*another*math question from me...how do YOU USE MM?

[justLisa]

We are in MM 2A fyi...

 

I posted about switching to singapore. I realize these two are very similar. MM has very lengthy sections. Take grade 2A, it's a very very long time until you reach regrouping, and adding hundreds say. In singapore this happens much quicker, and it seems there is always some review of more basic math facts. I looked at the books in person for the second time today and didn't buy them because they did not have the standard edition and i'm confused on which one to get. I am wondering, if maybe I should stop trying to go page by page with MM. It is driving DS batty. He keeps asking for new things. We were to the fact families with 11 and 12 section, and those take a bit of time. And then we'd be scheduled for the next SEVERAL days doing more fact familes, with 13 and 14...and onward and upward. He is solid in the next section of adding/subtracting with one number being a whole ten. I don't think he'd be happy doing 4 solid pages of "fact families" in one sitting just so we can move on. How do you progress while still having the review using MM? Do you skip around some? If you happen to be using or have used MM2nd grade help LOL. DS picks things up quickly and I know I am probably holding him back with going page by page.

 

I am such a bad math teacher!!

[ByGrace3]

If he is getting it, there is no reason to do every problem, skip what is not needed. I know some mix in the time and clock sections, spacing them out to go along with the addition/subtraction offering more constant review along with some variety.

 

We have not started 2 yet (will start it on Friday) but just a few weeks ago I had considered switching math programs as well. I like MM, I like the way the material is presented, but dd was not "getting" it. We would camp on one section for a few days (doing about 2 pages a day) but I realize dd needs to spend more "time" on a concept. Not more problems, just more time. So we are spreading it out a little more. 1- 1.5 pgs a day and adding in the Right Start games to solidify what we are working on, along with a little math drill (songs, skip counting, and games). We only started this last week, but the variety and change has led to a serious change in dd's attitude towards math. We are spending more "time" on a topic and she can grapple with it for several days instead of 1-2 days and I am seeing a big difference here. Not sure if that helps at all, but it is our experience! ;)

[nansk]

My dd did not like MM1 because of the busy pages and too many problems. She likes the the cartoons in the Singapore maths textbook and there are only 2 problems per page. I am toying with the idea of explaining the lesson to her from the Singapore textbook and then printing out the relevant page from MM for practice.

[sagira]

My dd did not like MM1 because of the busy pages and too many problems. She likes the the cartoons in the Singapore maths textbook and there are only 2 problems per page. I am toying with the idea of explaining the lesson to her from the Singapore textbook and then printing out the relevant page from MM for practice.

 

That sounds like a great idea. I'm going to keep this to use for my dd next year in K. I think the colorful aspect of Singapore will attract her attention.

 

As for the original question, ds8 is doing MM 2B right now. If you need more time, not more problems, you could always spend time visiting those Internet links or playing the math games the author suggests. These are great. Ds loves playing with these on the computer. I'm wondering if it would be okay to skip a page or two also. Just a few pages ago, I started skipping problems. Doing every other problem, or doing stuff orally. This helps get through the material faster as well, and still be able to demonstrate understanding.

[Food4Thought]

Well, I'd come at it from a little bit different perspective. I assume that you are choosing MM or Singapore because you believe in the mastery method over the spiral methods offered in other curricula. In that regard, I think the practice in MM is necessary. Case in point, DS and I were getting bored around the 11 or 12 number families too. Then DS got up into 14 and 15. And all of a sudden, he was getting things wrong. I had to back up and explain bridging 10 again. It seems it was a lot easier on those smaller numbers, but DS really needed the extra practice on the larger ones. He had some twisted logic that worked on 11 and 12 that didn't quite work when he got to 14 and 15.

 

So I'd say to push through. My kid does multiplication for fun, but when I realized he's not *quite* getting how to do 14-6, I knew it was good we were pushing so hard on the basics. If you set the foundation for excellent skills now, they will do better later on because they fully understand how the numbers work together.

 

Also, I don't make him do 4 pages all in one day. He does one or two a day so it sinks in. I would definitely not do well with that many pages of the same concept in one sitting!

[SorrelZG]

I'm working straight through it but throwing in either a page on another topic or some time with one of our supplementary curricular that doesn't involve pen or paper. Math has been a bit of a battle here but I haven't been tempted to change curriculum because DS is really getting it despite MM not thrilling him.

[justLisa]

I always get so much help here I really appreciate it! DH is out of town, but he is going to step in and take over a little for math. Right now he is working a couple days a week with DS doing fun and interesting things and applying math skills. But I still need to be the daily math practice administer. He is going to help me look through MM and make it work. Otherwise I will get the Singapore. I just suck at math and didn't learn the "correct" way until I was teaching my own kid! I learned to line up the numbers, and add starting with the ones. LOL. I suppose it looks good if your kid can add 6 digit numbers, but it doesn't mean anything if they don't know WHY.

[Ummto4]

I've been using MM since 2008 and we're still using it.

 

But I don't always use it according to its scope and sequence.

 

Take fact families, for instance. That chapter would've driven my 2 children nut because it's boring and repetitious.

 

So once they understood the concept, I asked them doing it bit by bit over several months while doing something else (e.g. geometry, clock, etc). Doing solely math fact is boring.

 

With my girl who doesn't need constant repetition, I even didn't do all the math facts with her, but we did practice the skill somewhere else (in the word problem, etc).

 

If, however, the concept is hard to grasp and you know you've done the best possible way to get the concept across, then I suggest to just shelve it for the time being, and revisit a few months later. Often, it's just a matter of brain maturity.

 

The key with any math curricula is to tweak it and make it work for you. Mastery-based curricula are easier to tweak, IMO. I always move the topics around, do more than one topic at one time, incorporate continual review on the white board, add games, etc. MM is good to give me framework, but I'm not the one who always starts from page 1 and does the next page till it finishes.

[boscopup]

I've had to adjust how I use MM over time, since we were accelerating, finding where my son is in math, and also filling in any holes in his math knowledge. We started at 1A last fall and are in 4A now. Here's how it has generally gone:

 

- I look over the chapter to see what is presented. If he knows everything in the chapter already, I will give the chapter test to verify, and skip it if he aces the chapter test (he has each time I've done this - I know what he knows).

- Next, if we need to do the chapter, I look at each section before doing it. If he knows the materal in that section, we might do a few problems to demonstrate that, then move on to the next section.

- If the section is new material or material he needs to work on/review, I will go over the concept with him, watch him do a couple problems, then circle which problems I want him to do. In some cases, I might circle 5 problems, in some cases half the problems, and in some cases all of the problems. Just depends on how much practice I think he needs.

- We usually do a section per day, because we have been accelerating. Of course, that gets adjusted if need be. This week we're doing standard algorithm double digit multiplication. He needs practice with it. We're doing ALL the problems. I just split that section into 3 days, doing the regular practice problems over 2 days and the word problems the 3rd day. I need to look ahead and see if this gets practiced more. If not, I will probably print out some extra worksheets for the first time ever. This is a topic that he understands and is doing well with, but if he doesn't use it daily for a while, he's going to forget it.

- At the end of a chapter, we do the cumulative review and chapter test. At the end of a grade level, we do the end of year test. We usually take a few days on the end of year test. I think the grade 3 end of year test took us 4-5 days. It was LONG. :001_huh:

 

Sometimes I mix things up by putting problems on the white board instead of having him do them on paper (we did this earlier this week with multiplication in parts). I also throw in Singapore IP and CWP, plus Zacarro's PCM for "fun math" extras. We don't do them everyday, but I get them out when I feel like he needs a break from MM. They do have a different presentation and are a bit more fun. I prefer the way MM teaches though, so that is our spine.

 

MM1 and 2, with all the facts drill, were kind of boring. We skipped a couple chapters in 1 and all but the fractions section of 2B. There was enough work with the numbers to get the facts down. I haven't had to drill additon/subtraction facts at all. Now multiplication facts, I am drilling. This week, we started doing 5 minute drills that I printed out from here. He is enjoying them, crazy kid! We started with x3's (I skipped 1's and 2's). The first one, he did very well, but skipped anything that was 6x3 or 8x3. So I went over each problem with him and put a check mark on the ones that were correct. If it wasn't correct or if he skipped it, I asked him what the answer was. By the end of that sheet, he knew 6x3 and 8x3 very well. :D Then doing x4's yesterday, he didn't skip any! Woohoo! It looked like he hadn't gotten as far, but he didn't get any wrong and didn't skip any, so he actually scored several points better!

 

We had used Xtramath.org for drills, but finding the numbers on the keyboard was lowering his scores, and he was having trouble getting out of addition/subtraction because he can't type that fast yet. So paper/pencil drill seems to be better for him, and he's asking to do it, so apparently he likes it. I think that's a remnant from when he did Saxon 1 in school and they had the addition/subtraction drills there. :tongue_smilie: I want his multiplication facts solid before we get into long division in another month. Thankfully, MM has given us time to work on them. ;)

[IsabelC]

We haven't been using it for very long, but I find it's helpful to intersperse something different whenever it's getting too repetitious and boring. I noticed that the writer actually encourages adjusting it to suit.

[Ummto4]

I've had to adjust how I use MM over time, since we were accelerating, finding where my son is in math, and also filling in any holes in his math knowledge. We started at 1A last fall and are in 4A now. Here's how it has generally gone:

 

- I look over the chapter to see what is presented. If he knows everything in the chapter already, I will give the chapter test to verify, and skip it if he aces the chapter test (he has each time I've done this - I know what he knows).

- Next, if we need to do the chapter, I look at each section before doing it. If he knows the materal in that section, we might do a few problems to demonstrate that, then move on to the next section.

- If the section is new material or material he needs to work on/review, I will go over the concept with him, watch him do a couple problems, then circle which problems I want him to do. In some cases, I might circle 5 problems, in some cases half the problems, and in some cases all of the problems. Just depends on how much practice I think he needs.

- We usually do a section per day, because we have been accelerating. Of course, that gets adjusted if need be. This week we're doing standard algorithm double digit multiplication. He needs practice with it. We're doing ALL the problems. I just split that section into 3 days, doing the regular practice problems over 2 days and the word problems the 3rd day. I need to look ahead and see if this gets practiced more. If not, I will probably print out some extra worksheets for the first time ever. This is a topic that he understands and is doing well with, but if he doesn't use it daily for a while, he's going to forget it.

- At the end of a chapter, we do the cumulative review and chapter test. At the end of a grade level, we do the end of year test. We usually take a few days on the end of year test. I think the grade 3 end of year test took us 4-5 days. It was LONG. :001_huh:

 

Sometimes I mix things up by putting problems on the white board instead of having him do them on paper (we did this earlier this week with multiplication in parts). I also throw in Singapore IP and CWP, plus Zacarro's PCM for "fun math" extras. We don't do them everyday, but I get them out when I feel like he needs a break from MM. They do have a different presentation and are a bit more fun. I prefer the way MM teaches though, so that is our spine.

 

MM1 and 2, with all the facts drill, were kind of boring. We skipped a couple chapters in 1 and all but the fractions section of 2B. There was enough work with the numbers to get the facts down. I haven't had to drill additon/subtraction facts at all. Now multiplication facts, I am drilling. This week, we started doing 5 minute drills that I printed out from here. He is enjoying them, crazy kid! We started with x3's (I skipped 1's and 2's). The first one, he did very well, but skipped anything that was 6x3 or 8x3. So I went over each problem with him and put a check mark on the ones that were correct. If it wasn't correct or if he skipped it, I asked him what the answer was. By the end of that sheet, he knew 6x3 and 8x3 very well. :D Then doing x4's yesterday, he didn't skip any! Woohoo! It looked like he hadn't gotten as far, but he didn't get any wrong and didn't skip any, so he actually scored several points better!

 

 

This is what I did with my accelerated dd who's also 7. She's doing column multiplication (MM 4), and only has geo/measurement and division drill from MM3 left. With accelerated kid, I tend to limit simple problems from MM, and opt more of unique problems, e.g. the puzzle corner and harder word problems. I also throw in CWP 3 and unique problems from MEP.

 

But I like MM as a spine because it's v. logical/organized, v. easy to teach from, and tweakable. With my ds who is more in the average side, I do more MM problems with him. And even then, I still don't assign 'every problem' and not all problems are done in the worksheet.

[justLisa]

THank you, and this is why I think MM is good. I just feel like since his multiple digit addition and subtraction is not solid in his head, I keep drilling day after day and doing the same kind of problems. I think I will skip to the regrouping wtih 10's section which I know he will blaze through.

 

I am not always good at explaining things I notice. I am very abstract, DH is very concise and to the point using only enough words as necessary to get the point across. DS works better this way, and though I try, it just doesn't click sometimes LOL. My husband is out of town right now but he suggested I move ahead and use the subtraction which is what he gets stuck on sometimes as daily practice rather than the lesson of the day and that's it. Adding/subtracting large numbers where one is a whole ten is easy for him. He picks up everything else quickly, like when we did money, clock, and basic fractions/geometry (LOVES). I did not understand the importance of number bonds or fact families in 1st grade and I didn't realize it wasn't as solid as it ought to be. I did not learn this way. I learned memorization and long addition/subtraction but not regrouping numbers. He's pretty good at this, but I'm sure it is going to take a lot of practice.

[Farrar]

We're also basically in 2A. We just move through it. I don't require the kids to do all the problems on most pages. Instead, I have them do about 2/3 unless they're struggling. If they're stuck, I pull out the abacus, the c-rods, some jelly beans or whatever. We move to the white board and do it there or have a lesson. We back everything up by playing games. We're pretty happy with it overall.

[skueppers]

We use the blue series (I bought it back when I thought MM was going to be a supplementary math program for us!). Last year, I printed out pages from the various relevant books and gave them to her in whatever order seemed best at the time. So if she was getting bored with addition, I tossed in a page or two of measurement or clocks or money.

 

This year, she asked me to make her a workbook, so I did, interleaving one or two pages of basic arithmetic with a page or two of something else. For example, this week she has done in this order:

 

Clock p. 25

Add & Subtract 2B pp. 14 and 15

Intro to Fractions pp. 6-7

A&S 2B p. 18

 

It did take an hour or two to figure out what sequence of topics made sense back when I put the workbook together, but now she just does the next 8 pages each week.

 

In addition to her Math Mammoth work, she also does fact drills and a daily problem I pull out of MEP. This is usually on an unrelated topic, like patterns, roman numerals, beginning multiplication, etc.

 

Thus method has been going very well.