This post is to update my loyal readers. In the post "It doesn't add up", I wrote about my oldest son and the horrendous year of math!
(you need to scroll down and read that post if you missed it)

Jack finished his final.

WAIT!! Let me tell you about this final! I took it myself to make sure the problems were not quirky and the answers were right.

THEN I gave it to my son. About half way through the test he shows me a problem and says "I don't know how to do this. I didn't learn this." I looked at the answers in the back of the book. The answers refer you to the chapter of the book that taught the problem. Several of the answers had 10.2, 11.6, 12.5....and so on.
I flipped through the book so I could show him which chapter introduced the concept.
THE BOOK TEACHES CHAPTERS 1-9...................

I circled the problems that covered what was ACTUALLY in the book and let him finish. I was so frustrated!!

I gave him a placement test the next day. I have picked a curriculum that I wasn't thrilled with because it is so repetitive....it is not fun to teach.

YES! It is always about me! Never mind the fact that it is good to be repetitive in math.....

As Jack took the placement test (100 questions), I started grading as he went.
1-20.....got all 20....whew! passed 6th grade level!
21-40....got all 20....whew! passed 7th grade level!
41-60...missed one because he had not learned the concept (you can miss up to 4)....whew! passed 8th grade level!

Jack is currently in the 7th grade and prior to taking this placement test, he worried that he would place in 6th grade math. I am sure his anxiety came from the trauma of struggling for a year. He felt that he did not know math and he felt that math was a failing subject for him.

We both became very excited. High-fives, giggling, jumping and clapping began (Jack was happy too...)

61-80.......missed 2 because he had not learned the concept......WHAT?? passed pre-algebra???
81-100......at the end of the test, Jack had been placed in Algebra 1.

I looked up a local private school that I respect and found that 8th graders take Algebra 1.

Jack was happier than I had seen him in a long time!
I was relieved that the year of struggling through "crazy math" had not set us back 2 years!!!

I immediately ordered Algebra 1 and it arrived this afternoon, UPS....

Orange and Blue!! HELLO.....sign from God that it is the perfect curriculum!!! 

I thumbed through the first few lessons to make sure we ordered the right level........

I started feeling a strange high.....it is an actual textbook that schools use. hard back. place in front to issue it to the students. the smell. the feel. the teaching.

I LOVE IT!!!

Jack........not so excited.......just relieved that he is in Algebra 1......and I think he found Math Esteem (the feeling and knowledge that you are not an idiot, you can do math)

With the way we do school.....it is possible he will start the fall, 8th grade, in Geometry!