tell me about Math-u-see

[naturegirl7]

We do child led learning here - kinda unschooling but with some minimal instruction/guidance as he shows interest in something.... He generally hates formalized learning time, worksheets, etc - but he will devour books, experiments, and is ALWAYS searching cosmeo.com to do his own research on a specific topic he is interested in.

My son is 5 and we are starting K at home in the fall - not really changing anything we are doing, but now I have to track all our activities. He is starting to show hints of interest in math. Yay!
Right now he is liking when we come up with word problems and use Unifix cubes and/the abacus to solve it. I want more math "games" to fuel his interest...

I am looking at Math-u-see and Rightstart - but leaning towards MUS at the moment. I think the blocks will interest. It looks like a fun and intuitive way to learning math - like he can learn alot just playing with the blocks and having minimal "teaching" from me as we are playing (basically pointing out relationships, etc).. While RS seem hands on and has tons of games, it seems to rely heavily on "teaching" too. And that you can't do the "games" until you have the sit-down teaching portion concepts covered.

Interested in hearing some opinions on MUS! What do you like/dislike about it? HOW do you use it?
TIA!

[naturegirl7]

Giving this a weekend bump - I know there must be someone out there who has tried Math U See!

[CrazyCatLady]

[dotnetdiva]

If he hates worksheets, MUS would not be a very good choice.

We started with MUS. At first we liked it. The blocks lost their novelty in the first few months. Got halfway through Alpha and then both myself and my daughter just dreaded the boring math time. Having her do an entire year of an Addition program and doing the same things everyday bored us to death. I didn't like associating numbers to the rods either.

The positive of course is that you could just have your child watch the DVD and then set them to work on the worksheets. It was the only program I purchased that my daughter could do herself with no help from me. In the end, I realized that I love teaching her and she loves the interaction.

Tried a few other programs shortly before finding RightStart. This was a *perfect* match for us. Very fun and creative, the total opposite of MUS. More importantly, it teaches math in just the most awesomest way. Math has become an enjoyable time and we often go over our scheduled 20 minutes just having fun with it! The special abacus is an amazing tool.

If he likes manipulatives, Miquon might be a good choice too, I am wondering if we could possibly add either Miquon or MEP as a supplement. MEP is free, I'm printing out both programs now and I'd love to give them a whirl just out of curiosity.

[caefi]

have you seen making math meaningful? they use many daily-life objects.

[MissRubyandKen]

Have you looked at Miquon? I know I'm totally not answering your question, but I haven't used either Math U See or Rightstart. Miquon uses c rods and it is workbook based, however it is alot like play.