One great thing about homeschooling is the crazy amount of options available to us. We can choose a curriculum for any learning style and family routine (like this variety of homeschool math curriculum), but with all of these choices, we often find ourselves unable to decide which one will be best.
The point of this post is to give you homeschool math curriculum reviews from moms who have used them and can tell you why they work for their family.
What is the Best Homeschool Math Curriculum for You?
Many parents start out looking for the best homeschool math curriculum, but the truth is there are so many good ones out there that are high quality. The question then becomes which homeschool math curriculum will work best for your family and your kids.
Are you a hands on parent, wanting to be involved with every aspect of their learning or do videos and online tutorials appeal to you? What is your child’s learning style? How much time do you spend homeschooling?
Hopefully, these reviews give you an insight to how these homeschool math curriculum will work for you.
Math Curriculum for Kindergarten and Early Elementary
Teaching math through play is the best way to go about it in the preschool days. So if you have littles enjoy the days before curriculum! I have found that some curriculums are better for Kindergarten and early elementary but become so full of “busy work” that the kids burn out after about third grade. Also, some amazing math curriculums available to homeschoolers are only meant for younger grades.
Apologia Math Review
We love, love, love, Apologia for science (check out my reviews on Anatomy and Botany). Did you know that they have a math program now for young learners? It is just as hands-on as their science books and has been a perfect fit for my very active 6 year old.
Christian Light Education Review
While Christian Light Education’s math curriculum is available for all grades, we have found that they shine more for the younger grades. They have a wonderful was of teaching numbers and basic math that is fun and interesting.
As the children advance, there is a large amount of review problems and the lessons become lengthy. I have also heard several parents mention that the more complicated math is not explained well and little help is provided to the parent to assist their kids.
Miquon Math Review
Aryn from Aryn the Librarian writes this about Miquon Math.
My favorite Elementary math program is Miquon. It’s only downside? It is only available for 1st-3rd grade. Spiral based and hands on (using Cuisinaire Rod manipulatives), there are definitely right and wrong answers, but plenty of room for creativity!
Homeschool Math Curriculum for All Grades
Math Mammoth Review
Lindsay from A Heart for All Students writes this about Math Mammoth.
One homeschool math program that I absolutely love is Math Mammoth. In fact, I recommend it all the time.
Math Mammoth is an excellent resource because the program has two curriculum options depending upon your child’s needs.
While MM has a traditional series of grade-level math resources, the real goldmine is their line of subject specific materials.
For example, MM has mastery based intensives for kids who need extra support in the following foundational math skills :
- Addition
- Subtraction
- Multiplication
- Division
Additionally, Math Mammoth offers units focused solely on more abstract (and often challenging) math concepts such as time and money. (And side note- forget the grade levels associated with those subjects- time and money basics are essential regardless of age, right?)
Back to Math Mammoth, even more beneficial is the fact that each subject-specific unit is available as a simple download. This is awesome because it allows homeschool parents the flexibility to choose which lessons to print out and focus on.
Additionally, Maria, the creator of Math Mammoth, does an excellent job providing students with tons of opportunities to learn concepts in a variety of ways. This is a huge win for kids with learning differences who may need to visualize math concepts from different “angles.” (No math pun intended. Ha!)
The best part? Each unit costs just a few dollars! Seriously, who doesn’t want to save a ton of money on curriculum, right?
All in all, I highly recommend Math Mammoth as an affordable and solid mastery-based homeschool math program.
Math for a Living Education Review
Aryn writes this about Math for a Living Education.
Second favorite is Math for a Living education. Story-based and full of fun, This curriculum relates math to real life, and introduced me to right-brained flashcards. These flash cards can be created by the student, using a picture/story to connect the math facts, plus it tells the whole story-It includes the answer. This seemed weird to me at first, but it works very well!
Right Start Math Review
Erin from Erin Grieger shares why she loves Right Start Math.
As a former high school math teacher, finding an effective and quality math curriculum was very important to me. I wanted to find the best homeschool math curriculum that would encourage my daughter to understand and be able to conceptualize mathematical concepts, not memorize formulas. Since I understood that the best way for children to learn was to incorporate fun activities, manipulatives, and let them learn by discovery, I knew that the curriculum I chose would have to include these elements.
Right Start Math was an obvious choice for me because it included manipulatives for the student to be engaged actively in the lesson, a game book that describes the games you can play to reinforce the lesson, focuses on concepts, not just the rules, guided lessons for the parent so I can read exactly what they have for me and no extensive prep work ahead of time, and it has something for every type of learner.
The visual learner will be able to conceptualize the concepts with the manipulatives. The kinesthetic learner actually gets to play with all the different manipulatives. The auditory learner will be listening to your guided instruction through the math curriculum. Right Start Math is also effective for students with other learning challenges such as dyslexia.I truly believe Right Start Math is one of the best math curriculums for students to truly understand mathematical concepts.
Did you know that one 20 minute game is the same as completing a worksheet? I didn’t! When I read that statement from the author of Right Start Math I knew I found a math curriculum that would make learning fun for our girls. There are math games that have become favorites for them, that they ask to play! Also, I love that the manipulative set is good for ALL the different levels and that I can use them for all my children.
Our girls will play with the manipulatives even when we’re done with the lesson just for fun. Plus the teacher books are reusable for each child. Another important aspect that I appreciate is the topics repeat each year, and get more in-depth as your child advances in their understanding. This helps keep concepts and ideas at the forefront of their mind and because they revisit them yearly. Right Start Math incorporates manipulatives and games to make learning math fun and through that, it really helps students understand mathematical concepts.
Saxon Math Review
Leah from Simple Home Blessings loves Saxon math and says this about it.
Saxon is a great no-nonsense, no-frills curriculum to give kids a sturdy math foundation. The Saxon curriculum features a two-pronged approach to math learning – incremental development and constant meaningful review. These two together removed the struggles I had with teaching math without having a solid foundation myself (aka, I am not a math person) In fact I have learned so much in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade – things I had either never been taught or were not mastered sufficiently to go into long term memory.
Incremental development refers to one concept taught for one lesson. The bites of math are small enough to make it easy to learn and easy to teach. Constant meaningful review provides the repetition necessary for students to create what is called automaticity – the ability to do two things at once if one of the things is so easy it can be done without thinking. Automaticity is helpful to kids in later grades of math when they are doing multi-step problems. They don’t have to take the time to “calculate;” their brains do it automatically.
I have noticed the benefits of this solid math foundation as we have ventured into Saxon’s upper elementary grades. My kid has absolutely no struggles with doing math. For more information check out “Starting with Saxon Math” which includes a free 12 page primer for parents.
Math U See Review
Melissa from Pocket Homeschool writes this about Math U See.
We have been using Math-U-See for 4 years now for my two kids. We love its mastery-based focus and I especially love that I can use the DVDs to teach my kids the math concept. When my child is stuck, we can watch it again and that helps me try to figure out how to explain it to them.
I also love that it brings up and connect logical concepts in math and real life. Like when you are learning how doubling works, that’s when you learn that there are two pints in a quart, because then you are connecting that skill of doubling with calculating how many pints are in a quart. It feels like it makes math relevant for our whole lives.
MPC Mathmatics Review
Melissa from Beyond Mommying has this to say about MPC Mathematics.
Through our many years of homeschooling my four kids, we’ve tried so many secular math programs. We’ve done dollar store work books, full textbook based programs, and 100% online options, and I feel like I’ve looked at every option out there.
But we continued to struggle for years with finding a program that my kids didn’t hate; that didn’t feel like an overwhelming amount of work for my kids or me; and that provided enough instruction, practice, and concept review for my kids to actually be successful. And then I found MCP Mathematics which meets all of my requirements and is actually affordable!
MCP Mathematics is available for Kindergarten through 6th grades and is sold in Homeschool Kits (each kit is under $55 and additional student workbooks are also available) comprised of a comprehensive student workbook and teacher’s guide which includes all problem solutions, lesson plans, additional chapter tests, and suggestions for helping struggling students as well as additional activities for more advanced students.
Chapters in MCP Mathematics are arranged into a series of 2-page lessons followed by an end of chapter test and multiple choice cumulative assessment. Each lesson consists of an instruction and guided practice page, which I complete with my learners, and a full page of problems, which my students generally complete independently.
And rather than working through one concept at a time, MCP Mathematics provides tons of opportunity to review and revisit skills as you move through the program which has made a huge difference in my kids’ ability to retain concepts already learned.
Singapore Math Review
Sarah from Homeschooling 4 Him writes this about Singapore Math.
Singapore Math is a rigorous math curriculum that is based on the government of Singapore in the 1980s. This curriculum uses lots of hands-on materials and pictures to teach kids how to think about problems. The main curriculum is called Primary Mathematics and it’s written for kids in 1st-6th grades. Kindergarten is available as well. There are a number of different versions and editions of the Primary Mathematics, and a new classroom version called Dimensions Math has also been released.
Many homeschool families love this curriculum because it teaches kids how to think and solve problems, and not just memorize math facts.
Suzanne from Homemade Wonderland also has a lot of good to say about Singapore Math.
Our family has tried many different math programs over the last six years. One of the programs that works the best for our family is Singapore math.
Singapore math is a great, budget-friendly math curriculum. We love that the curriculum has bright, engaging pages that can hold our son’s attention.
The parent guide includes ideas for hands-on activities and games to help you further understand the concepts. They even have an online resource page that shows you what storybooks, manipulatives, and tools you can use to reinforce what you are learning.
We believe that learning through both book work and hands-on learning is what works best for our family which is why Singapore math works for us.
Online Math Courses
For me, online math courses were huge. I do not like math and I’m not particularly good at it. Thank goodness we have so many amazing homeschool curriculums available to us!
Teaching Textbooks Review
We love Teaching Textbooks, especially for grades 7 and up. I can honestly say that I dislike math and by the time we reached 7th grade I simply did not want to spend time every day explaining math concepts. With three younger siblings, the house was noisy and my 12 year old was having trouble.
Teaching Textbooks came to the rescue with their easy to follow math lessons. I love how he can go back and reference any lesson video when he has trouble answering the review questions.
Anita from Naturally Anita writes this about Teaching Textbooks.
I used Teaching Textbooks with my kids from middle school through high school. I loved Teaching Textbooks because they made me feel like I was learning math with my kids! Their video tutorials were helpful in teaching my kids the more complicated math concepts, as math was never my strength! This easy to understand and student friendly math curriculum includes fun drawings to demonstrate concepts, as well as entertaining word problems – not like those boring, dry ones that you find in other math textbooks.
My most loved part of Teaching Textbooks was that it graded each lesson as it was done. The immediate feedback helped my kids (and this math-challenged mom) to be able to see the mistake and make corrections prior to forgetting what we were even working on!
Teaching Textbooks uses downloads now, as their new and improved version. When both my kids and myself loved a curriculum, it was a great day! I hope you love it and find it as helpful as we did. Be sure to check out more of Anita’s curriculum suggestions at “My Top Homeschool Curriculum Picks”.
Math Dynamo Review
I am excited for you to meet my friend Erin who started a Youtube channel to help kids with Calculus. Yep, I think she’s a little weird in that she actually thinks Calculus is fun, but if you have a high schooler be sure to check out her channel Math Dynamo and read what she has to say about it.
I LOVE Calculus! I know, it’s ok, I’m a math geek and most people think I’m crazy. However, did you know that Calculus is where all those years of math come together? It is where you learn WHY and HOW all the previous math knowledge you learned matters!
Learning why a function and graph behave the way they do and realizing it is not random, but perfectly put together and interwoven in a way so intricate that you can SEE God’s hand in it all. To me, learning Calculus is like finding out the secret code to all previous mathematical concepts that you learned in the past and you feel pretty darn cool understanding and being able to use it!
I was a high school math teacher for six years before I stayed at home to raise our daughters. Teaching Calculus for those 6 years was the highlight and the best part. I truly enjoyed teaching and stretching students to a level they had not previously been before. Even though my girls are not at Calculus level yet, I missed teaching that material.
Therefore, I decided to start a Math Dynamo Calculus Youtube channel to help other students currently in Calculus. I wanted to be able to show my excitement and love for this level of mathematics that students usually think is boring. And hopefully give them a deeper, better understanding and dare I say, enjoyment, of Calculus!
Supplements for Your Homeschool Math Curriculum
All of the homeschool math curriculums mentioned so far are full stand alone curriculums but sometimes fun supplements can be added for a pleasant change in routine.
Addition Facts that Stick
Sarah from Homeschooling 4 Him writes about Addition Facts that Stick. This was new to me.
Addition Facts that Stick is a supplemental book and curriculum written by Kate Snow to help kids learn how to memorize their addition facts. This book is part of a series that also include books for subraction, multiplication, and division facts.
In this book, the list of addiction facts is divided up into smaller groups that can all be solved with the same strategy. The book shares a specific strategy to solve that group of facts, and then includes a game that kids can play to practice their facts. The games in the book are perfect for making practicing addition facts fun!
Life of Fred
Life of Fred is a series of math books full of humorous stories that teach math in their everyday application. Mathematical ideas and concepts are taught in such a way that your child will learn them without knowing it and will immediately be able to use them in life situations.
Life of Fred covers basic addition, subtractions, multiplication, and division as well as decimals, precents, algebra, physics, and more.
The Best Homeschool Math Curriculum
As you can see, the best homeschool math curriculum is the one that fits your family’s routines and your child’s learning style.
I hope this list homeschool math curriculum reviews are helpful and not overwhelming! Do you have a curriculm that works well in your family? Are you new to homeschooling and searching for options? I’d love to hear form you in the comments below!
Be sure to check out my homeschooling page for more helpful posts!