I have been very intrigued by the We can do thread but I see Saxon does not seem to have an international curriculum which includes the metric system. Or hopefully im wrong and I missed it on the website… :yes:
If there isn’t can someone recommend a math curriculum that I can use at home with my dd? That would be as good or as close to as good as Saxon.
Thanks in advance.
Kimba
Saxon teaches both metric and imperial, though I couldn’t tell you which appears most often. MEP is in metric only (as far as I’ve noticed) and seems to be very comprehensive and FREE. I don’t know about any others.
We are Australian and my son has completed Saxon 5/4 and we have just begun 6/5. Saxon does teach both imperial and metric which actually surprised me (I wasn’t actually expecting the metric). It is more heavy on the imperial as you would expect of an American curriculum. I, personally, don’t see it as an issue. Math is math whether it is in pounds or kilograms. I figure if my child can do the math that is in Saxon than he is going to have no problems knowing whether we use kilograms or pounds and the difference between them. I just see it as another math concept that he can learn.
And so far I really like Saxon so even if I was concerned about imperial vs metric I would still be very hesitant before abandoning it completely. But saying that, if it is an issue for you, because of the way Saxon is designed where each concept is practised a little throughout many lessons you can’t just take the measurement or the money section out and replace it with a metric alternative.
We do all the American money by converting it randomly to Aussie dollars and coins. No problems there as yet. The curriculum has both metric and imperial, slightly more imperial. It also has some conversions between the two. Mostly we skip these. If I am around I just make up another question for her to do based on our weights or distances. Since they go to school, skipping them doesn’t worry me ( although their grades in measurement and volume were noticeable lower than everything else last year!) I know they will cover it in school, at a lower level.
It isn’t a good enough reason not to use the curriculum for everything else. I can always find a crash course in imperial so she can do them or I can teach her metric separately. I don’t think I will need to though as she is getting all the metric questions right. Knowing imperial could be useful but I doubt it is useful enough to waste time on as an Aussie. I mean most of the world gave up on it in favour of our base 10, she always has that old dinosaur excuse to try lol
Lol. We do have metric in the US. But most people don’t remember it from school. They have been teaching it for many decades and telling kids for just as many that they need to learn it becasue that is what they will use when they grow up. Sadly everything is still imperial, but in the last 10 years I have noticed thing have both measurements marked on them.
Americans place a higher emphasis on fractions than I remember at school in Australia. Where as we did a lot of decimal work.
Ok. So, I taught in a North American school whilst overseas for 5 years. It was staffed almost primarily by North Americans (mostly Americans) and it surprises me to hear that metric is taught in American schools. I really wouldn’t have thought that it was after living with Americans for 5 years!
I am wondering whether my time spent teaching in an American school is why the measurement and money in Saxon really don’t bother me. Same for spelling. I had someone mention to me that they were using an American curriculum for homeschooling but they made sure that they bought an Australian spelling curriculum because they didn’t want their children learning American spelling (really don’t know how you can stop that now days). And I realised that it didn’t bother me whether my children learnt to spell using American rules or English/Australian rules. I figure as long as they can spell lol and we all know that there are differences and if we need to we can work out what we need either way.
Is it odd that I want to teach imperial? It is barely taught now in the UK but I learned to cook and buy food (and still do) in pounds and ounces, everybody weighs themselves in stones and measures height in feet, and we drive in miles, so I’d rather have an imperial-focused curriculum because metric is so easy to teach and will be learned for science anyway. I learned to measure in inches (because that is what my Mum uses) but can just as easily use cm (because that is what we used in school) or even mm (because my Dad works in the building trade) and I would like for Nikki to have the same flexibility.
For the money I will switch $ for £ and cents for pence, but they are both decimal currencies so there isn’t really any difference in the maths. Short term, he will probably learn more about money by helping me pay in the shops or saving to buy a new toy anyway, so I’m not all that bothered :laugh:
I wish I learnt imperial. I have been living in the US for 10 years and I still struggle with it. How many oz goes into a pint qt etc gets so confusing. And frankly, nearly all amercicans I know can’t figure it out. They don’t need to memorize it either!
A friend recently asked a bunch of us how to convert a recipe that yielded 1 cup instead of 3/4 of a cup if she needed 1/3 a cup and 1/2 a cup of ingredients. The only people who could figure it out was a friend with a math degree and me. I was able to do it easily in metric.
I honestly don’t know the British money system but here in the US it is different to Australia. It is similar that it runs on the decimal system but in the US they use 1c (penny) 5c (nickel) 10c (dime) 25c (quarters). They also have 50c and $1 coins that are seldom used then the bills are $1, $2(extremely rare) $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100.
In Australia it is 5c 10c 20c 50c $1 and $2 coins and $5, $10 $20, $50, $100 notes.
For me it is so much tricker making change in the US with all the pennies and quarters. To be honest I seldom handle change because I use a card, or I just give a $1 bill if the price is something like 87c.
I was a whizz when I used to make change in Australia. I just want to make sure James it very comfortable with both.
We have 1p 2p 5p 10p 20p 50p £1 and £2 coins and £5 £10 £20 and £50 notes, so much more similar to the Aussie system than American, but that isn’t really what’s important (since that is what he learns in daily life using money in shops) - what I meant by the maths being the same is for the type of questions like $215.38 + $138.46 or ‘this book usually costs $54 and is on sale with a 30% discount - how much is it now?’ where the $ can be changed for £ with no mathematical difference to the question or answer. Earlier ‘how many quarters in a dollar’ type questions would have to be changed accordingly, with different answers (since you would have to use 20p or 50p) but I expect that I’ll still be sitting close when we are at that level so it shouldn’t make much difference.
Ahh. Very much more like the Aussie system. We used to have 1c and 2c coins. I remember when they were phased out. 