Behind in math, need advice on catching up w/ MUS

[CariS]

Hello everyone,

 

I guess I should start with a bit of background. My dd (9) did ps for K and 6 mo of 1st grade in which she was taught math with the Everyday Math curriculum. That math alone is enough to pull child out of a school. And it made my dd not only hate math, but it made her feel she couldn't do math. When I brought her home I tried a few things, including eventually MUS. She just wasn't getting it. So I decided to back off for a bit, and for three years did very little formal math. We are now doing MUS regularly, Alpha, and things are going great. She's picking up concepts quickly.

 

My concern is not that she can't do math. I actually think she is completely capable of math a typical 3rd-4th grader would be doing. (It just took her brain a little longer to get ready to learn math.) I'd like to get her closer to doing that math but I'm unsure how. I love MUS. It's the best of both worlds; understanding how math works and memorization. I want to keep using it. I'm wondering if it's possible to accelerate things, and how. If I should maybe supplement with another program.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thank you so much,

Cari

[veggiegal]

Are you doing all 6 pages in the workbook? If so, I'd say drop some if she is understanding the material. I usually only do 1 page with my son and move on to the next lesson. Every once in a while I go back and pick out a review page (D, E, or F) for him to do, and whenever we've hit a wall in his understanding, I go back and do review for a week or two solid (like, a page from lesson 4, another from 8, another from 13, etc.) going slower as we approach where he got stuck. That extra week or two of review has always been enough to push past the tricky spots.

 

Another program you might want to look at is Math Mammoth. There are a few different version available; I'd think the one that goes by topic rather than grade level would allow your daughter to get up to speed quickly. My son is currently working through the clock unit, as MUS did not cover that in enough detail for him to grasp it. An advantage to going by topic is that you make up ground quickly, as the topic covers material from several grades.

[joannqn]

If she is truly understanding the material, do just 1 or 2 of the A,B,C pages and maybe 1 or 2 of the D,E,F pages. Skip the tests. Each level until you hit Algebra is only 30 lessons, so you can finish a whole lesson in less than a year already. Between the two, you should catch up in time.

[EgoElfWife]

Make a time frame say 20-30 minutes and let her do as much as she wants to during that time.

 

As she finishes I would grade and if she gets more than 2-3 wrong I would have her stop for the day.

[truebluexf]

We have done MUS Gamma for only a couple of months now, and DS is almost done (Lesson 25, I think.) I only have him do enough to show he knows the material. Sometimes it's only 1 of A-C, sometimes it's all 3. Then I pick the relevant review pages (if they don't introduce a "new" topic to review, and we just did review 2 days ago, I will sometimes skip these altogether.) We have gone through 1-3+ lessons a week this way. Because he had gotten so down on math, I rarely make him do more than one sheet per day just to keep it all positive. We went from crying during math to complying easily. :)

[CariS]

Thanks for the help everyone.

 

~Cari