Our Guides

“Of all his early studies, perhaps none is more important to the child as a means of his education than that of arithmetic.” (Vol. 1, 254)

What Our Customers Are Saying

I wanted to express my heartfelt thanks for all you both have done creating these math guides. I have been homeschooling for 8 years now with the children, and math has been our struggle. We have used so many different curriculum and we were so far behind with my older two. This year, I can't tell you the transition these guides have made on our entire school day. It's our favorite subject. WHAT?! A Charlotte Mason homeschooler who loves math the most?!!? All three of my boys are engaged and interested (without being distracted by too much "fun"). You two have managed to extract the beauty of math and put it in the grasp of both mother and child. I was even telling my husband last night in near tears just how proud I am of our boys for the progress they're making. My eldest is both challenged and yet this math is so approachable. He's so excited about watching the patterns of math be unlocked. May the work you're doing be a blessing to your families, because I know my family is reaping benefits from it daily.

You guys don't know how excited I am to get going with this Y5 bundle with my son. We're finishing up a prior curriculum's Y4 this term and I can't wait to make the switch. My daughter is Y3 and she switched to your curriculum last term and we are loving it. She really loves the number line and some of the other things which I went back and introduced even though we were already on multiplying by 5 in her old curriculum. It's been fun watching her discover things that she knew, she just didn't know she knew. Your formatting is beautiful and easy for me to navigate, and can I just say that color coding the levels is so nice! I cannot imagine the work it takes to put this together, but I wanted to say a huge "Thank you" for all the time, effort, and intelligence you have put forth!

I purchased your Year 3 math (and just recently purchased your year 4 math for next year) and wanted to say a huge thank you for putting all this math curriculum together! My son has LOVED your curriculum. About 2 weeks ago I printed out term 3 since we're on term 3 and I'm so impressed at all the work you put into it and finding articles and things to make it fun and interesting. I also LOVE how you put in so much time for review- that some weeks only have 3 lessons so you have time to review a lot. The length of the lessons are perfect. Also, my son today looked back through his math notebook and was so happy looking back at all that he's done in class. I realize that for most kids in math, they do worksheets that are normally just thrown away. They often don't get to look back and see how much they've done. It's been great for my son (and for me too!). Thanks again!

The Why

The guides were created to help teachers implement the Charlotte Mason philosophy in mathematics. The goal of the guides are threefold:

That students will delight in the beauty and truth of mathematics as a reflection of God’s character.
That students will love exploring the ideas in math and then go apply those ideas outside of lessons.
That parents will be equipped to teach their students math using Charlotte Mason’s philosophy.

Being homeschool moms and teachers ourselves, we understand how much is involved in spreading the feast of a Charlotte Mason education. Our desire is to come alongside fellow Charlotte Mason homeschoolers by reducing the amount of prep work and mental energy needed in preparing for math lessons. The guides are simply that – guides. They are not laws. We want parents to use them as a guide to meeting the needs of their unique, born persons.

They are written to make math lessons inviting and engaging. This leads to greater understanding for the student (and the teacher!). In mathematics the Charlotte Mason method fosters good habits, investigating, problem solving, critical thinking, logical thinking, clear reasoning, and rich discussion.

We desire that students will have the foundation of seeing order, accuracy, patterns, beauty, and truth. The Holy Spirit is the indefatigable teacher, always ready to help both the teacher and student in discovering God’s truth. Our prayer is that an ever growing understanding of God’s truth will lead to a deeper love for the Creator Himself.

The What

We use the Strayer-Upton Practical Arithmetic Series as the primary source for the lessons and problems. We also use outside resources when needed to build conceptual understanding, present mathematical ideas missing in the Strayer-Upton books (based on national standards), or to provide more practice. For the practical geometry guides, we use Lessons in Experimental and Practical Geometry by Hall & Stevens.

The guides are digital downloads that can be purchased a term at a time, or for the entire year at a discount. Each term of the guide is broken into three parts.

1. The introduction section includes:

A linked* table of contents
An overview of how the guides work
Teacher notes and tips for teaching math using the Charlotte Mason’s philosophy
A list of all the materials needed for the term, including compiled* pdfs of the printable resources
A suggested pacing for the term, with each lesson linked* within the document.

2. The weekly resources include:

An overview of what the week will cover
A list of prerequisite ideas the students needs to understand to learn the new material
A suggested weekly pace
- Most weeks include at least one review/catch-up day to be used at the teacher’s discretion
A list of materials needed for the week in order of when they appear
Suggested topical review in order of when the student learned each idea
Suggested mental math activities
Suggested exam questions* for Week 12

3. The daily lessons include:

The goal of the lesson
The resources used, including the page number* in the math books
A list of the materials needed for that day
Occasional special notes of things the teacher should be aware of
Background information for the teacher on various mathematical concepts, where appropriate
A scripted lesson plan, including QR codes* for any website links
A student response section (assignment)

The How

Our expectation is that at the beginning of each term the parents will need to spend some time familiarizing themselves with the curriculum and getting any needed materials. This is also when the teacher should watch videos or read articles that are specified as “Teacher Education”.

After that our goal is for parents to have to spend no more than 10-15 minutes/week in preparation. This preparation includes mapping out the week’s plan and planning the review days to meet their students where they are at.

*Please Note: Updates to all of the guides are coming Summer 2022. These updates will be free to anyone who has already purchased the curriculum. They will include rearranging some lessons, making adjustments, adding content, as well as modifying the formatting. Items with an asterisk are features that will be added in the revisions. These items are not currently in all of the published guides.

How Does It Work?

Each Term

Each term plan includes a suggested scope and sequence based on the Strayer-Upton Arithmetic Series, topics to be covered during the term, the term at a glance with a suggested schedule, list of links used throughout the term, and a list of materials needed.

Each Week

Each weekly plan includes a summary of what will be studied throughout the week, foundational ideas, concepts that need to be mastered in order to complete the listed objectives, resources for review and mental math, a suggested schedule, and a list of materials needed for the week's lessons.

Each Day

Each daily lesson plan includes learning objectives for the lesson, a list of materials needed for the day's lesson, an introductory activity if applicable, questions to guide the student's thinking and reasoning, and an assignment to be completed.

Our Guides

Arithmetic

Geometry

Algebra