Do you use two complete math programs?

[Dinsfamily]

:iagree: My big girl is on a similar track (sub Miquon with MEP) and I can see she is getting more excited with the harder math now that we are working in SM 1b. And I have "loosen up" with Horizons 1 in regards to compacting. Now I have 10 lessons sectioned out and she is allowed to work within those lessons for about two days then we move on to the next section. That way, she is getting some new concepts and working on stuff she enjoys and also touching on the mastered stuff without overkill drill.

 

Tress- Have you used the placement tests?

 

Horizons 1 moved soooo slow for us. I wish I'd done what you're doing now. I started doing exactly what you're doing that during the first half of Horizons 2 because my ds had all of the concepts mastered. Once we hit multiplication, we slowed back down to our normal accelerated pace. I love using Horizons but we have to make it work for us. I will be so much better prepared for my next ds :001_smile:.

[MissKNG]

Horizons 1 moved soooo slow for us. I wish I'd done what you're doing now. I started doing exactly what you're doing that during the first half of Horizons 2 because my ds had all of the concepts mastered. Once we hit multiplication, we slowed back down to our normal accelerated pace. I love using Horizons but we have to make it work for us. I will be so much better prepared for my next ds :001_smile:.

 

 

Yes! It moved slow for us too but I was soooo afraid to really compact like that. We are in the second book now so there's some new stuff coming up, which is good. But she's already asking to start "bee math" (we call these books by the animal on the cover!).

 

I'm glad you are doing the same thing (though I should have known:tongue_smilie:)!

Edited November 13, 2010 by MissKNG
made my "yes" bigger!

[kmacnchs]

I try to make sure that one is done thoroughly and then, if there is time and the child is handling it okay, then two is fine.

 

Do you mean 'done thoroughly' for the day (like a lesson is understood completely before moving on) or for the year and then do the other for the last part of the year?

 

I ask b/c Saxon is working SOOO well for us right now but I love MEP (how it teaches, etc.). I don't want to quit Saxon but I think she will finish in Feb or March (dep. on what happens w/the new baby) and I was planning on doing MEP after Saxon, since it is more advanced anyway...does that sound good to you? It makes me nervous when I think of doing them at the same time :tongue_smilie:

[Tylianna]

I know a lot of people use one program and supplement with another, but we've been doing MEP and are just getting back into RS B and I don't want to give up MEP or only use some of it, now that I think about it. It's because of MEP that DD knows her math facts, but I like RS and want to at least finish B before deciding whether to continue with it. I really don't think it's overkill at this point, since it's only maybe 45 minutes to an hour a day if we do both, and so much of RS is just games anyway.

 

How much math is "too much"? I'd love to hear from people who use two complete programs and hear why and how you do it. Do you try to line them up or just take them as they come? My plan is to go through each curriculum in its own order, not worrying about lining them up. I'll do MEP in the morning, then other things, then RS after lunch. That's been working well the last week or so. DD doesn't even notice that it's a lot of math because they're both so different.

 

I just got Horizons 1 and I might even throw some of those worksheets in since DD likes color, but I don't plan on using that whole curriculum. Oooohhhh, or maybe I'll use it whenever we travel, since we're out of town to visit family a fair bit and that would be easier for me to do on the road. lol

 

I use Horizons math, and supplement with whatever I feel like at the time. right now we are using Calculadders. I have read math books (Hello math) and checked out other mathy type books from the library. I also do real life math when we bake, eat, etc.

Technically, I use ONE math curriculum, and we like it. I don't want them to not like math! But, whatever works for your family, is best for your family :)

[Tress]

MissKNG and Tiara,

 

thanks for thinking this through with me! I have seen this kind of opposition with other subjects and the solution was always to speed things up, so I don't really know why I hadn't thought about that with math...... I think it is because SM already has only a few problems a page. I can understand not wanting to do 20 similar sums, but when there are only 5 a page...I just expect her to do it and compacting that seems...I don't know....weird.

 

I haven't used any placement tests. We never did any K math and I simply started her with SM 1A last year. I highly doubt she could out-test any SM levels, I do not think she ever thought about multiplication before.....however, they do a little bit of multiplication in 1B, including showing visually that 2x3 = 3x2 and this week in 2A she needed to skip count to do 2x7 and she made it very clear that she thought that silly, because she could just do 7x2..... so maybe she has thought about multiplication :tongue_smilie: .

 

Anyway, next week I'm going to speed things up and see how that goes. If it doesn't work I can always try to add some MEP, although I'm still not convinced that adding review work is going to work ;)

 

Oh, I already tried Miquon, but she doesn't want anything to do with it. I save it for my younger dds.

[MissKNG]

I just expect her to do it and compacting that seems...I don't know....weird.

 

.

 

 

I do a little compacting in Singapore with the "extra" topics. For example, in 1a, I didn't make my big girl do the shapes, length/weight or ordinal number chapters unless she wanted to. She knows that stuff. In 1b, I let her do the fraction exercises for fun (it was only 1/2 and 1/4). There are a couple of other chapters that are "easy" that I toss in if she wants to. Or I use them as a "brain break" from the real meat.

 

I think the chapter sequence is designed for "brain breaks" from the harder chapters so what I'm doing is probably weird! :tongue_smilie: I also switch to Horizons for "brain breaks" as well.

[BatmansWife]

You mean only TWO math programs??? :lol:

 

I have quite a few math programs that I really, really like (I've definitely had my fair share of those that I've despised too)....and I just can't do them all. But, I think I've narrowed it down to McRuffy, and Moving with Math (primary, single levels for k, 1 and 2 of MWM). I really like Miquon too......I just don't know if I can keep it going. I like Making Math Meaningful, but again.....just no time. I have the Math Mammoth Light Blue cd sittin' here too.....and a bunch of MEP year 1 printed off. Oh the quandry!!!! But, I know I really need to simplify. My dd LOVES McRuffy K and adores the 1st grade samples....so, I think I need to stick with that for her. But, I also already have MWM too, and it's very nice too and I know she'd love it.

 

Sorry......I seem to be thinking out loud here. :tongue_smilie:

[kristavws]

We do both Singapore and Horizons everyday. I "teach" him with Singapore. We use the HIG, textbook, and workbook. Horizons is more of a review. He completes the workbooks, but I don't really do much teaching unless there's a new concept. My ds enjoys doing math and these two programs seem to be a good combo for him.

 

This is exactly what I use with both of my boys.

 

Krista

[Tress]

I do a little compacting in Singapore with the "extra" topics. For example, in 1a, I didn't make my big girl do the shapes, length/weight or ordinal number chapters unless she wanted to. She knows that stuff. In 1b, I let her do the fraction exercises for fun (it was only 1/2 and 1/4). There are a couple of other chapters that are "easy" that I toss in if she wants to. Or I use them as a "brain break" from the real meat.

 

I think the chapter sequence is designed for "brain breaks" from the harder chapters so what I'm doing is probably weird! :tongue_smilie: I also switch to Horizons for "brain breaks" as well.

 

I understand, I have done exactly the same...compacting the 'brain breaks':D. I looked ahead to 2B and already saw a lot of those, so I expect to go much faster through 2B than 2A.

 

Anyway, just to update, yesterday we did 3 lessons and I only picked a few of the exercises from each page and things went much smoother. I feel such a dork for not doing this earlier. Well, live and learn ;).

[MeganW]

When we were growing up, we were in public school but my mom always had us do extra math workbooks "for enrichment" as she called it. We were given an assignment to do all the odd numbered problems. If we got them all right, we were done. If we missed even one, we had to correct the mistakes, plus complete all the even numbered problems. It seemed "fair" to us as kids. Maybe that would help?

[Beth in SW WA]

I forgot to ask what skip counting songs you were talking about.

 

We use a hodpe-podge of songs. Some are from CC, some from MUS, some from other skip-counting cds. I wish I was clever enough to video my girls and put it on my blog. I'll work on it... :)

 

I just started dd6 on MM blue mult 1. She sings her little songs and uses her fingers to keep track of where she's at.

[Tress]

We use a hodpe-podge of songs. Some are from CC, some from MUS, some from other skip-counting cds. I wish I was clever enough to video my girls and put it on my blog. I'll work on it... :)

 

I just started dd6 on MM blue mult 1. She sings her little songs and uses her fingers to keep track of where she's at.

 

Well, I have already proven on this thread that I'm an idiot :D, so I can safely say that I would love to see/hear your girls doing their skip counting songs. I know what skip counting is, but in The Netherlands we do not have songs with it, so I have trouble imagining them.

[Beth in SW WA]

Well, I have already proven on this thread that I'm an idiot :D, so I can safely say that I would love to see/hear your girls doing their skip counting songs. I know what skip counting is, but in The Netherlands we do not have songs with it, so I have trouble imagining them.

 

These tunes help the kids memorize their facts with minimal effort. I wish I had these when I was younger.

 

Here's an example:

 

To the tune of Jingle Bells, sing: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24 and 27 isn't counting fuu-uun???

3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24 & 27, 30 and we're done!

[ShutterBug]

Haven't read the whole thread, but yes we use two full curriculums.

 

We're currently using Math U See Delta and Horizons 4 for ds 8. With Horizons it's mostly just review and extra practice with the stuff MUS is light on, such as money, time, graphs, shapes, weight, measurement, Roman numerals, etc... so I don't really have to "teach" anything there. MUS comes with those handy dandy DVD lessons for each week so I only need to help out when he's unsure about something.

 

He also does a couple of word problems out of CWP 4 each day, a Math Perplexor once a week and some Math Olympiad questions tossed in there for fun too :)

 

On average, math takes 45 min to 1 hr per day.

[Tress]

These tunes help the kids memorize their facts with minimal effort. I wish I had these when I was younger.

 

Here's an example:

 

To the tune of Jingle Bells, sing: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24 and 27 isn't counting fuu-uun???

3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24 & 27, 30 and we're done!

 

Cultural disconnect here :blush:, I don't know how to sing Jingle Bells....

 

Then I remembered youtube :D, so my girls and I spent some time singing Jingle Bells and looking up skip counting songs. I'm still a bit vague about the skip counting songs, it seemed that most songs had a nice swinging intro and then just mumbled the numbers. I probably haven't found the good ones yet, I always get distracted using youtube :lol:.

[MeganW]

Cultural disconnect here :blush:, I don't know how to sing Jingle Bells....

 

Then I remembered youtube :D, so my girls and I spent some time singing Jingle Bells and looking up skip counting songs. I'm still a bit vague about the skip counting songs, it seemed that most songs had a nice swinging intro and then just mumbled the numbers. I probably haven't found the good ones yet, I always get distracted using youtube :lol:.

 

Try this one:

http://www.singnlearn.org/khxc/ccp0-prodshow/210.html