When high school rolls around homeschool parents may find themselves wanting to sub out various courses like math, science, or even art and music. The reasons could be various ones from life changes to having personal struggles in a subject and you just want to be sure your teen grasps concepts as well as possible. AKA: You don’t want to mess it up! Or maybe, you have more on your plate one school year and you know your energies need to be used elsewhere, so you plan accordingly. Whichever the reason be – there is zero guilt in subbing out subjects in your homeschool. Keep on reading if you’re looking to sub out a math program!
Our Homeschool Math Experience, Briefly
I loved math, secretly, when I was a teen. Most of my friends would whine and complain about it but I was the one there gobbling it all up and having a blast working through it all. But, it’s not a subject I enjoy teaching. In fact, it’s a bit stressful if I try to because of how zealous I am about it. Thus, the reason, we use a fully independent program.
In full disclosure, this post is sponsored and contains affiliate links. In no way does this sway my judgement or opinions.
Along the way, we’ve come across some fun math programs, but none really enticed me to try them out, until Mr. D Math came along.
My teen needed a fresh and new approach (new to us) for her math. Even if it was for a season, I just knew it was necessary. I felt she need to brush up on her Pre-Algebra before moving on. I wanted her skills to be fluid, and they still were not. And that’s okay, but this was something that needed to be worked on and, in this season of life, we had lots on our plate. So I thought we should give this Mr. D Math a try.
Mr D Math Overview and Thoughts
I’m SO glad I came across the opportunity to check out Mr D Math. The program/course is basically housed on an interface, like any other online course you may take.
You have a dashboard (the course site) where all the lessons are housed.
There are zero additional books that you need to purchase. Your student can quite literally just pull up a seat to their computer and begin their lesson.
My kiddo likes to print out the course work (aka worksheets), but if you don’t have a printer you can copy them by hand in a notebook.
Once you do the coursework, you are then are able to click through a link to get the answers. This offers the opportunity to grade your own work and see where any mistakes were made, before moving on to building upon those concepts.
All lessons are video based. And since the course is self-paced, they are pre-recorded of course. Then, after every lesson there is a quiz. But unlike the course work (worksheets), the quizzes are graded by the program. The same goes for tests, at the end of every chapter. Class progress is tracked easily at a glance like the above image, and the one below in the assignments tab.
There is also a live version of the class, which we tried. My kiddo always loves those but funnily enough she ends up preferring to do the self-paced version because well à it’s self-paced and she can do it in her own time.
I LOVE that MR D is a real person. I mean, most online course are made by real people – but he is a bit unique in that he’s actually overseeing all of this. For example: does your kiddo has a question or needs some help? Easy peasy – shoot him an email and he will get back in touch with you quickly.
Actually, this email thing was something I had no idea about and was like “waaaaa??? That’s so unheard of!” . it was so cool to see that my kiddo could reach out to Mr. D for questions and get a response back.
At this age she’s learning to take more control over her school work, manage her time and tackle her must-do’s when she is best able to focus on them. School work is no acceptation and the Mr. D. Math program allows for her to do this still.
Mr D Math Programs and Specs
Each of Mr. D’s self-paced courses include:
- 12 chapters of video-based instruction (Mac and PC compatible)
- Coursework for each section of each chapter
- 12 chapter tests
- Two semester exams
- A comprehensive solution manual
- An online gradebook
- Enrollment in the Mr. D Math virtual learning center
- The opportunity to attend a live, online help session with the Mr. D Math teaching staff once each week throughout the academic year (August to May)
You can also upgrade to a full academic year of LIVE online class lessons. These also run from August through May.
Courses Offered:
- Pre-Algebra
- Algebra I
- Geometry
- Algebra II
- Pre-Calculus with Trigonometry
- SAT Math Bootcamp
- ACT Math Bootcamp
- Life Skills 4 Teens
- Summer Programs
Find Mr D Math on Facebook and Twitter . I’d highly encourage you to check him out on YouTube too . He has some sample videos of a few of his courses. You can see one below for Pre Algebra:
So, as you see, subbing out is not necessarily having a tutor or teacher come physically into your home. With various options today, there are countless ways for any subject you need assistance in teaching to your students. One of my favorites being online courses because you can access them anywhere and on your clock, not theirs.
And, I can’t stress this enough – there should be zero guilt in doing this. As homeschool moms we often place a burden upon ourselves to teach all things to all kids on all days. That is impossible to do. You need to find that balance in this arena of life.
Take a few things off your plate and you’ll be better focused on other areas of their school work you still oversee. Bit to mention the rest of life that needs to be taken care of too! Or better yet – maybe you’ll get to that Zumba class you and your husband wanted to go to for so long but you’re usually to mentally drained from trying to teach all the things to your teen every day. ;)
