Piney Woods Homeschool

Ray's Arithmetic was one of the first books I bought when I decided to homeschoool.  Really, it's a set of books, and I bought the reprinted box set on ebay, determined to give my kids a good start in math using time-tested materials.  The box set comes with a teacher guide from Ruth Beechick, and that's the guide I used to get an idea how the books should work.  Immediately I ran into difficulties, though, because the prescribed sequence didn't match my child's needs.  I think I was a member of a Yahoo group that discussed Ray's specifically or maybe a broader category that included Ray's, and that's where I found out about the original teacher guide for Ray's .  That changed everything! If you're planning to use Ray's Arithmetic to teach math, sit down and read that teacher guide.  You'll see more clearly how the books are meant to work together.  In fact, you'll see that you don't even need to use a book for quite awhile, sin...

I have planned to use Ray’s Arithmetic for our math curriculum since I first thought about homeschooling, more than 5 years ago.  Since we started actually using it two years ago, though, I’ve been struggling to figure out how it was intended to be used.  The books don’t have instructions for the teacher, and the teacher guide that comes with the reprints, by Ruth Beechick, did not satisfy me.  I have several posts on this blog where I’ve analyzed Charlotte Mason’s arithmetic recommendations and explained how I’ve adjusted Rays to fit those, but I still didn’t think I was using the material as effectively as I’d like.  (Fortunately, my oldest has natural math ability so she hasn’t been bothered too much by all this.) On the Ray’s Arithmetic Yahoo group I learned some time ago about the Eclectic Manual of Methods , which is a teacher guide for a variety of materials including the McGuffey Readers and Rays Arithmetic.  I found working from a pdf ...

I have planned to use Ray’s Arithmetic for our math curriculum since I first thought about homeschooling, more than 5 years ago.  Since we started actually using it two years ago, though, I’ve been struggling to figure out how it was intended to be used.  The books don’t have instructions for the teacher, and the teacher guide that comes with the reprints, by Ruth Beechick, did not satisfy me.  I have several posts on this blog where I’ve analyzed Charlotte Mason’s arithmetic recommendations and explained how I’ve adjusted Rays to fit those, but I still didn’t think I was using the material as effectively as I’d like.  (Fortunately, my oldest has natural math ability so she hasn’t been bothered too much by all this.) On the Ray’s Arithmetic Yahoo group I learned some time ago about the Eclectic Manual of Methods , which is a teacher guide for a variety of materials including the McGuffey Readers and Rays Arithmetic.  I found working from a pdf co...

We are still using Ray’s Arithmetic as our math text, having just finished Term 2 of Ambleside ‘s Year 2 with my newly 8 yodd.  We have completed addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and I am extremely pleased with dd’s understanding of the math processes involved.  She still needs drill to have fluency with the math facts, but we will continue to drill using Peggy Kaye’s Games for Math and our math wrap-ups as well as practicing with real-life situations whenever possible. This year we have added a weekly lesson from Edward Zaccaro’s Primary Grade Challenge Math .  This excellent, living math book introduces concepts like fractions and decimals and percents that we otherwise wouldn’t reach for years, and it also adds an element of intellectual stimulation that arithmetic lacks. One thing I would still like to do is to study the Manual of Methods that went with the original Ray’s Arithmetic (which differs substantially from the Parent-Te...

We are using Ray’s Arithmetic for math, but modifying it to fit the plan laid out by CM in Volume 1 .  We are now almost finished with Term 2 of Year 1, so we’ve been schooling for almost 24 weeks, approximately.  We’ve finished the addition and subtraction lessons, although I think we need some review to cement the information.  I suspect that I discontinued the use of counters sooner than I should have, mostly because I was on bedrest and using the counters was inconvenient.  We have done the first three multiplication/division lessons, and so far they have gone very well.  This seems to be because dd has already grasped the concepts without the lessons, though. I do think I’m going to add in some addition/subtraction review activities, probably games, so that we don’t lose those facts and to help improve her grasp of them.  But yes, so far I’m pleased with the way these lessons have worked out.

***Update:  I no longer use the Beechick guide.  Instead I use the original teacher guide published in the Eclectic Manual of Methods.  As a result, our early math lessons look much different from what I planned here.*** How much of this is completed in Year 1 remains to be seen.  Ruth Beechick’s Parent-Teacher Guide assumes only addition and subtraction are covered in first grade, but she also uses lessons I-X, which I am omitting as not being in line with CM’s recommendations.  Besides which, we don’t need the practice learning the actual numbers conceptually that those lessons would provide, and I don’t want to work on writing numbers before moving on.  I’ll fold that into our penmanship work.  The concrete lessons on weights and measures will follow the model outlined by CM in Volume 1 and described in a post below . _____ Lesson XI – Addition 1 _____ Lesson XXV – Subtraction 1 _____ Lesson XII – Addition 2 _____ Lesson XXVI – Sub...

***Update:  I no longer use the Beechick guide.  Instead I use the original  teacher guide  published in the Eclectic Manual of Methods.  As a result, our early math lessons look much different from what I planned here.*** Here’s my tentative plan for Ray’s New Primary Arithmetic, just through multiplication and division. _____ Lesson XI – Addition 1 _____ Lesson XXV – Subtraction 1 _____ Lesson XII – Addition 2 _____ Lesson XXVI – Subtraction 2 _____ Lesson XIII – Addition 3 _____ Lesson XXVII – Subtraction 3 _____ Lesson XIV – Addition 4 _____ Lesson XXVIII – Subtraction 4 _____ Lesson XV – Addition 5 _____ Lesson XXIX – Subtraction 5 _____ Lesson XVI – Addition 6 _____ Lesson XXX – Subtraction 6 _____ Lesson XVII – Addition 7 _____ Lesson XXXI – Subtraction 7 _____ Lesson XVIII – Addition 8 _____ Lesson XXXII – Subtraction 8 _____ Lesson XIX – Addition 9 _____ Lesson XXXIII – Subtraction 9 _____ Lesson XX – Addition 10 _____ Lesson ...

***Update:  I no longer use the Beechick guide.  Instead I use the original  teacher guide  published in the Eclectic Manual of Methods.  As a result, our early math lessons look much different from what I planned here.  And the Eclectic Manual meshes well with Charlotte Mason! *** I have for years now planned to use Ray’s Arithmetic when my dd was ready for formal math.  That time is now, and I’m finding as I look closely at both Ray’s New Primary Arithmetic (this links to a copy of the actual text) and Charlotte Mason’s math recommendations (page 253 at the link) that the two are not exactly in sync.  I prefer to follow CM’s recommendations, but I’m hoping I can modify Ray’s to fit so that I don’t have to create the whole shebang from scratch. I think we can follow this course for the first several lessons.  My lessons are numbered with Arabic numerals; Ray’s are numbered with Roman numerals. Lesson 1 - Lesson XI – wo...