We’ve been a mostly traditional homeschooling family. Books, field trips, projects — you know, the fairly normal stuff.

However, over the course of the past 17 years, we’ve learned a lot about ourselves and homeschooling, and a pretty fair amount of that learning curve came through humbling situations:

The fact that math books seem to disappear faster than socks in our house
The fact that math books are miraculously found soon after the threat of having to purchase a new one out of one’s own money has been made
The fact that every single middle schooler we’ve had so far (the current count is five) has pretended to do their math and then it’s been discovered weeks and sometimes months later that they weren’t actually accomplishing anything

Oh! Those things happen in your home, too? And you thought you were the only ones!

It was time to figure out some solutions, or this homeschooling mom was going to quit. Of course, I didn’t think quitting was really a viable option since homeschooling has been such a great fit for our family and the kids thrive here, but quitting math sounded absolutely wonderful. So I did. I quit teaching math after sixth grade.

The first route we went was with Teaching Textbooks, a computer-based math curriculum. The teacher gives the lesson, the student does the work, and then the tutor explains the problems the student missed. Note that these are not actual live classes; the teaching is recorded and the computer program does the grading and then correcting. It was a perfect fit for our firstborn, who was a self-disciplined learner.

Our third son, however, really didn’t like the format of Teaching Textbooks, for whatever reason. He asked to use Khan Academy instead. If you’re not familiar with Khan, please do yourself a favor and hop over there. Khan Academy offers online learning that is free and excellent and covers a broad scope of subjects. You can sign your student up under you as their teacher and track their progress, too.

Between Teaching Textbooks and Khan Academy, we were set for middle school math. All three of our oldest sons continued with one or the other through high school, eliminating the need to switch gears or find something else.

Just as we were starting to get comfortable, along came our daughter who isn’t great at math (understatement: there were many, many tears shed over her math books). It didn’t help that the sister above her is a very quick math study, and so she felt as if she just needed a teacher — a real teacher. Watching a lesson on a disc or a website wasn’t going to cut it, she said. I began to research online math classes and ultimately chose the pre-Algebra course she needed from {affiliate link} CurrClick. Despite her aversion for the subject, this interactive, live online course has been a perfect fit. She’s gotten the hand-holding she felt she needed and she’s discovered that she’s much better at math than she originally thought she was.

More Reasons to Love Computer-Based Math

Ease - There just couldn’t be an easier way to go about teaching a subject that feels like a burden to middle schoolers. Unless they lose the discs (possible — very, very possible), it’s grab-and-go. Lesson length is clearly defined: when it’s over, it’s over.

Accountability - I’m sure you don’t need to be told that right around those middle school ages, all kinds of crazy begins to happen in the bodies and minds of developing kids. Suddenly the student who was always happy to learn and read and soak up information becomes unmotivated, lazy, and seemingly disinterested. Mom used to be the greatest teacher in the world; now she’s become the bad cop whose only purpose is to make you do your chores and finish what you started.

This is the beauty of accountability to someone other than mom. Deadlines seem serious and kids tend to want to please a teacher they respect. Even if you go with a course that isn’t live — such as Teaching Textbooks or Khan Academy — the voice isn’t Mom’s sounding like the adults on all the Charlie Brown specials.

Grading - So many homeschoolers don’t grade their kids’ work and for good reason: we see value in a mastery approach instead of a grading system. If my child doesn’t answer all of her math problems correctly, she goes back and reworks them or re-watches the teaching video until she understands.

The reality is, though, that colleges rely on a grading system, and if you have a student who is going on to higher education, he must learn to jump through the hoops of grades on a 4.0 scale.

We have also seen the value of conversations that flow from the grading our high schoolers obtain through their online or on site classes. Our straight-A’s daughter tends to freak out if she gets less than a 90% on something and we love taking the time to remind her that her worth is not in her performance. On the other end of things, it’s great to remind a kid who gets average or failing grades that he is not defined by those marks and God sees him as a beautiful creation defined by Christ’s work on the cross.

Time Management - Middle school students need badly to learn how to manage their time, and although they probably won’t be experts at it by the time they hit high school, having to organize and complete assignments for a weekly class and/or deadline is a valuable life skill. Resist the temptation to fix their mistakes or patch it up if they fail to turn something in on time. You’ll be doing them a huge favor in the long run.

Getting your middle school student on the computer for math could be just the thing that fits his or her needs this year. There are compelling reasons to do so, not the least of which is giving you the opportunity to concentrate on other subjects that are better done in a more traditional way.

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