MUS to MM question... and a K'er question

[robsiew]

Okay... 2 questions...

 

1. I'm transitioning my dc's to MM from MUS. The 6 and 8 year old I'm actually doing okay with... it's my 9.5 y/o I'm having some trouble with. He currently is about 1/2 way through Epsilon. He's already done multiplication and division through multiple digit numbers and he's started fractions.

 

I'm looking through the 4th grade (this is his upcoming grade level) and much if not all the book is review. There are some things like measurement and a few other things he didn't get with MUS that we are working through to "catch him up" with. But, even much of the 5th book will be review. He's quite a mathy kid so I'm not too worried about concepts with him, although I am learning to teach him in a different way from here on out. He "gets" math though, so I'm not too concerned with the work he's already done. Except word problems, which we're working on...

 

So, I guess my question is where do I place him? Or... with him do I just work through the Fractions Blue book and then take him topically through the rest of the work maybe up to 6th grade? (I have both Lgt. Blue and Blue Series so I could do this). Has anybody switched to MM from MUS at this point and have any hints?

 

Then I have one more MM K'er question.... my upcoming K'er worked through Primer (MUS) last year as a pre-K'er. He is VERY comfortable with place value to 10's and 100's. He understands simple addition and has even started on his own to figure out subtraction. He doesn't have all his math facts down, but he completely understands the concept behind addition and has a good intuitive number sense. I'm thinking of just putting him in Grade 1 MM. I in no way want to "push him", but he's just dead tired of "math games" using simple "K" math. He actually was almost crying when I told him he wouldn't be able to do Alpha because we were switching curriculum! Am I crazy? I wish MM had K!

 

Thanks if you made it this far! I had a hard time not using so many words.:001_huh:

[Aconnolley]

My five year old daughter will be starting MM 1st this year. She has completed most of MUS Primer, Abeka K workbook, and lots of misc. workbooks. She has some basic additions facts memorized, but not many. I had trouble finding enough for her to do. She always wanted more. :-) I have looked over MM and I don't have any problem with an advanced K'er starting it. We can always slow down and supplement with workbooks/games/online games etc.

 

Just go with what feels right. :-)

 

Angela

[Corraleno]

I would start at the beginning of MM5 and just move more quickly through the topics your DS already has a strong foundation in. I would definitely not skip MM5 — especially 5B. There are topics in 5B like negative numbers and graphing functions that would not have been covered in MUS. (In fact, MUS doesn't cover negative numbers to the same depth as MM5B until MUS Algebra.) There is also a lot of decimal work in MM5, and I think the way Maria integrates fractions/decimals/percents so that kids totally "get" the relationships among them, so they can easily "translate" back and forth, is one of the greatest strengths of MM, and prepares students extremely well for algebra. MM6 is, IMHO, equivalent to PreAlgebra in many other curricula (and in some topics it goes well beyond MUS PreAlgebra).

 

Even in areas your DS has covered in MUS, MM will present topics from different perspectives and in greater depth, and the practice problems tend to be more challenging, so I don't think it will be "review" so much as "adding another level" to what he knows.

 

Jackie

[robsiew]

For your 9 yo, that is a really bad place to transition out of MUS. He only has one book to go before completing the greek MUS books. I suggest that you simply finish the MUS sequence, possibly supplementing with MM a couple of days a week so that he gets use to that as well.

 

Not that it's any of my business, but it seems like MUS is working well for your oldest (a 9 yo in Epsilon is none too shabby) and your youngest is excelling as well (if he wants to do Alpha, why stop him?). Why are you switching ?

 

I am not a huge fan of switching , especially in skill subjects like math, unless there are big problems. Switching always causes problems of some kind and only you can decide if the problems with the current program are bigger then the problems switching will create.

 

Well, not that this thread is about me switching or not... but, I am seeing some trouble with MUS and since I've started them doing some work in MM I see the issues glare even brighter.

 

One, I think my oldest was getting quite bored with doing the same thing on every single sheet for MUS. He is a mathy kid and loved math to start, but over the past year I've seen his enthusiasm dwindle. Now, I'm thinking he was maybe bored with the same format lesson after lesson with MUS. Now, with MM he is presented with many different variations of the concept in each lesson.

 

I also ran into trouble with my dd8 getting 90-100% on every MUS sheet she does, but on a review at the end of the year she could not do a 3 digit number subtracted by a 3 digit number. She's 1/2 way through Gamma. She also learned how to just plug numbers in, but apparently really does not have the concept of multiple digit subtraction down. (She finished Beta this year and went into Gamma so this is something she did study this past year.) IMO... if she really had the concept down she should have been able to solve those problems even if she hasn't done them for a couple months.

 

Another issue my eldest ds was facing appeared when I started him in LOF Fractions. For the first time, he had to actually apply what he had learned. Not just in a word problem that was pretty straight forward as those in MUS are, but in a word problem that makes him stretch his learning and his understanding to a different level. He had to actually **think** instead of just plugging in numbers (which really is all he had to do with the word problems in MUS). He would comment to me, while doing Fred, "but Mom... he didn't tell me HOW to do this!" After looking at the problem I realized, no he didn't... but my ds had all the knowledge he needed... he just needed to know how to use it. MUS was not doing that for him. MM is much stronger IMO in this area.

 

While I do like MUS and to some extent it is a conceptual program... I'm seeing far greater value in MM. Maybe I'll blame Liping Ma.... or those who suggested I read her book....:D

[robsiew]

I would start at the beginning of MM5 and just move more quickly through the topics your DS already has a strong foundation in. I would definitely not skip MM5 — especially 5B. There are topics in 5B like negative numbers and graphing functions that would not have been covered in MUS. (In fact, MUS doesn't cover negative numbers to the same depth as MM5B until MUS Algebra.) There is also a lot of decimal work in MM5, and I think the way Maria integrates fractions/decimals/percents so that kids totally "get" the relationships among them, so they can easily "translate" back and forth, is one of the greatest strengths of MM, and prepares students extremely well for algebra. MM6 is, IMHO, equivalent to PreAlgebra in many other curricula (and in some topics it goes well beyond MUS PreAlgebra).

 

Even in areas your DS has covered in MUS, MM will present topics from different perspectives and in greater depth, and the practice problems tend to be more challenging, so I don't think it will be "review" so much as "adding another level" to what he knows.

 

Jackie

 

Thank you for your input! I do agree that many of the topics my ds has covered in MUS... but not to the same extent of MM. I think my plan right now is to go through MM4, pick out any topics I know he doesn't have and then move onto MM5... thank you for that overview.... it was very helpful!

[robsiew]

My five year old daughter will be starting MM 1st this year. She has completed most of MUS Primer, Abeka K workbook, and lots of misc. workbooks. She has some basic additions facts memorized, but not many. I had trouble finding enough for her to do. She always wanted more. :-) I have looked over MM and I don't have any problem with an advanced K'er starting it. We can always slow down and supplement with workbooks/games/online games etc.

 

Just go with what feels right. :-)

 

Angela

 

Thanks! I think I just needed some affirmation. I don't want to stress out my K'er, but on the other hand he's about to explode from lack of "real math" as he puts it! :lol:

[TracyP]

I am planning to start my Ker in MM 1. The spaces are a bit crowded so I have gone through and used the snapshot tool to highlight 1/2 or 1/3 of each page and just print that. It is more paper but it turns out beautiful with large spaces to write on and not such a crowded look. This way we will also be able to move a little slower if needed.

[robsiew]

I am planning to start my Ker in MM 1. The spaces are a bit crowded so I have gone through and used the snapshot tool to highlight 1/2 or 1/3 of each page and just print that. It is more paper but it turns out beautiful with large spaces to write on and not such a crowded look. This way we will also be able to move a little slower if needed.

 

Oh, I like this idea! Even for my 6 y/o who will be doing MM2. He has some fine motor issues and I end up doing most of the writing for him. I think this would work well! Thanks!:D

[TracyP]

For anyone else interested in this, check out this thread with this and more tips from Alte Veste Academy. Wow, that sounds like an ad.:lol: