I'm teaching algebra to my son this year. How can I make algebra make sense to my son? His name is Rob, and no matter what I try, he never understands.
He was great at math until now, and it has left me completely stumped. What can I do to remedy this?
It sounds like Rob has a good grasp on his basic math concepts - that's great!
Your information tells me two things:
1. You've done an effective job teaching him so far and understand how he learns.
2. He's a good math student.
So what could be the problem?
To many kids (and adults like me!) algebra just isn't concrete. If you don't have a good curriculum that teaches in a spiral manner (builds upon previously taught concepts) Rob could be missing some basic ideas in algebra which is causing him to not understand.
Many algebra curriculums don't give enough examples for you to teach with and the student to learn from.
He may need to be taught from a different learning modality (visual, auditory, kinesthetic)
I feel like your best bet in getting Rob past this "hump" and getting him back on track is to use a curriculum like Teaching Textbooks. This is a great math curriculum but especially for teaching algebra and other upper level maths.
In Teaching Textbooks, there is a video included for EVERY math problem in the entire book. To me...that's amazing. I'm absolutely terrible at math so this an amazing help.
If you want to stick with the current curriculum that you are using, check around for a tutor. You can find a tutor for Rob through most local homeschool groups or through a homeschool co-op in your area.
Above all...don't give up. One thing I have learned through my years of homeschooling experience is that ALL kids can learn - you just have to find the right way to teach them.
I hope this helped, Debbie - Home-Schooling-Haven.com
