Am I Giving Him Problems from the Right MM Book?

[Parker Martin]

I've been giving my son partial pages from MM 1A. He likes them and does them on his own.

 

Today he did four problems. In each problem it showed two groups of objects. You were supposed to write the number of objects in each group and then write the total number of objects. He did the first three, and then he said this about the last one:

 

Him: "I'm going to do this one by two's."

Me: "Okay... what do you mean?"

Him: "Each box is a two. So there's two and then four six eight ten."

Under the group with one box, he wrote two, and under the group with four boxes he wrote eight, ten for the total.

 

So am I giving him the right thing or does this and the fact that he's never missed any problems mean that I should be giving him problems from a different book or from farther on in the 1A book?

[Carpe]

That does sound like it's too easy. Maybe try fewer problems on each page, and just run through until he needs to slow down? Or does MM have a placement test?

[Carpe]

There is a post-test online. http://www.mathmammoth.com/preview/tests/End_of_Year_Test_Grade1.pdf

 

I imagine it would show what he knows already.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

How far into IA is he? I thought it was too easy, too, but the beginning of the book is deceptive. MM spends time helping kids think conceptually from the start, so our kids who do so automatically just kind of coast through all that.

 

It is still worthwhile, as it affirms their math thinking and reinforces concepts that will be built upon later.

 

In my opinion, keep on with it and don't skip anything as long as he still thinks it is fun. It is great that he enjoys it. He might like to do odds or evens only or vary how many lessons he does in a sitting.

 

You'll know you are on the right track if his casual conversation and play reflect concepts that have been reinforced to him through MM, and he is still noticing patterns and concepts on his own.

 

You'll know you need to move ahead or find another path if he starts balking at the lessons or you notice he isn't 'discovering' numbers and math concepts in his observations and play anymore.

 

Does that make sense?

[boscopup]

Sometimes I just gave chapter tests to verify material was understood. Though if it was a concept that I wanted a specific *method* to be understood (eg, adding/subtracting across 10s with mental math), I'd go over it instead of skipping it.

 

In 1A, I think we did the addition chapter, skipped the subtraction chapter, and did the addition/subtraction connection. We skipped some stuff in 1B also. We did most of 2A, then skipped all of 2B except the section on fractions, IIRC. We did most of 3. We're doing all of 4, but zooming through stuff he knows (I want him to have *some* practice on it).

[Crimson Wife]

I'd give the placement tests for both MM and Singapore, then use that to figure out which topics to skim & which to cover in-depth.

[Dmmetler]

You might want to try the Singapore IP. My DD was able to whip through the 1A and 1B Singapore books when I brought her home from PS K, but the IP really made her think a little more and showed where we needed to work at the conceptual level-and she had fun doing it.

[Paige]

I'd give him the placement tests for this level and MM 2. I think MM 1 starts off very easy on purpose.