How can I speed up MUS?

[MommyInTraining]

My dd is getting ready to finish up Gamma and start Delta over the summer. She will be 5th grade. So, I would like to get Delta done in about 6 months. Has anyone tried to speed up MUS? Do you just skip some of the practice pages?

 

Would love to hear how others have approached it.

 

Thanks!

[NavyWifeandMommy]

We are doing a semester with Gamma. Right now its daily drills with different activites and shes doing a lesson a day or every two days.

[Jen+4dc]

We've only done Alpha and Beta but this is what I do:

 

Day 1: watch video with ds and do pages A & D

Day 2: do pages B & E (if it's obvious after doing page B that he has it then instead of E I'll sometimes have him take the chapter test).

Day 3: chapter test (unless he's struggling, which has only happened 3 or 4 times in the year we've been doing MUS) or pages C & F then day 4 would be chapter test

Day 4: video and pages A & D of next chapter

Day 5: pages B & E

 

lather, rinse, repeat......;)

 

Doing it this way we finished alpha and beta in about 10 school months.

 

HTH

[MommyInTraining]

We are doing a semester with Gamma. Right now its daily drills with different activites and shes doing a lesson a day or every two days.

 

So, the A-E pages and the test...does she do any of those?

[Mynyel]

According to what Demme has said himself you can skip. That is the point! :) If they "get it" then press on....if they don't then keep going.

 

We are just starting out in MUS but the kids like it, it isn't overwhelming to them.

 

So today we started in Lesson 2...they did worksheet 2A...they blew through it in 5 minutes. We are going to the review tomorrow (2E? I think) and skipping the rest of the sheets. If they do good on the review then on to Lesson 3!

[MommyInTraining]

There are 3 pages of review. Do you think it is OK to skip the review? How do you make sure they are remembering the previous lessons? Do you just do 1 page of review?

 

Thanks!

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

There are 3 pages of review. Do you think it is OK to skip the review? How do you make sure they are remembering the previous lessons? Do you just do 1 page of review?

 

Thanks!

No, I'd do all of them, and would do them over 3 days. Your child needs to practice what she has mastered or she will forget it. The only time I would skip some of the Systematic Review would be if you had backed way up in MUS to review (like if you were switching to MUS from another curriculum). While you can move quickly, that is only if the child is mastering the concepts quickly. I would be more inclined to do math on weekends/holidays to speed it up than to try to condense the course work into fewer days, otherwise you run the risk of moving too fast and not mastering concepts.

[Parrothead]

I was able to squeeze Alpha and Beta into one calendar year. We did a chapter and a half a week and really drilled the facts.

 

Example:

 

Monday: Drill then Chapter 1 pages A and D

Tuesday: Drill then Chapter 1 pages B and E

Wednesday: Drill then Chapter 1 pages C and F then chapter test

Thursday: Drill then Chapter 2 pages A and D

Friday: Drill then Chapter 2 pages B and E

 

The following Monday we would finish chapter 2, Tuesday - Thursday would be chapter 3 then Friday would start chapter 4.

 

Doing it that way we were able to also take holiday breaks - two weeks at Christmas, a week at Easter, etc.

[Joyful]

There are 3 pages of review. Do you think it is OK to skip the review? How do you make sure they are remembering the previous lessons? Do you just do 1 page of review?

 

It depends on how my student is doing. If he mastered the lesson with one practice sheet, then we move on the do a systematic review. If he does well, then I have him do all the word problems on the next two systematic review sheets (at the bottom of the pages) which is what Mr. Demme recommended when I asked him about it. If DS has trouble with the review materials on D (not often since he mastered the materials before moving ahead), then we would work on E, and F if needed.

 

So, here's the skinny if the material is learned quickly:

Day 1 - Present the lesson, and do Lesson Practice A

Day 2 - Systematic Review D and word problems on E & F if

the review problems are easy, or

Day 3 (optional) - Do word problems on E&F the next day

 

But having said the above, I would suggest that you gauge your student's progress

in Delta carefully before moving to each new lesson. Delta is pretty much all working on

division - from simple division to long division with multi-digit numbers. Some how,

division is a bit harder (in terms of operations) than multiplication, especially when the

numbers get bigger. So, I would suggest you take the time to make sure the material is

learned well rather than shoot for finishing the material in a shorter period of time. kwim?

 

I hope that you will be able to figure out a scheme that works out for you

and your kid! What we have appreciated about MUS is the fact that we can slow down or

move faster to meet our kids' learning needs. =)

 

[Just to give you some background - my oldest is finishing Epsilon and moving on to Zeta.]

Edited June 4, 2010 by Joyful

[Lisaroe]

Have you ever looked at the older "classic" Intermediate or Advanced- Advanced has a combination of last 1/2 Epsilon, Zeta, and pre-algebra. My son did this in 6th grade. I skipped some of the practice lessons if I knew he had the concepts down pat.

I have seen Advanced on some swaps but I don't know if they have dvd's - I have only seen them with vhs- that is what we have.

One of my sons is in Geometry now and is going into 9th grade. He had no problem transitioning from the classics to the new MUS. :)

Edited June 4, 2010 by Lisaroe

[Hedgehogs4]

in delta, my ds is able to crank out a lesson a day on the simple division chapters (all pages of work) simply because he knows his mult. facts so well.

 

on the harder concepts (like averages) we take three days.

[Night Elf]

We stay on a concept until it's mastered. We very rarely stick to the 1 lesson = 1 week instruction. Dd12 just moves quickly through math concepts. We had to slow down at the end of pre-Algebra when she was having major trouble with negative numbers, and then one day the light bulb went off and she totally understood the concepts. She finished the last 10 lessons in the book in one week. But I would never allow her to move forward if she hasn't shown a mastery of the concept.

[rafiki]

.

[Lisaroe]

I was over on the High School Board and 4wildberrys posted a really good Math U See Post that you may want to look at- It is Steve Demme's responses to her general questions. I think it may provide the information you are looking for.

Good Luck

Lisa

:auto:

[razorbackmama]

My dd is getting ready to finish up Gamma and start Delta over the summer. She will be 5th grade. So, I would like to get Delta done in about 6 months. Has anyone tried to speed up MUS? Do you just skip some of the practice pages?

 

Would love to hear how others have approached it.

 

Thanks!

 

If the material is all completely new to her, what you might do is to have her do the 1st 2 pages. If she gets those concepts right then skip page C and have her do D-E. If she gets those concepts right (I don't recommend skipping at least those since they contain review) then skip page E and move onto the test.

 

If she's familiar with the concepts (like if you switched to MUS from another curriculum so perhaps she's familiar with division), if it's something you know she's seen before and can do, you can have her watch the video and take the test immediately if she's comfortable.

 

These are both ways that my kids have gone through it quicker.

[EKS]

We did five levels over 6 months (we were using it as review). Just skip practice pages. This is usually easier earlier in the book. We also didn't do tests, which helps compact things.

[MommyInTraining]

Thanks everyone!

 

I was over on the High School Board and 4wildberrys posted a really good Math U See Post that you may want to look at- It is Steve Demme's responses to her general questions. I think it may provide the information you are looking for.

Good Luck

Lisa

:auto:

 

 

Thanks Lisa!!!!

[Aludlam]

We've only done Alpha and Beta but this is what I do:

 

Day 1: watch video with ds and do pages A & D

Day 2: do pages B & E (if it's obvious after doing page B that he has it then instead of E I'll sometimes have him take the chapter test).

Day 3: chapter test (unless he's struggling, which has only happened 3 or 4 times in the year we've been doing MUS) or pages C & F then day 4 would be chapter test

Day 4: video and pages A & D of next chapter

Day 5: pages B & E

 

lather, rinse, repeat......;)

 

Doing it this way we finished alpha and beta in about 10 school months.

 

HTH

 

 

Hey! Why didn't I think of that??? :tongue_smilie:

 

Angela