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Need K/1st math


silver
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My Ker is flying through the Kindergarten math worksheets I got for her. My older kids have done MM starting in 1st grade, but I don't think my Ker will be ready for that yet. Mostly this is because of the writing involved (she needs more work on her number formation and to work up writing stamina), but partially just that it's more work than I think she's ready for.

 

So I need something to bridge the pretty basic Kindergarten math that she's doing and MM 1st grade. I'd be OK with completely replacing MM 1st with something that could be done slowly that would lead into either MM 2nd or BA 2 (assuming it would be out by the time she'd be ready for it). 

 

Any ideas?

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I can't personally attest to the Reception (K) level of MEP, but plan on using it with the next child. Years 1 and 2 are very thorough.

I used it with my oldest. Reception is preschool level math. It is great for what it is, but will be too simple for a kid flying through kindergarten work. Level 1a would be good before mm1b, but it is more effort for the parent than miquon.
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For us, K and 1 math are about 10% worksheets and 90% games, manipulatives, stories, play...are you looking for something that is workbook-type material that she can do while you are busy with the other kids (I get that!), or are you looking to begin a complete math program? If you're looking for something complete, I skip (formal) K math and go straight into SM1 when my kids seem ready (which for 2 of them = age 5).  The workbook exercises are relatively brief (and I know some parents transcribe at this level) and much of it is hands on and can be done orally. However, this may be more than you want to do for your bridge...maybe something like the Critical Thinking Company's Mathematical Reasoning could serve as that? Pricey, but they have a bunch of early levels to choose from, and I think they're on sale right now.

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At that age, mine was ready for MM1 except for the writing also. So, a bunch of it we did orally. And, I wrote numbers on those little circle dot stickers (like for garage sale prices but blank), and he peeled off the numbers he needed for the problems.

Just an option if you don't find anything to replace it with.

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Thanks for the ideas, everyone!

 

 

If I go with Year 1 of MEP, would I need to do all the extras that are in the teacher book, or would doing the worksheets be enough? I could have the teacher book on my tablet to look up instructions for ambiguous sections of the worksheets. But when I had last looked at the teacher book (which was, admittingly, several years ago), there seemed to be a lot of activities that would not work so great with a single student (lining kids up by height, etc). 

 

I'm OK with doing games and hands on things with her instead of/along with worksheets, but I need them pre-planned so I just open a book and it says, "do this today". I don't do well with winging things during school time. 

 

I actually have the Miquon Orange book in PDF from Curr Click. I never figured out how to best use it with my oldest kid. Would it be best to print the whole thing out and skip around in the topics with her?

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From what I've read on this forum and elsewhere, MEP works best if you do everything in the lesson plans. I do skip or modify the ones that call specifically for a classroom setting. If it has you elicit ideas from the class, I will suggest one or two possibilities to help dd come up with ideas. I did entirely skip the lesson on liquid measurements. I just don't care if dd knows about centiliters. For the weeks on measuring, I have substituted MM, which is really nice because it includes both metric and standard measuring.

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RightStart b might be at her level. You can often find the older edition used. You could also get by without alot of the manipulatives if you were just doing B and used some things around the house.You would for sure need an abacus and the balance scale and a deck of cards or 2. Also I am selling the activities for the abacus book on homeschool classifieds which has lots of activities listed out for you to do. That and the game set and the worksheets for the abacus would probably be more than enough for your gap year.

Edited by Rjha
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MEP class survey problems were often followed up later with similar problems with complete data sets provided that asked comprehension questions, so I started skipping or data seeding the earlier questions.

 

However, I think the point about MEP was more that a lot of the meat of the program is in the student/teacher interaction. We started in 1st grade and did ALL of it. In 2nd I moved dd to MM. By 4th grade I didn't have time for that interaction so I moved ds over to BA in a big, long gradual shift.

 

If you are looking for quality problems to keep her mind growing before moving to MM, I say print out the student book and let her have at it! If you get to a problem that doesn't make sense she can move on, and when you have time you can back track to figure out what is going on.

 

Another free, quality early grades math program is CSMP. It used to be hosted on a site ash the University of Buffalo, I think. I did that (when I was in school and) for a year with my youngest when I was in a similar position. Good stuff.

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Thanks for the ideas, everyone!

 

 

If I go with Year 1 of MEP, would I need to do all the extras that are in the teacher book, or would doing the worksheets be enough? I could have the teacher book on my tablet to look up instructions for ambiguous sections of the worksheets. But when I had last looked at the teacher book (which was, admittingly, several years ago), there seemed to be a lot of activities that would not work so great with a single student (lining kids up by height, etc).

 

I'm OK with doing games and hands on things with her instead of/along with worksheets, but I need them pre-planned so I just open a book and it says, "do this today". I don't do well with winging things during school time.

 

I actually have the Miquon Orange book in PDF from Curr Click. I never figured out how to best use it with my oldest kid. Would it be best to print the whole thing out and skip around in the topics with her?

When we were working in mep 1a I usually was able to substitute classroom type activities pretty easily. Height could be done with stuffed animals or even a bunch of books, etc. There is a lot of meat in the teacher notes. I don't think I would bother trying to use the worksheets only.

 

For miquon, yes, I would just print out all of orange. The early counting activities will be super simple, but it is worth going through if you haven't covered the fact that counting is actually adding one repeatedly. Some sheets may be revisited while others are quick and easy. A time limit is the easiest way to do it imo.

Edited by Syllieann
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It depends on what you are looking for. I use Saxon K in preschool because it is all manipulatives based with no writing, but then we go into a traditional math program for K. It sounds like you are wanting a more conceptual based math though. Right Start has excellent games that build a good foundation. Maybe the Early bird B Singapore or 1a would be a good fit if you want some workbook lessons.

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For Miquon I would just work on a section at a time. Start with A then B and so on. Some of the pages look really strange at first and lots of times DS got right away what they were asking for before I figured it out. Some of the pages will go quickly and some will take longer.

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Thanks for the insights/options, everyone!

 

 

For RightStart B, I've read that one can do the first edition (skipping level A) with a kindergarten child, just slowing it down as needed. Is that still true of the 2nd edition?

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Thanks for the insights/options, everyone!

 

 

For RightStart B, I've read that one can do the first edition (skipping level A) with a kindergarten child, just slowing it down as needed. Is that still true of the 2nd edition?

 

Probably, but then the kid misses out on most of the time spent calling numbers by their "math" names, e.g. eleven is 1-ten 1, fifteen is 1-ten 5, thirty-six is 3-ten 6, etc., which really helps with number sense but of course isn't necessary.

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Thanks for the insights/options, everyone!

 

 

For RightStart B, I've read that one can do the first edition (skipping level A) with a kindergarten child, just slowing it down as needed. Is that still true of the 2nd edition?

 

 

I did Singapore Essentials K A & B with my K'er this year (flew through), and when she finished that in November, we started on Rightstart B.  She didn't have a problem with not having done RS A.  I called RS, and they recommended she start in B.  It does a fair amount of using the math names for numbers, so she'd still get it in B. 

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For K we did time4learning.com math. You can do it at your own pace. It's a pay per month program so if you don't want to keep it you could just use it long enough to get through their math section. They have online lessons and printables (optional).

 

For first grade we did MM. Back then I think I would scribe for ds a lot.

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