughout her homeschooling years and journey. And I want to continue to utilize Nicole the math lady. So I really feel like I can't give you guys like a thorough review of Saxon because we are very, very, very fresh in it. However, so far so good. And I really feel like she's thriving very, very well with Saxon any gaps that I feel like I might be nervous about. I feel like Saxon is going to fill in those gaps. However, I'm actually not as nervous as I am about gaps because I just could not believe she tested so well within Saxon. So I guess we're okay. We're just going to stick with this and stick with our math journey. I'm really happy that I found the math curriculum that I feel like my daughter, she looks forward to. She comes in our homeschooling room early in the morning. She turns on her Nicole the math lady. She does her lesson practice. One thing I will say is that Saxon does have like a lot of practice. But when you do the video lessons for the Nicole the math lady, you can select whether you want your child to do all the problems within Saxon or the evens or the odds. So I just chose evens on even days and odds on odd days. And if I do see she needs additional practice then after I check her work we can kind of do those problems together. So I am really loving how Nicole the math lady offers that to simplify Saxon. But so far you guys so good. I think I found what is working for my daughter. My daughter, she struggles with math when it comes to the introduction of concepts and really grasping them. But I feel like once she has that, she's like flying. So I think that Saxon is gonna provide her with what she needs. So you guys I can't wait to give you more updates on our math journey and more updates on Saxon as we get further along into it. So yeah, so you guys this is today's video. This is our homeschooling math journey for this year. I hope you guys enjoy today's video. I hope you can kind of take away anything from this video. And if it's one thing I do want you guys to take away from this video is if it's not working for you, just drop it. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks. All that matters is what's gonna work out for your babies in your homeschool. So you guys thank you so much for watching today's video. I hope you enjoy and I look forward to seeing everybody in my next one. Bye.