Can you tell me about your math curriculum??

[Got_Cloth]

i think i have decided on science, history, and wrting program for next year for my girls, they will be in K 1st, and 3rd grade. I cannot find what i am looking for in math. I thought i found it, now i have doubts.

I currently use Abeka and i really do not like it.

so what do you use. Whatr do you love and what do you dislike about it??

thANKS!

[moominmamma]

My 9yo uses Singapore Primary Math and my 5yo uses Miquon Math. All my kids started in Miquon and moved into Singapore, with a bit of overlap where we went back and forth between the two programs. This approach has worked very well for them.

I love that Miquon sets up such a strong conceptual foundation, and that it's based on "guided discovery" rather than teaching and rote mastery. My little one is working in the Blue Book now and her understanding of place value is unfolding beautifully from all the Miquon games and puzzles she's done. It can seem a little chaotic to some parents, though, so it's not for every family.

I love that Singapore builds on their conceptual foundation, with a little more emphasis on algorithm mastery. I like how simply laid out it is and how little it requires of the parent. And I love the challenging multi-step word problems. Singapore PM may not provide enough practice for some children, but for my kids the lack of drill and repetition has been terrific. They tend to languish elsewhere in mathland for a while, then returning to formal math with a lot of readiness for new skills, and Singapore makes it easy for them to move quickly forward.

Miranda

[LilyGrace]

We use Math U See.

Dislikes - the price. But there's plenty that resell the materials when they are done.

Likes - the multisensoral approach. He sees it, hears it, does it, writes it, and teaches it. It helps him grasp difficult concepts with having so much involved. I like the simple manipulatives that work well with supplementary montessori work. I love that we control the pace, not the book. I love the non-spiraling approach - one concept is presented at a time and worked on until mastery instead of learning a little bit in each (add, sub, mul, div) in each book. I like how the books are not by grade level but use the Greek alphabet to distinguish themselves. Very important for a child who may not be on grade level for every subject. I like the forum on the MUS site, in which the owners are involved. I like the dvd teacher combined with the teacher's manual so that I both understand how to teach it and how we have the option of watching the dvd together.

Yeah, but the price? Not so great. Especially when going through 2 sets in one year.

[zeldamomma]

We recently switched to Math U See.

So far we like it. It's very much a back-to-basics arithmetic program where first you and your child watch a short lesson on video, and then the child works through some worksheets with the help of the math-u-see blocks (which I like better than any of the other math manipulatives we've tried.)

It's on the pricey side, that's the big downside IMO.

ZM

[elizawill]

i've used a few.

saxon k - we liked it & it's very gentle & uses manipulatives solely to teach concepts. it's laid out for you completely too..... but it moved waaaay too slow for my dd and was priced incredibly high imo.

mcp math k - we liked it a lot - my dd flew through the book!

math mammoth - hooray! we finally found what we wanted!!! this is what we currently use and just love it! froggurami, an mdc member, recommended it on her site ....and it's the perfect fit for my dd!!! plus it's cheap! it is the same math used with winter promise curriculum (which means nothing to me really). i bought the light blue series. www.mathmammoth.com

we also love the grade 1 math cd-rom game here (it's an electronic workbook):
http://www.learningvillage.com/html/...athSeries.html

hth!

[frogguruami]

We use Math Mammoth. It is cheap, easy, you only need to order the parts you need... There is nothing fancy about it. That is probably why it works for us. Straight and to the point!

[tammyw]

I need to get something for K also, and feel so confused by this subject the most. I wouldn't mind spending the money on MUS, but how do I know if it will work best for us? How do we know if Mammoth or Miquon aren't better suited for us?

I want it to be fun and not worksheet focused - I've learned whenever something seems like work she fights tooth and nail against doing it. When it's something like a game, she enjoys. So I need to find a program that incorporate that style of learning. I have the book Family Math and it has some good ideas, but I really need something a little more structured so that it's easier for me to present to her. My brain gets too bogged down by my screaming 2 year old to focus on putting it together myself.

I'd also like to get some games that have been recommended here in the past. We did get Sum Swamp recently and that was fun. Is it "okay" that she counts on her fingers? I did bring out some manipulatives so she could add and subtract with those.

[homeschoolingmama]

Right Start Math.

Dislikes - In the earlier ages it is very parent involved.

Likes - I am not very good at Math and it lays it all out for me.

My kids love it!
My kids understand it.
There are a lot of games to go along with it.
It is very visual and fun.
Not much paperwork.
I like their philosophy. Like 35 would be 3 ten 5. It helps them with many things.
This sums it up...Ricky: Mom, can we play math now?

[Queen Gwen]

Another Right Start family.

Dislikes:

Parents need to sit with child through every single lesson in early grades (although, really, this is one of the things that is so great about it, because you're discussing math with your child and interacting instead of just shoveling it at her and saying, "okay, now you go do this")

"Yellow is the Sun" song taught in first couple of levels is incredibly dorky. We skipped it.

The books could stand some more editing.

Only goes to Geometry.

Likes:

The methodology behind it is so amazing. It's a combination of Montessori and some of the concepts used in Asian countries.

It lays everything out for you, so you don't have to figure it out on your own ahead of time. I do it totally seat-of-the-pants.

We had tried Miqoun (dd hated with a passion, and decided she was incompetent in math -- oh, joy, that curriculum took years to recover from) and Singapore (the way the concepts were presented didn't work for my dd, although now that I've used RightStart for several years I could go back to Singapore and do a better job with it -- I feel that RightStart has taught me how to teach math, in other words).

Another disadvantage is that it can be expensive to start up, unless you're an absolute math-manipulative junky like me who already had most of the stuff anyway.

ETA: If you hate to play card games, this curriculum could drive you bonkers. Because you play cards a LOT.

[MsBirdie]

RightStart


Dislikes- Sometimes it deals with concep ts that I feel DD has mastered, so we skip that part of the lesson.


Likes- really teaches the visualization of math, I am seeing math in a new light, all laid out for you


There are a lot of games, DD likes it a lot , and so do I

[elizawill]

Originally Posted by tammyw

I need to get something for K also, and feel so confused by this subject the most. I wouldn't mind spending the money on MUS, but how do I know if it will work best for us? How do we know if Mammoth or Miquon aren't better suited for us?

I want it to be fun and not worksheet focused - I've learned whenever something seems like work she fights tooth and nail against doing it.

i wanted to tell you that math mammoth is worksheet focused. my dd really loves it though! however, saxon k has absolutely no worksheets or texts for the student (except the small meeting book, and we used a kitty cat calendar instead). saxon k is purely hands-on with manipulatives & it's fun imo....but my dd didn't really like it as well as i had expected. it was expensive too with the teacher manual & meeting book and manipulatives! you actually could buy the teacher book used though, and you don't need to buy all the other stuff... i could tell you how to substitute them for much cheaper.

i've almost bought MUS several times as well....but the reviews are mixed that i've read, and i'm afraid to make another expensive mistake like i did with saxon. oh well....at least i have something we like for *now*

[frogguruami]

Originally Posted by tammyw

I need to get something for K also, and feel so confused by this subject the most. I wouldn't mind spending the money on MUS, but how do I know if it will work best for us? How do we know if Mammoth or Miquon aren't better suited for us?

Unfortunately I think math is a very trial and error subject. You have to try a few before you find the right one. However if you are able to get to a HS convention or hook up with people in your area so you can touch and feel the curriculum before you buy it, you can make a better informed choice.

Part of it is determining what your child's learning style is. That will narrow things down for you.

Math U See and Right Start are very hands on so they are good for Visual/Spatial Learners. Math Mammoth is better for auditory or kinesthetic, IME. I can't comment on the other math programs because I don't know a lot about them.

[Mongoose]

We use singapore. We are doing the earlybird right now (PreK/K math) I have the old edition for the first half and the new edition for the second half.

PRO: Not too expensive. The new edition is now closer in scope and sequence to PS (which is kinda nice if you have to do testing in your state). It is colorful and easy to do. It explains hands on activities to do on the bottom of the workpage that help it to be more hands on than just a workbook.

CONS: Kids seem to fly through the earlybird, but this might be fixed in the new edition. There seems to be a lot more pages than there were in the old edition. The old edition was 4 thin workbooks each about 70 pages. The new edition has a workbook and text book. The workbook is about the same thickness as the previous ones, but the text is a lot thicker. Also there is some reference to school as it was written for school use.

We really love singapore earlybird, I dont know yet about primary as we have not started it yet.

[jenniepaige]

What a great thread! I am searching for something ATM too. I have heard so many great things about right start math and I actually perceive math myself the way that they teach it and it really helps me do any mental calculations. My mom actually taught it to me that way and it stuck. DD loves to learn through games and such and only has a SHORT attention span for anything else. So, it seems to be a good fit. Perhaps to the OP from what it sounds like from you it may be good for your DC too? I dunno.

[tammyw]

Zoiks. Well I'm still so confused on where to start! DD (just turned 5) has various learning styles. She LOVES being read to - anything I read to her, she is happy. She loves listening to audio cds. She loves watching videos. She loves playing games. She really doesn't seem to like doing workbooks. She does like playing with manipulatives (a lot actually).

So I'm thinking from the above, we might do best with something like Right Start or Math U See? But still, I don't even know if that's accurate. I really feel like I need to figure this out since I don't want to buy five different programs trying to figure it all out, as I'm sure that would put me in the poor house! And I'm afraid Dd is the kind of kid who would be totally put off on math if we start working with the wrong program.

[Jennifer Z]

Miquon and Singapore is what we use. Miquon is particularly good for kids who are really strong on visual spatial skills. (like puzzles and things like that) to see the relationships. You don't have to have verbal skills to do Miquon, which is a particular plus for us.

Singapore feels more "traditional", and for us the lack of kill and drill is a big plus. If he runs into something that needs more attention I make up problems on the whiteboard to make sure he has the concept. There are additional books if this is a regular issue though and your child needs more repetition. For us, too much repetition kills all the joy and fun, and he usually gets the concepts right away and we actually skip some of the repetition if it is obvious that he knows it. For us, Singapore is more a practice of following directions than the actual math because the math is easy for him.

[Ravin]

DD is going to be a young K'er, so I'm holding off on buying a formal math curriculum until 1st. So far she's learning quite nicely with an assortment of manipulatives (math puzzle cards, a number line made of post-it notes, pattern blocks, games using numbers) and occasional forays into the Kumon numbers 1-30 book and a couple of other preschool math and multi-skill workbooks we've bought. She can count to 20 and is starting to grasp the concepts of addition and subtraction, as well as writing her numbers a bit. I am also going to get her the Funtastic Frogs math workbooks (we already have the manipulatives and activity cards), which appeal to her frog-obsession.

We're planning on using Miquon for first-third since I see the interest and joy in numbers in DD that I had as a kid developing, which makes an investigative discovery approach quite suitable. I'll probably go ahead and buy the cuisenaire rods in the fall so DD can have plenty of opportunity to play with them before I turn them to more directly educational purpose.

I've actually had a chance to take a look at the MUS materials in person, and if DD or another child has problems with the kind of approach in Miquon I'd probably go with it because it's more...straightforward, if you will, while still using a multi-sensory approach.

The groans of remembered misery DH uttered when I mentioned Saxon means we'll likely never use that one. It's the curriculum they used when he was in public school.

[mommy68]

We've used MathUSee in the past and didn't like it. My son didn't learn well using that and it sort of messed him up. The last two years he used Glencoe/McGraw Hill math in school outside the home. Now we are using Switched on Schoolhouse and he really seems to enjoy it. We also use Spectrum.

[elizawill]

tammy, if your dd learns best through hands-on, i would really recommend looking into saxon. it's full hands-on. my dd didn't dig it.... but your dd may think it rocks. it's the #1 homeschooling math curriculum ....so it must be a good fit for lots of families....just not my dd. i'm saving it though to try again with my ds next year before i resell it. i'd check it out at least if i were you

[alima]

Originally Posted by tammyw

I need to get something for K also, and feel so confused by this subject the most. I wouldn't mind spending the money on MUS, but how do I know if it will work best for us? How do we know if Mammoth or Miquon aren't better suited for us?

I want it to be fun and not worksheet focused - I've learned whenever something seems like work she fights tooth and nail against doing it. When it's something like a game, she enjoys. So I need to find a program that incorporate that style of learning. I have the book Family Math and it has some good ideas, but I really need something a little more structured so that it's easier for me to present to her. My brain gets too bogged down by my screaming 2 year old to focus on putting it together myself.

I'd also like to get some games that have been recommended here in the past. We did get Sum Swamp recently and that was fun. Is it "okay" that she counts on her fingers? I did bring out some manipulatives so she could add and subtract with those.

If your dd doesn't like worksheets, she will hate MUS. My ds loves it, but he hates anything that tries "to make math fun!" He wanted, and enjoys, a very basic, no games, no colour, no fun kind of program. It's worked great for him, he HATED Singapore with a vengeance, and wouldn't even look at Miquon because of the "fun and games" element. MUS is very plain and straight forward.

MUS does have a dvd they'll send you for free that demonstrates the program and how it works, I found that very helpful, and this site has lots of stuff you could print out and try out on your own before buying.