Self-Paced Consumer Math for Your High School Students

This self-paced Consumer Math course from Mr. D Math will give your homeschooled high school student all of the financial tools they need.

“When will I ever use this?” It’s a question most of us are used to hearing when it comes to many items we try to teach our children… especially when it comes to math!

Once a child reaches high school, many of the mathematical concepts taught just aren’t ones that a person will actively use in their day-to-day life.

And teens, well, let’s just say they don’t want to fill their days with tasks that seem mundane, boring, or irrelevant.

While I can see their point, I do have one trick up my sleeve as a homeschool mom, and that is consumer math.

Unlike many other courses, consumer math is a class that does teach the everyday mathematic skills that everyone needs. Skills like balancing a checkbook, borrowing, saving, and more are ones that our kids need to learn so they can be financially educated and ready to embark on their lives.

Recently we have been working through a self-paced course that checks all of these boxes and more – Mr. D Math Consumer Math.

I was compensated for my time writing this post and was provided a copy of the product at no charge for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

The World Needs Consumer Math

Years ago, prior to starting our homeschool journey, I worked in banking. And if that time taught me anything it’s that this world needs financial literacy.

People need to still know how to do tasks such as balancing a checkbook, paying bills on time, and budgeting.

A basic understanding of both borrowing and savings is seriously lacking for many people.

And skills, such as managing money, are necessary to make sure your family is financially secure.

So while our teens may lament at the thought of Algebra II or pre-Calculus, confident they will never need these skills, with Consumer Math, this is not the case.

What Is Mr. D Math?

If you aren’t familiar with Mr. D Math, this section is for you!

Mr. D. Math is a math program that offers upper-level (read: high school level!) math courses. These are taught directly to the student, so mom can sit back and drink some coffee. 😉

One of the things that makes Mr. D Math unique is that it teaches math as a language. Rather than teaching kids that math is simply number manipulation, Mr. D Math uses a language approach, which is a concept that I absolutely love!

By teaching math as a language, Mr. D Math is able to approach math in a way that is more effective than many traditional programs. This is key for helping students who struggle with math!

Taking Math Classes with Mr. D Math

Mr. D Math offers their courses in 2 ways.

You can choose from either live, interactive classes or self-paced ones.

The live classes meet at a scheduled time and are interactive. Your child can ask questions, receive help immediately, and participate in the course instruction.

The self-paced courses include pre-recorded video lessons and feedback from a Mr. D Math instructor who will grade their submitted assignments.

And whether you opt for the live course or the self-paced one, both class options come with help when your student needs it in the form of a teaching partner.

This teaching partner is there to guide, correct, assist, and make math more than just another course. It’s this real-life, practical guidance and application to the material being taught that really sets Mr. D Math apart when it comes to teaching homeschool math.

While Mr. D Math does focus on high school level math programs, they also offer SAT and ACT boot camps as well as writing, American Sign Language, college readiness, and music.

Getting Into Our Review of Mr. D Math Consumer Math

So now that you have a little more background on Mr. D Math as a whole, let’s get into our experience with Consumer Math from Mr. D Math. This was a brand new experience for us and one that I was excited to participate in!

We opted to try out the self-paced consumer math. My 11th-grader already has a busy schedule this year, but we both felt he could add in a self-paced course easily.

Especially a course that has real-world relevance.

The Mr. D Math Consumer Math course contains 25 lessons. Most of these lessons have 2-6 sections; however, a few have 20 or more. The first lesson covered everything my son needed to know about how to use the online class area, submit grades, and what his expectations were.

And I was already loving that this self-paced course was not requiring my time while allowing us to add in a much-needed high school level course.

Goal Setting and Time Management

The following two lessons of the Mr. D Consumer Math course covered goal setting and time management.

Initially, I wasn’t quite sure how these two topics would fit in with a consumer math course. I expected to see some of the other lessons such as check writing and credit cards, the stock market, interest and percentages, and taxes.

Yet when I sat down and watched the videos that were included in these lessons it started making perfect sense.

Consumer math is all about teaching our children how to be smart consumers. How to use their money wisely and as a tool.

Both goal setting and time management are items to be included in a good money management toolbox.

After sitting through these two lessons myself, plus working with my son while he completed the assignments for these lessons, I could see where not only do these two topics fit in a consumer math class but how they are vital components to taking the skills learned in consumer math and applying them to your life.

Completing Lessons in a Self-Paced Course

As a self-paced course, my son had everything he needed right at his fingertips to be successful with this consumer math class.

Unlike many of the other self-paced courses he has taken in the past, this one had a teacher to assist him, review his submitted assignments, and give him feedback on his progress.

Which worked out well because my son didn’t fully complete the first assignment that we submitted for him. Whoops!

The feedback was quick though, and Mr. D gave him another opportunity to submit the remaining items. It was a complete oversight on my son’s part, and an easy mistake to remedy.

The lessons themselves were straightforward, easy to understand, and laid out well. My son was able to navigate his dashboard with ease, see his progress, and submit assignments smoothly.

The videos were a mix of recorded live classes, videos made specifically for the course, and extra videos such as TEDx, and tutorials for programs such as Microsoft Excel.

Assignments were varied and ranged from watching a video to creating a story, from completing a spreadsheet to compiling research on a particular topic. As a project-based course, Consumer Math from Mr. D Math offers your student plenty of diversity in assignments.

And all of it, of course, is geared towards helping the student learn consumer math in a way that will help them plan, think ahead, invest, and spend wisely – both their money and their time.

Looking Forward with Mr. D Math Consumer Math

We may be at the end of our review period with Mr. D Math, but I don’t foresee this being the end of this consumer math course for my son.

With many valuable lessons ahead, including opening a bank account, purchasing a car, career assistance, and even starting a business (not to mention several algebra checks sprinkled in), the Mr. D Math Consumer Math class covers a lot of valuable material.

And allows me to fully and completely answer the question of “when will I ever use this?” for my son.

Ready To Check Out Mr. D Math Yourself?

If you are interested in learning more about Consumer Math or any of the other courses available from Mr. D Math, why not head on over there right now?

Covering everything from pre-Algebra through pre-Calculus with Trig, plus writing, music, American Sign Language, as well as both SAT and ACT prep courses, Mr. D Math is here to help the homeschooling high school student not just learn but flourish.

Still Not Sure If Mr. D Math Is Right For Your Homeschool?

I get it. Choosing a math curriculum for your homeschool can be challenging – and if your child struggles with math (or you do) that makes it all the more difficult to find the right fit.

So let me share with you 3 straightforward ways that Mr. D Math might be the right fit for your homeschool.

1. Mr. D Math is perfect for those students who are venturing into math that is above what you are able to do yourself.
2. Mr. D Math is perfect for those students who have always struggled with traditional math programs.
3. Mr. D Math is perfect for those families who know that upper-level math is important to their child’s future and want to see them succeed.

In short, Mr. D Math is a math program that is dedicated to the success of their students in the subject of math. They know math, they get math, and they want to see their students finding success rather than frustration.

So if you find yourself intrigued but unsure, frustrated but not ready to quit, overwhelmed by ready to move forward, head on over to the Mr. D Math website, read through their frequently asked questions, and see if Mr. D Math is the solution to your math problems.