After MEP Recpetion?

[Guest IdahoMtnMom]

DS is 4. He will be finishing up MEP Reception Year at the end of this year... actually before Christmas... and I am wondering what the next logical step for him is. I am not sure we want to continue with MEP because it seems like conversions and such will take work on my part and the less prep, the better. He loves math. Asks to do math every day.... He can add and subtract with maniputaltives, knows the basic taller/shorter, youngest/oldest, first/last, under/over, and so on... he does have trouble with right and left still.... so what is a good logical next step for us? He is writing a bit, not prefectly of course, but it's readable. He doesn't mind workbooks at all, but he also likes the less 'textbooky' style of MEP. We COULD go with MEP if it will really be the best fit, though.

[blondeviolin]

Miquon. :)

[obsidian]

Right Start?

[redsquirrel]

We did Singapore Earlybird and a bit of Miquon. I skipped a lot of earlybird because a lot of it was writing the numbers and my son wasn't ready for a lot of writing then.

 

So, we finished Earlybird at an unnatural pace due to skipping large parts, then we did some Kumon stuff just for fun. In maybe March I started him in MEP year one and he did fine. I wish we had started earlier. Not a lot earlier, mind you, but earlier. I think we got halfway through MEP year 1 by June.

[ladydusk]

MEP Reception wasn't available when my two olders started at 4, and they just started with MEP 1. It was very doable, especially for a kid who likes math. We've taken it slowly (we only do math 3 days a week right now), but they've excelled and said that math is their favorite subject.

 

I don't do any prep really for math. I open the teacher book, skim and see what we need. I have a basket of manipulatives that I pull out of occasionally, and there are some items that it calls for over and over (number strips - we use C-rods, and the "logic pack" which are shape flash cards), but really, it is a lot of talking and listening and doing the logic problems. I had heard that the answer key is now available, but haven't looked at it.

 

Anyway, we love MEP1 and I would encourage you that it follows beautifully with Reception (I'm using it with my 4 yo, now, she'll start Y1 January-ish and not be 5 until June)

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

I'm doing MEP Reception with my ds and I think that Miquon would also be a good fit for him. If I ever manage to read the teacher's materials to figure it out I think this would be the best thing to do with him next. If not, I'll probably try MEP 1 or RightStart A (which I did with my oldest).

[Zoo Keeper]

Miquon is a fabulous follow-up; very good for helping keep that element of fun and exploration in math. C-rods are much loved at our house. By the mathy and the not-so-mathy one.

 

Please don't give up on MEP year one--it is very good, and the set up in year one is not so much discussion over the posters as in Reception (much to my son's disappointment--he loved those posters in Reception). The teacher prep for year one is minimal. I really like how MEP helps the student (and this teacher) think about how numbers relate to each other; not just rote memorization with little to no understanding. I also like the length of lessons in MEP; the one page is not overwhelming.

 

Or you could do what we do; do Miquon and MEP (and Singapore) :). Why choose one if you don't have to... that would be easy...(and logical, according to my husband...);)

Edited October 22, 2011 by Zoo Keeper

[Crimson Wife]

DS continued on with MEP 1A and got through maybe 3/4 of it before I ditched it in favor of Singapore 1A. With MEP 1A, it seemed like he was doing a lot of interesting math work but I couldn't really tell what the point of much of it was supposed to be.

 

DS loved Singapore 1A and flew through it, but I was concerned that he didn't have as solid a foundation in his understanding of place value and addition as DD had gotten from Right Start B. So rather than continuing on to Singapore 1B, I decided to take him through RS B.

[Aurelia]

I think he would be fine with Year 1. You can do it slowly, maybe 3 days a week and designate the other day or two to math games.

[homeschoolkitty]

has any body ever been able to see the videos in the website?

 

http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/primary/default.htm

 

right before the lessons

 

ty:bigear:

Edited October 20, 2011 by homeschoolkitty

[boscopup]

I really like Singapore Essential Math K. It's inexpensive, easy to use, and gets fairly advanced for a K program (granted, my biggest experience is with Saxon K, which is not advanced :tongue_smilie:). I use Cuisenaire rods with it. Book A is very easy, but the cool thing about it is that there is more than one possible answer for some of the pages, which means you ask the kid to explain why they chose what they did. I thought that was very cool (of course, my child chose one of the aliens when you're supposed to pick which one didn't fit in the group, and there were 3 aliens and a boy... the alien he chose had spots! That was DS's reasoning. :D Perfectly valid answer, and it showed me how he was thinking outside the box... or rather warned me of things to come :tongue_smilie:).

 

Book B ramps up. In the early lessons, it has them solving things like 7 is __ more than 5. I use the C-rods for this. Love them. Later, it gets into number bonds and such.

 

Most people say EM K is very similar to the Primary Math series. I haven't used PM itself (only the IP and CWP books), but I'm liking EM quite a bit. We had tried RS A, and that just wasn't my cup of tea at all. DS and I both do better with the workbook approach. I also have Miquon, but I haven't taken the time to sit down and figure it out. EM is open and go, incredibly easy to use. I'll likely use it for the 3rd kid also. :)

[nmoira]

I am not sure we want to continue with MEP because it seems like conversions and such will take work on my part and the less prep, the better. He loves math.

I haven't found this to be an issue, but I had already chosen to teach metric first. For US measurement and money and for extra work on clocks, I purchased three Math Mammoth units. There is an occasional MEP problem using coins without a US equivalent (e.g. 20p), but I explain that they are using US money and we go ahead and do the problem as is.

 

The only thing I use to supplement MEP is Singapore CWP. The Singapore bar method meshes nicely with MEP.

[redsquirrel]

I haven't had to convert anything with MEP. If they ask for money I just sub in the word dollars. It isn't a big deal. You are more concerned with the numbers in year 1, not the unit. It doesnt matter if someone has 20p or 20 dollars or 20 potatoes. It is the 20 that is the point.

 

We are doing some measurement, but we have always used the metric system for most measuring. All our science uses metric so I keep my focus there.