Our goal in homeschool math is to keep it practical and avoid the tedious textbooks that struck fear in my heart during my own school days. Math is a subject that my family has a love/hate relationship with…as in some of us absolutely love it, going so far as to do math for fun, and others of us hate it with a fierce passion.
Every resource on this list we use or have used at various times. Smartick serves as sort of a spine for all of arithmetic and the rest of the resources we use on an as needed, as wanted, per kid basis.
Smartick is an app based program designed for kids ages 4-14 and it is the one program that I can honestly say that I think everyone should try. I have seen it work for children who love math, hate math, struggle with math, and those who are working grade levels ahead. My kids do it on weekends and holidays, for fun (completely unprompted), and I’ve heard from other parents who have said the same thing. This is the one resource I consistently tell everyone who asks me about homeschooling to try, and I have heard from others who have had the exact same experience that I have: it works, its fun, kids love it, and it completely turned math around in their homeschool. Smartick was originally designed to be a supplement, a sort of virtual math tutor, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s not just extra practice for math students already know, it teaches new concepts extraordinarily well. Explanations are clear and visual and it demonstrates concepts in a variety of ways with a variety of types of problems. It uses AI to design personalized lessons so that your child can learn at their own pace. Because of this I’ve found that the difficulty level remains fairly consistent- difficult enough that it takes work but easy enough that they can be successful. Lessons are limited to 15 minutes a day but once that 15 minute lesson is complete students gain access to a virtual world complete with logic games, math competitions, and a virtual store where they can spend the “ticks” they earned for correct answer in their lesson. Students can correct missed problems for extra ticks, and the student and parent can go back and review missed problems as well.
Beast Academy is available as an online program or as a printed book/workbook for elementary school students. The “text” book is actually a comic book with a cast of monsters who make even the most complicated concepts fun. This program emphasizes mathematical thinking and problem solving and there is no “drill”. There are very few problems in each lesson which may cause it to appear deceptively simple but the problems are challenging and require the student to really understand the material in order to solve them. Because of this it works especially well for students who are mathematically inclined, students who struggle with math may need a curriculum that breaks concepts down into smaller steps with more in-depth instruction. The program is leveled 2-5 but in my experience this does not corelate directly with grade levels so you probably want to use their placement test to find the right fit for your child.
Life of Fred is one of the most unique math curriculums on the market. It is a complete Kindergarten-High School Match curriculum based around the (often ridiculous) adventures of a 5 year old math professor named Fred. This curriculum is light on drill (although in the higher levels there are supplemental books with additional practice problems if you choose to use them) and heavy on application. If Fred isn’t using it in “real life” then it doesn’t make it into the text. The book are hardback and non-consumable (and they’re often available at the library if you want to try them out or use them for free). The author makes a point of saying that Life of Fred is a complete curriculum and not a supplement, but practically speaking it would work either way. This curriculum is engaging even for the kids who don’t love math, and while it is a much better choice for those who struggle with math than something like Beast Academy it may not have enough explanation on some concepts for those who find math difficult. In many cases, concepts are only explained one way, which can also be a downside for those who don’t grasp math quite as quickly. But it’s also possible to supplement just those few concepts with something like Kahn Academy.
ST Math is an online math program for preK-8th graders. At the moment it’s Adobe Flash based, but its supposed to be updated this summer and I’m exited for the changes. ST Math does one thing really well, and that is to illustrate math concepts visually. If you have a student who is a visual learner or who struggles to see how numbers or math concepts work then ST math might be a good choice. It shows both the problem and the answer in a way that lets your child see why their answer is correct or incorrect, and it introduces concepts with visual objects before introducing the numeric symbols. For some children this approach is really helpful, for others its repetitive. The manufacturers consider it a game-based program and while I’m not sure I would have thought to qualify it that way it is certainly more fun than pages of practice problems or math worksheets. There is little to no instruction, and I haven’t figured out if its designed that way because students are expected to use the visuals to discover how the math works of it its because it’s designed to be supplemental, extra practice for concepts they have already learned. Either way it’s an important thing to be aware of. The other thing worth noting is that in most cases you have to get all of the problems right to move on to the next level, but it doesn’t start you over once you’ve missed too many to move on. You finish the level and then don’t pass it and have to begin again. This is a good way to make sure a concept is fully understood before moving on, but it can be really frustrating for some kids. Oddly enough, this only applies to the intermediate levels and not the final tests s at the end of each chapter. If you don’t pass the final tests it moves you on anyway. However all of that is minor if you have a student who learns visually, who needs to see concepts illustrated and demonstrated in order to understand them, or who needs to see why an answer is wrong before understanding how to get it right.
Math with Confidence is an elementary math program designed by Harvard graduate and homeschool mom Kate Snow. At the moment this curriculum is only for Kindergarten and 1st Grade, with subsequent grade levels expected to be released each year. At first glance Math With Confidence may appear to be more of a traditional curriculum than the other resources listed here, with the traditional teachers guide/workbook model, but looking closer you see this is not your ordinary math program. The meat of the program are the games and activities in the teachers guide, the workbook is more supplementary. The games are simple and use simple household objects but they demonstrate the concepts in a very thorough way. The activities are also designed with a small kindergarten attention span in mind. My favorite part is that in the Kindergarten curriculum (the only level I have used) there is a recommended picture book for each week designed to illustrate and reinforce that week’s number concept. This is simple but thorough, and my experience with Kate Snow’s products is that the scope and sequence are spot on. The concepts not only build on each other but build with the child’s developmental readiness and they’re thorough without busywork.
Math Facts that Stick consists of 4 books, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. These books are also written by Kate Snow (See the Math with Confidence review above) and have one purpose- to teach the basic math facts. In that sense they’re all about drill, but in a way that’s a lot more fun than you would expect from a math book designed to drill basic facts. They are mostly game-based, she introduces a series of basic games in the early chapters that you then use to practice the facts through out the rest of the book. Each day you play the assigned game and complete the assigned worksheets. But in my experience, it works, it works well, and it’s a fun way to learn the basic facts. These books make an excellent supplement to the other curriculum I have listed here.
Your Business Math is an upper elementary/junior high school math “currlculum.” While I’m calling this a curriculum, it is not a full year program. It’s either a supplement or a quarter-long “detour”. This is practical math at it’s finest, as kids run their own business (chose from a pet store, book store, or sports store) and do all the accounting that goes along with it. There is a surprising amount of math packed into this course and its a very good crash course or review of decimals and percent as well as basic accounting and arithmetic skills. It’s listed as ages 8-12 and while that will certainly be the interest level, tread carefully on the younger age of that spectrum; most 8 year olds I know can not multiply decimals well enough to calculate a 6% sales tax. If you are having your child do all of the math by hand, realize that this will be labor intensive…calculating markup, totaling orders, ledgers, profit loss statements, writing checks, tracking inventory, and paying bills adds up to a lot of math! Also be warned that because the student has the ability to make a number of choices as they go through the program, the answer key is of limited use- by and large you will need to run the calculations yourself to check their work and that adds up to a lot of number crunching for the parent! Also, while I believe this program is probably designed to be done by hand, depending on the ages of the kids, and whether it was our primary math or a supplement this could be used to teach calculator skills. You could easily allow your child to check themselves with a calculaotr, or even do part of the work on a calculator. Because of the wide age range, this can be fun to do with multiple kids and have them “compete” to see who can make the most profit. Because there is an element of chance but you also make decisions on spending that affect your outcome, this is a really fun competition. Also, you can “hack” this and use it to teach Microsoft Excel skills having your students setup their business in Excel instead of on paper.
Barron’s Painless Series In some ways I guess this is the most “text-bookish” of the resources listed here. But seeing as it comes in a small, non-intimidating, paperback volume and lacks the mountains of busywork often associated with math texts these are very practical, approachable books. Honestly, I started out grabbing them as a reference for myself, just so that I could work though it and refresh my memory on algebra/pre-algebra before I am expected to help my kids through these subjects, but I like them so much that the kids and I now work through them together. We are working through the Painless Word Problems book together as part of our morning time, and we are happily making our way though the algebra series as well. Even in the algebra books they are heavy on word problems, with strong real-life application. The explanations are very clear, and easy to follow. My only, sort-of complaint, more caveat is that if your child really needs extra practice in an area then you may need to supplement with some additional practice problems. Most of the time I love the bite-sized lessons and practice problems, but once in awhile we need a little bit more.