Math Mammoth'ers, can you start grade 1a in K or is it "true to grade"?

[BethG]

Haven't put my hands on MM yet, thus this question.

 

Is it fairly true to grade level, or can you start 1A in kindergarten?

[Aurelia]

It depends on the child. If they're ready, it could certainly be done in kindergarten, just be prepared to slow down if necessary.

[kwickimom]

I started 1A 2 weeks ago with my K'er. I think we will have to do it slowly, a lot has to do with it being small print for him.

 

Did you read the intro? It tells you the concepts your child needs mastered to be able to start 1A. I think it will be fine for K depending on where your kiddo is at. My son is 5.5 and we didnt do any Math last year but counting.

[zenjenn]

My younger daughter has some talent for math, so I started her in 1A starting right away in Kindergarten before I realized.. while she had the math skills, she did not yet have the writing skills (as in, physically writing numerals on paper with a pencil), or the necessary skills with reading and following directions. I specifically remember her screaming "I don't know HOW to make a 3!!!!!" and me realizing how dumb I was not to have seen that coming!

 

I shelved MM and downloaded a simple Kindergarten curriculum off Currclick, as well as some of those basic K/1 math workbooks from Target or whatnot. It was ridiculously trivial to her mathematically, but it really helped develop the basic skills necessary to do schoolwork such as MM1A.

 

But, this didn't take long. By November I think we switched to MM1A and she was fine, and completed the curriculum (that is, both 1A and 1B) by the end of the year no problem.

 

I can easily see though, why many Kinders might not be ready their entire K year.

Edited October 16, 2011 by zenjenn

[Farrar]

I think it would be fine for most K'ers to do MM 1A as a yearlong curriculum. The writing issue, especially with the relatively small amount of writing space, would be the biggest hurdle, IMO.

 

I'm not sure if it's the best curricula for K. But that depends so much on the kid and the parent.

[ByGrace3]

We used Saxon 1 for K last year and dd did fine, at the end of the year we went to switch to MM and dd was no way ready for MM2, so we started MM1 and are just finishing it up now. I think it is very true to grade. Some kids could do it, but I don't think dd could have. My plan for next year for ds is to maybe start 1A in the spring...

[sewingmama]

My younger daughter has some talent for math, so I started her in 1A starting right away in Kindergarten before I realized.. while she had the math skills, she did not yet have the writing skills (as in, physically writing numerals on paper with a pencil), or the necessary skills with reading and following directions. I specifically remember her screaming "I don't know HOW to make a 3!!!!!" and me realizing how dumb I was not to have seen that coming!

 

:iagree:

 

My DD could keep up with the concepts but no way with the writing. The writing part would get so frustrating that she would end up thinking she hated math when really it was just the writing element.

 

We are doing K math and my DD is flying through the concepts but it is much more appropriate with the writing element so she does not get so frustrated.

 

I would only do 1a if your kid is at ease with writing.

 

I do think it is pretty true to grade level -in fact it's above what is expected here in Australia for that grade level Math.

[GingerPoppy]

It seems to be above level when compared with Canada, too.

[boscopup]

It's definitely true to grade level. The K'ers that can do it could likely do any grade 1 math program (as in, they are actually ready for grade 1 math). If you have a K'er that is needing K math - counting to 100, learning to skip count, learning the skills they do before delving into addition/subtraction facts, MM1A isn't for you. It is truly a first grade program. She's added a little review chapter at the beginning that's "K level" (it's called "chapter 0"), but that's a review, not meant to teach your K'er and get them ready to do first grade math a year early, kwim?

 

My K'er (K4 sort of - he'll be an older K'er next year, but asked to do "K" now, so we are) is doing Singapore Essential Math K right now. He's in book B. When we get done, we'll try MM1A. I think he'll be ready for the math at that point (when he's officially "K"). I'm not sure that he'll be ready for the writing and the presentation. My 6.5 year old did fine with 1A last year (and he struggles with writing), but he couldn't have handled the writing at all in K. I would not have used MM1A with him for K if I'd been homeschooling. I'd have probably gone with Singapore 1A, which has a lot more space (he is a mathy child and truly was ready for grade 1 math in K). I'm going to give MM a try for DS2 next year since I have it and long term want this to be his program, but if he's not ready, I'll probably do Singapore, as he likes EM K.

[Wheres Toto]

My son has always been advanced in math but behind (or grade level) in writing. I started MM1 with him when he was 5.5. He wasn't (and still isn't) able to handle a lot of writing so I will do the writing for him or just have him do the problems orally. I didn't see any reason to hold him back from the concepts just because of his writing skills. He was more than capable of doing the actual math.

[ChandlerMom]

I've got "mathy" kids and did use MM 1a in K *as PART of* her K math. I wouldn't recommend using it as a serious "curriculum" at that age, even though many kids could handle it. My reason is that I think this age is better approached in a more hands-in, exploratory way and the writing/reading/font size is a challenge (and to be honest, it is visually boring, esp for younger kids).

 

First, I'd do what a PP mentioned and look at the MM site for "what to do in K math" page that lists what skills a child should have before starting MM 1A. Make sure those are solid, using either interactive activities or bubble-gum fun worksheets. Then I would look at the scope & sequence of MM 1A and start working on those concepts. The more comfortable a child is with concepts of adding/subtracting and math facts (have memorized maybe sums thru 6), the easier and more FUN MM 1A will be. Practice reading/writing numbers as well.

 

When that is done, go ahead and start 1A if you want. I guess I'm just saying it's better to over prepare a child for ANY math curric than to hurry into one and risk killing their joy for math because their intellect exceeds their discipline. (or something like that).

 

In K-2, anytime math stops being "fun" re-evaluate what you are doing, switch to a different chapter (like geometry) or slow down, take a day off and do math games, etc. Math in the K-2 crowd should be enjoyable, even for the non-mathy.

 

My 2cents.

[walkermamaof4]

We did math games and Rightstart for K and MM1 for 1st with my first son and then with son #2 we did very little math for K and just started MM for 1. He is doing fine. But, what I wanted to say is that my first son flew through MM, especially if I would write for him sometimes. He is almost done grade 3 and will certainly finish 4 this year at age 8. I'd love to let him get further ahead so he can complete 2 years of Calculus before college if he can. But I don't push him. He just does a couple of pages or more a day. It is going great! We used different programs for my girls (we didn't know about MM) and I sure wish we had known about MM then!

[skueppers]

We used the blue series equivalent of MM 1 last year, at my daughter's insistence.

 

She had already done part of MEP 1 and part of Miquon Orange. She was almost six at the beginning of K.

 

I wouldn't generally recommend it for K, but it worked well for us.

[Leav97]

My son has always been advanced in math but behind (or grade level) in writing. I started MM1 with him when he was 5.5. He wasn't (and still isn't) able to handle a lot of writing so I will do the writing for him or just have him do the problems orally. I didn't see any reason to hold him back from the concepts just because of his writing skills. He was more than capable of doing the actual math.

 

:iagree:

[Robyn]

My son has always been advanced in math but behind (or grade level) in writing. I started MM1 with him when he was 5.5. He wasn't (and still isn't) able to handle a lot of writing so I will do the writing for him or just have him do the problems orally. I didn't see any reason to hold him back from the concepts just because of his writing skills. He was more than capable of doing the actual math.

 

This is how I am handling it also. Ds writes about half of the problems and I write the rest. He loves MM, but gets frustrated when he has to write too much.

 

SWB tells us to keep phonics and writing separate at this age because our dc are often capable of reading before they have the motor skills to write a lot. I believe the same holds true for math skills.

[Haiku]

There is a lot of writing, and I feel it's true to grade level or slightly ahead. I wouldn't rush a kindergartner into it or, if I did start it in K, I would not worry about getting it done in one year.

 

Were it me, I'd just wait.

 

Tara

[SorrelZG]

I started it with DS for K and although he has no problem with the level of work or with the writing or font size, having so many of the same kinds of problems makes it seem endless to him (as per mastery method - all that time on just addition and subtraction). I have to break it up greatly with other supplements to give our math time more of a spiral effect and for that reason I have to keep the time in MM really short each day.

[justLisa]

DD is loving SM 1A. It has the same concepts as MM but frankly she wants NOTHING to do with the blank and boring repetition of MM. She needs the format of SM.

 

Even though DS is not about counting butterflies etc, I wish I had known about SM when HE was in K/1st because it's just the lack of visual appeal at that age, for us at least.

[lorrainejmc]

My 5.5 yr old is in MM1a. His writing has got smaller to fit but he does find the business of the pages confusing. I would say it is true to grade, it covers the same as my dd did in school at that age but my ds has been telling us math facts he figured out by himself for some time before starting formal math. Even so, with all that writing on the page I don't know where to look sometimes.:confused:

[Elfknitter.#]

I've got 2 using MM1. My then 7 yo (now 8yo) started last fall with MM1 because she didn't have any formal math before hand. It's been somewhat a tough go, but I think we'll finally be finishing off 1B by next month. Math is her weakest subject area. At the beginning of this year my then 5.5 yo wanted to start doing math like his sister, so we started him very slowly in 1A. He took to it like a fish in water, but we also had some issues with the handwriting. We've taken breaks during the year to focus more on writing and have recently returned to working on math. We'll probably be finishing up chapter 3 shortly and have dabbled some in the place value chapter of MM1B. I think it can work for some K'ers, but every child is different. Plus manipulatives have been a great help for my two when trying to figure out problems. Oh, and with both children we tend to work through the word problems together.

[tntgoodwin]

My dd5 is doing it and isn't having any issues yet. She will do a page or three at a time, whatever her attention span can handle. We just made sure she could do all the stuff listed for K at the MM sit, back in April or whenever, just before she turned 5 in May. It is going to depend on the kid. I recommend trying a few of the sample pages they offer and see how your kiddo does with it.