Math mammoth users-- what do you supplement with?

[snickelfritz]

Dd is using math mammoth 2 and I like it. But it takes me a lot of time with my dd and I want to streamline our supplementary programs.

 

I am wondering, from those who have used it longer, what is the best complement? I have a variety of options already, just wondering what everyone else finds it to be missing/weak in?

[micheller1]

This is my first year homeschooling and so take that fwiw...

But I only use MM for all three of my kids, we do also do some math games, online math stuff and drills with flashcards but I don't have math loving kids and the math we do is like pulling teeth.

[Crimson Wife]

Well, I'm using MM "blue" as supplement to Singapore. But if I were to switch over to MM "light blue" as our spine, I'd still keep using the Intensive Practice and Challenging Word Problems books. My DD is very good at solving straight forward equations and where she needs practice is on word problems. MM has some, but the Singapore books mentioned have a lot more.

[Beth in SW WA]

We use MM blue, Singapore & TT (for independent work).

[Corraleno]

I've used all levels of MM and I don't supplement; it's very complete and thorough. It explains concepts from multiple perspectives, includes facts practice, provides built-in review, and offers plenty of varied and challenging problems. Unless your child is struggling with a particular topic and needs additional work, or is very mathy and really wants additional extra-challenging problems and puzzles, there's really no need to supplement MM.

 

Jackie

[Veritaserum]

I don't. :)

[snickelfritz]

I deliberately kept my original post vague.

 

I am using the complete series.....I forget if that's blue or light blue. :)

 

I guess my feeling so far is that there isn't enough review of old stuff. Dd has been working on clocks for 2 weeks. And that's it. I think I like the mastery approach, but I just want a little something to review old stuff. Maybe.

 

Are there MM review sheets that I haven't found? It's possible, since I just found the fact practice a few days ago.

 

I've been happy with the complexity of the word problems, but wondered if people found the CWP to be a needed addition.

 

I was considering using Singapore Extra Practice from a level back just as an easy review. Or are the cumulative review frequent enough?

 

I'm new to the "mastery" concept, so I'm feeling some withdrawal from the spiral/incremental/constant review stuff. :tongue_smilie:

 

This is all disjointed, but I think my main thoughts are down.

[lamamaloca]

If you purchased the answer key and test download, there should have been a link there to a free worksheet maker where you can design worksheets on any topic. This is intended to be used for reviews and drill. There are also cumulative review pages, but I haven't even looked at those, we are still on chapter 1.

[Lovedtodeath]

I'm new to the "mastery" concept, so I'm feeling some withdrawal from the spiral/incremental/constant review stuff. :tongue_smilie:

Me too. I was deliberately changing the order of some of the lessons so that we would revisit things. There are cumulative review sheets in the light blue series. They are in a separate folder. It was a sigh of relief to find those.

[cschnee]

I've used all levels of MM and I don't supplement; it's very complete and thorough. It explains concepts from multiple perspectives, includes facts practice, provides built-in review, and offers plenty of varied and challenging problems. Unless your child is struggling with a particular topic and needs additional work, or is very mathy and really wants additional extra-challenging problems and puzzles, there's really no need to supplement MM.

 

Jackie

:iagree:No need to supplement! Unless you want to play games or do simulations, that sort of thing.

[DarlaS]

I

I guess my feeling so far is that there isn't enough review of old stuff. Dd has been working on clocks for 2 weeks. And that's it. I think I like the mastery approach, but I just want a little something to review old stuff.

 

Are you using 2A? The clock section is a little much...

 

We've been doing one clock lesson into each week, but went ahead and started chapter 3 to break it up a bit. This doesn't seem to have bothered my ds a bit--he can still do the clock lessons fine when they come up. The rest of the week is addition & subtraction review from ch. 3.

 

It bears mentioning though that he really had time down before starting this program--the only thing new for him was terms like "half past", "quarter till" etc. I just don't refer to time that way, so he had not yet learned it.

 

He also has money down, so I will either skip a good bit of that, or do something similar there.

 

Oh, and like LTD mentioned, do look for the cumulative reviews. They may be just what you are looking for.

[crazyforlatin]

My DD is very good at solving straight forward equations and where she needs practice is on word problems. MM has some, but the Singapore books mentioned have a lot more.

 

My DD has the same problem - good at equations, needs help with word problems, so I just bought the Challenging Word Problems from Singapore, Level 1, even though we are working on MM2 - I didn't want to skip Level 1. I also just noticed that MM1 doesn't have "fewer than" word problems (or maybe I just don't remember them), but CWP Level 1 does. We've only finished Chapter 2 of CWP, and under the challenging section of each chapter, there are maybe 1-2 problems that seem harder than the word problems in MM1. I'm not sure how important word problems are, but I was weak in them and I can see DD is behind in this area, so I wanted to give her a lot of practice before we see them again in MM2. She fears them (not joking) and I want her to overcome this. However, for someone who is a natural in word problems, MM will provide enough of them.

 

Crimson Wife, do you happen to know why a child can be strong in equations and mental math, but not in word problems? DD is an advanced reader, so I thought for sure, she would be able to translate English into equations :confused:.

[sleepymommy]

We supplement with MEP, but only because I like the 'out of the box' thinking that MEP provides not because I think MM is lacking in any way.

 

I have CWP on my bookshelf and will probably pull it out from time to time, but only as an 'extra' when needed.

[Crimson Wife]

Crimson Wife, do you happen to know why a child can be strong in equations and mental math, but not in word problems? DD is an advanced reader, so I thought for sure, she would be able to translate English into equations :confused:.

 

Dr. Dan Willingham had a discussion of this in his excellent book Why Don't Children Like School? You can read it on Google Books here. In a nutshell, kids get bogged down in the details and have difficulty recognizing that, for example 12 cookies shared by 4 kids is essentially the same problem as 6 buckets of apples picked by Johnny & Susie. The student gets confused because one problem is about sharing cookies and the other is about picking apples and has a hard time realizing that he/she needs to do the same mathematical procedure to solve both.

[snickelfritz]

Ok, I found the cumulative reviews. That's what I was talking about, although there aren't very many problems. Not enough to use continuously.

 

I looked through all my "partial" stuff and I have a Saxon level 2, part 2 worksheet pack. I think I'm going to have dd do a few problems from that each day. Maybe 1 full sheet throughout the week, just to keep some constant review of old material.

[Beth in SW WA]

 

I guess my feeling so far is that there isn't enough review of old stuff. Dd has been working on clocks for 2 weeks. And that's it. I think I like the mastery approach, but I just want a little something to review old stuff. Maybe.

 

 

I will not use MM alone. Our hybrid approach hits old topics & new topics daily. MM & Singapore are great for higher-order/deep thinking. TT is great for traditional math concepts with tons of spiral review.

 

I like your idea of tossing in Saxon worksheets to the mix. Saxon as a 'spine' would cover all your bases -- especially in terms of standardized testing (which we can't ignore). :)

[Mosaicmind]

I am going to use MM and Horizons starting next week. I love MM but my ds loves Horizons too and I think the two together will be great. I will probably use MM to supplement concepts that are focused on in Horizons. My son loves math so this won't be a problem.