JessieC Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Hi, Well, I just saw the post that MM is on sale, so there is some urgency to this question! What do you like/dislike about MM vs. RS? I was all about MM until I saw a lot of recent posts about how wonderful RS is. DD will be in first grade when we start hsing. So far she shows no signs of struggling in math, seems to have some natural curiosity about numbers, and I couldn't say how she learns best at this time. Anything you can share about these two programs is greatly appreciated! Jessica Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeganW Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 RS A & B, then move to MM MM usually goes on sale in March for 40% off at Homeschool Buyer's Coop, so no pressure to buy now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JessieC Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 Thanks for your quick reply! BTW, dd was also born in April 05. Good month for babies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwoodbri Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Both! :) I mainly use RS but we also use MM. I love the hands on nature of RS so I couldn't do without that but it's also nice to take a break and use MM 1a. My son and I use both. We started this year doing RS A and then bumped up to RS B. I was missing a material so I started using MM and we'll continue doing that. Both good programs but very different. If I had to pick one, I'd go with RS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daffodil Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 RS A & B, then move to MM MM usually goes on sale in March for 40% off at Homeschool Buyer's Coop, so no pressure to buy now! What level of MM would be appropriate after RS B? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skueppers Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 My daughter doesn't do well with hands-on math stuff, and the scripted nature of RS would drive both of us bats. Math Mammoth is great for the way she learns. At least in the first grade level, I feel that concepts are built up slowly by doing, rather than through lots of examples and lecture-type presentation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 The two are pretty different in presentation. Does she like/need manipulatives when learning math? Or does she prefer to do stuff in her head? My son is very good at mental math and doesn't usually need manipulatives. RS would have been too much manipulatives for him. He does great with MM. I have RS A to use for my 4 year old (we haven't started yet... will probably start closer to age 5, though he's showing signs of being ready now). I don't have any plans to use RS past B, and we might not even use B. We might just do A and move into MM 1. I'm not sure yet. This kid is very hard to figure out, so I won't know anything until we actually get to K age probably. In March, the HSBC will have the whole bundles of grades 1-6 available. You won't be able to get just one grade. But the 20% off sales happen fairly often. This is at least the 3rd or 4th one since I first bought grade 1 back in September. :) Print out some samples of MM and see how your daughter does with those. If she likes them, get MM. If she hates them, look for something different. MM is certainly *much* cheaper than RS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 What level of MM would be appropriate after RS B? My son went into MM2A after RS B. My dd went into MM3B after RS C. I think RS A and B and then into MM is good idea, although I have to say that I love love love how RS C teaches 4-digit subtraction. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuovonne Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 If you want a script, little writing, lots of manipulatives, and a big emphasis on place value, go with RightStart B. If you want worksheets, can deal with the handwriting, fewer manipulatives, and a more traditional scope and sequence, go with Math Mammoth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 We do MM, but we beef it up by playing games and using manipulatives more often than I think some MM families do (though there are some good games suggestions in the worktexts). When I first heard about RS, I was intrigued, until I saw my friend's huge box of all the little bits and pieces and the set of activities. Even if it might work for my kids (which, I dunno... it might...) it would never work for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sleepymommy Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 We tried both and MM worked much better for us. I think it really depends on your child's learning style. I really thought that the more hands on and less writing concepts in RS would work best for him. But he didn't like all my "teaching" and wouldn't retain anything he learned. MM (and MEP) works great for him. I don't have to explain much, everything that is expected of him for the lesson is all right there on the sheet so he knows exactly how much more until he's done and writing the answers has helped him retain the info. I think if I could go back and be taught math again as a child RS would have been the best for *me* :tongue_smilie:. It suits my learning style. They are both great programs, so if it doesn't matter which you go with because they would both work for your child I would go for MM. It's much more cost effective and less teacher intensive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satori Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 I agree, it depends on your child's learning style. RightStart fits in with my daughter's learning style, and if it didn't, I would probably still try my best to use it for the first few years. We also use Math Mammoth as a supplement because of all the raves here, although neither of us are sold on it. My daughter does MM okay, but I think of it as busywork. Maybe if I got Year 2... I'll try that in March. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poetic license Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 We also use Math Mammoth as a supplement because of all the raves here, although neither of us are sold on it. My daughter does MM okay, but I think of it as busywork. Maybe if I got Year 2... I'll try that in March. This is what is bugging me out about MM... I'm finding page after page of writing out the sums in different ways. It has helped my DS learn the sums and he actually enjoys it but I can't help but think that maybe the hands-on, writing minimal strategy of Right Start would be really beneficial, especially with respect to mental math. I am hesitant because of the price and the sheer amount of "stuff" though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5Wizards Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Rightstart seems like a great program, but I never connected to it as a teacher, so barely used it. I LOVE MM and my daughter is doing well with it, but I didn't use it until the 3rd grade level, so I have little experience with it for 1st grade (although I plan to start it with my current 5 year old at some point). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skueppers Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 This is what is bugging me out about MM... I'm finding page after page of writing out the sums in different ways. It has helped my DS learn the sums and he actually enjoys it but I can't help but think that maybe the hands-on, writing minimal strategy of Right Start would be really beneficial, especially with respect to mental math. I am hesitant because of the price and the sheer amount of "stuff" though. This is one of the things that I think depends on the child's learning style. My daughter seems to learn best, at least at this level, by doing things the Math Mammoth way. She doesn't want a lot of explanation, and she doesn't want to gain conceptual understanding through hands-on methods. She actually finds working with physical manipulatives distracts her from figuring out what's going on with the math. She wants to acquire a deeper understanding incrementally by working the problems. She definitely has acquired the conceptual understanding and mental math techniques, but it's been sort of a stealth process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 This is what is bugging me out about MM... I'm finding page after page of writing out the sums in different ways. It has helped my DS learn the sums and he actually enjoys it but I can't help but think that maybe the hands-on, writing minimal strategy of Right Start would be really beneficial, especially with respect to mental math. I am hesitant because of the price and the sheer amount of "stuff" though. The mental math starts getting taught later in 1B. 1A is mostly learn those facts, learn those facts, and learn those facts. It works though! My son knows his facts pretty well without doing outside drill. I found 1B to be more interesting than 1A, and looking at 2A/2B (I've been printing them out this week), it looks more interesting than 1A also. Really, 1A is just addition/subtraction facts, and those are boring. My son liked them though and didn't complain at all. :) I think he was just happy to be doing something different from Saxon 1, which was really boring him (and me!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JessieC Posted February 19, 2011 Author Share Posted February 19, 2011 Thank you all for your responses!! This helped a lot. We may be more of a MM family--well, I may be more of a MM teacher because I am bad with physical objects, but I'm still intrigued by RS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristin0713 Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 We LOVE RightStart. I think my kids are getting a much better foundation in math then I ever did, and even just taking them through Level A, I am learning to think about math differently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyforlatin Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 MM has worked really well for us. There has been no need to do any addition/subtraction drilling except for the problems given in MM1. I was surprised at how quickly DD learned her math facts. I do use manipulatives to help with new concepts, but I prefer having worksheets to reinforce concepts. MM1 encourages mental math and teaches strategies for adding/subtracting double digits. I can't say DD is strong or gifted in math, but she can do mental math quite well, which I attribute to MM's incremental process of teaching concepts and providing many problems for reinforcement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eight_gregorys Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 We do Rightstart with Math Mammoth blue series. I can finally say that we found our math niche and won't be changing. The combination is great. Good luck deciding! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devotional Soul Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 I have RS B, MM1, Activities for the Al Abacus, and the RS abacus. I love the ideas of RS B, but my ds much prefers MM and that is what is realistically getting done every day. With a baby around, MM is much easier for me, so MM is the winner here. The abacus is a great math tool that we use along with the abacus and the ideas from Activities for the Al Abacus. Another big difference between the two is that MM is mastery, staying on one subject for a while. RS changes subjects a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 Hi, Well, I just saw the post that MM is on sale, so there is some urgency to this question! What do you like/dislike about MM vs. RS? I was all about MM until I saw a lot of recent posts about how wonderful RS is. DD will be in first grade when we start hsing. So far she shows no signs of struggling in math, seems to have some natural curiosity about numbers, and I couldn't say how she learns best at this time. Anything you can share about these two programs is greatly appreciated! Jessica Kids generally start out very hands on, even if they out grow the need later. I would use RS for 1st grade, then re-evaluate if they need the manipultives or not for next year. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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