Math-U-See placement question

[jlawbrown]

Hi, all! We recently adopted our daughter at age 10. She has some experience with multiplication and division, but still counts on her fingers and makes an elaborate system of hash marks when she has to subtract from a two-digit number. Her placement testing indicates she could start in Beta, but I'm wondering about starting her in Alpha to help work with some of these habits. Or, is there enough review in Beta that we can do these things simultaneously?

 

Thanks for your insight on this!!

 

Jennifer

[Tenaj]

The really nice thing about MUS is that you can move very quickly through sections that your daughter already knows. If you have any doubts at all about her abilities, I would get Alpha and just speed through it as fast as she can go. If you hit something that is new, let her practice it. There are six worksheets for each lesson, three new and three review. I have a friend who started MUS late and she just had them do one practice sheet, if they obviously had it mastered they moved on or maybe did a review sheet just to solidify the concepts. They did two MUS books a year for several years using this method and were very happy with the program.

 

Another thought about starting in Alpha . . . if nothing else, it would give her lots of practice using the MUS blocks which is a great advantage, especially as it seems like she needs help with some of the basic facts.

 

Beta doesn't have a lot of review - if I remember correctly, it moves rather quickly into double, and more digit addition and subtraction.

 

HTH,

Edited April 17, 2010 by JanOH
another thought

[Spock]

Hi, all! We recently adopted our daughter at age 10. She has some experience with multiplication and division, but still counts on her fingers and makes an elaborate system of hash marks when she has to subtract from a two-digit number. Her placement testing indicates she could start in Beta, but I'm wondering about starting her in Alpha to help work with some of these habits. Or, is there enough review in Beta that we can do these things simultaneously?

 

Thanks for your insight on this!!

 

Jennifer

 

My daughter learned her addition and subtraction facts using Beta. (She also got so sick of addition and subtraction in any form that it's only now, over 2 years later, that she will do either without a lot of complaining, and she still grumbles some. MUS elementary was NOT a good match for her, despite the fact that she learned well with it.) MUS sounds like a good match for your daughter, however.

[Sunshine State Sue]

The really nice thing about MUS is that you can move very quickly through sections that your daughter already knows.

:iagree: I would give ds the test first. He loved being able to demonstrate that he knew the material before he was formally taught it. We sped through a lot in the early years.

 

If you don't mind spending the extra money or if there is another child who could reuse the Alpha book, you may want to start there. But, it sounds like Beta would be the proper placement if she's adding single digit numbers and needs to work on multiple digits correctly. The finger counting might be difficult to break. I would suggest asking on the MUS users yahoo group.

[Mrs Mungo]

The really nice thing about MUS is that you can move very quickly through sections that your daughter already knows. If you have any doubts at all about her abilities, I would get Alpha and just speed through it as fast as she can go. If you hit something that is new, let her practice it. There are six worksheets for each lesson, three new and three review. I have a friend who started MUS late and she just had them do one practice sheet, if they obviously had it mastered they moved on or maybe did a review sheet just to solidify the concepts. They did two MUS books a year for several years using this method and were very happy with the program.

 

I agree. This is more or less what I did with my middle dd.

[jlawbrown]

Thanks all! I think I will go the Alpha route; she is a native Spanish speaker with emerging English , so I think another plus is that she'll be able to read and understand the word problems at that level.

 

Thanks a bunch!!