High School Homeschool Curriculum Recap- Math

 I have done my best to list curriculums my kids have used, as they have used them.  Sometimes, though, I have changed curriculum within the first 3 months due to dissatisfaction, and may have left off that information.  For that reason, I am listing everything we used, and liked for the high school years:

Algebra:  
My son did Algebra in Middle School using Teaching Textbooks.  He got a very good understanding of Algebra and after taking this course was able to go through all following math courses pretty much without any help, so I recommend Teaching Textbooks.  It is very expensive though.

My daughter used HippoCampus.org for Algebra, and took over a year to finish the course.  Still, it was free, and she also got a very good understanding of Algebra 1, allowing her to finish Algebra 2 very quickly.   (on hippocampus, she used the course labeled Algebra 1 - 2004)  They have a new course, Algebra 1, An open Course 2011 that looks promising.


Algebra 2:
My daughter did Algebra 2, and my son did not.  We sued the following textbook:  Algebra 2 by
Glencoe.  We got the textbook from Amazon.com for maybe $10.00
   in addition to this book, she used the Glencoe website for texting and extra practicing purposes. We found this wonderful resource at Algebra2.com


Geometry: 
My son used Teaching Textbooks for Geometry. He loved the fact that it explained the theorems very well.  My daughter used the Glencoe Textbook again. Once again, we got it very cheap online.
  as with the last course, we used the online Glencoe resource

Trigonometry:

My son asked for Trigonometry for Dummies and loved it, doing it over the summer on his own accord.



Personal/ Business Math:
My son used online public school at home program for personal finance course.
My daughter used ALEKS.com for Personal/Business Math combo.  It was AWESOME.

Other:  I insisted my kids do math review every summer, and to prepare for standardized tests using Khan Academy website.

What I wish we had used: 

I wish I had found ALEKS 5 years ago, because I would have used it for all math courses.   It costs $20 per month per student, but forces you to master the information, while also accelerating through the course.  I feel like if we had used it, the kids would have gotten more math under their belts and retained it better for their standardized tests. (Their math scores were very average).  Considering how well my daughter did with the ALEKS course, I can see how we would have had a better outcome.

So, in summation, most of what I used was good, or good enough, and low cost with the exception of Teaching Textbooks.  If I were to do it again, I would only have used ALEKS.com paying $20 per month per child... year round.  I would have used it for all the traditional subjects, plus test prep courses, and I dare say we would have gotten into courses that they could get college credit for.   It would be more expensive than even Teaching Textbooks, but cheaper than a tutor, which I sometimes did pay when we got stuck.

ps.  Yes, my kids had no problem getting into college with average math scores and without pre-calc etc.   But, some colleges would have LIKED to see those courses.

Other subjects covered:  (linked as I complete them)
Language Arts
Science
History
Foreign Language & The Arts





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