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If you use MEP math, what age or grade is your dc and what level do they use?


HappyGrace
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Well, our "academic year" starts in January, but we change their "grade levels" in September, so I'll just use ages.

 

my 7 yo is almost done with Y1 and will start Y2 in January/February.

 

My will-be-6yo is about a month behind his sister in Y1 and will start Y2 February/March.

 

My 4.5 yo finished Reception and will be starting Y1 in January.

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Wow, interesting-looks like people are using it on grade level (ie-MEP 2 for 2nd grade).

 

That's surprising, as on the yahoo group they have them using it a year ahead!

 

We actually used (and loved) some of yr 1 w/ ds quite awhile back, and now he's in 3rd grade and I'm trying to figure where to place him. Didn't want to put him in 3 if people are using it ahead (so he should be in 4) like the yahoo group says.

 

Feel free to keep the answers coming! Thanks!

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Wow, interesting-looks like people are using it on grade level (ie-MEP 2 for 2nd grade).

 

That's surprising, as on the yahoo group they have them using it a year ahead!

 

 

I don't particularly agree with this recommendation, unless the child is notably ahead in math. Y1 is not very simple.

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Wow, interesting-looks like people are using it on grade level (ie-MEP 2 for 2nd grade).

 

That's surprising, as on the yahoo group they have them using it a year ahead!

 

We actually used (and loved) some of yr 1 w/ ds quite awhile back, and now he's in 3rd grade and I'm trying to figure where to place him. Didn't want to put him in 3 if people are using it ahead (so he should be in 4) like the yahoo group says.

 

British children start "Reception" in the school year during which they'll turn 5, so if they have a spring birthday they'll be 4 most of the year. They turn 6 during Year 1, etc., whereas American children usually have to be 6 at the beginning of 1st grade.

 

This is something that perpetually amazes me about MEP. I consider MEP to be challenging at American grade level, and about on par with what I've seen of Singapore Math. I don't know what kind of math geniuses they're raising over there in Britain, if average five-year-olds are solving multistep equations with inequalities and six-year-olds are memorizing the times tables.

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I don't know what kind of math geniuses they're raising over there in Britain, if average five-year-olds are solving multistep equations with inequalities and six-year-olds are memorizing the times tables.

 

I'm not an expert on MEP, but have done some comparison of the UK and US maths systems. The maths exam that most British children are expected to take in the year they turn 16 (it is the basic maths requirement for most jobs) is the GCSE. There is also an IGCSE (international version) which contains a couple of extra topics. I asked the author of the LOF books (who has many years of experience in mainstream US education) to compare the IGCSE to what is offered in LOF, so I could work out which books to use. He suggested that we would need to study the whole of LOF Algebra, Advanced Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry. There is also a small amount of material in the IGCSE from the Statistics and Calculus books.

 

The UK organisation which promotes UK-style education overseas suggests that GCSEs (taken at 16) are equivalent to a US high school diploma. The Fulbright commission concurs. This would suggest that UK education is accelerated compared to US education, with SAT-level knowledge being achieved a year or two earlier in the UK.

 

Now when you look at the international education comparisons, Britain does come out better for maths at grade 4, but fades away to only a little bit better by grade 8. So it's possible that the accelerated schedule is fine in the earlier years but fails some students in later years. Or there could be other issues (educational, cultural, social) that cause the scores to drop.

 

There - nothing conclusive, but I thought I'd lay out the data I had come across. FWIW, my boys used Singapore, then moved to Galore Park maths. Calvin (very bright but doesn't like maths) passed his GCSE maths at 15 - normal for the top stream in a mildly-selective private school.

 

Just as a side note: this is one reason why English/Welsh university undergraduate degrees are mostly three years long. The last two years of 'high school', after GCSEs, bring students up to AP level (A level in England) so they go straight into specialised courses at university.

 

ETA: this school has experience of pupils using the British system for education and then taking US exams. The last three paragraphs address equivalence.

 

Laura

Edited by Laura Corin
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My printer is a laser and only does black and white, and it's been giving us trouble with some of the lessons.
FWIW, colour printing isn't an issue after Reception. There are a few colour sheets referenced in Y1 for counting objects, but I had no problem using picture books instead (Anno's Counting Book is awesome). I use pencil crayons to add colour to the (very) few overhead/copy masters that require it.
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There are a few colour sheets referenced in Y1 for counting objects, but I had no problem using picture books instead (Anno's Counting Book is awesome).

I used picture books too. I remember using The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle, but any regular book with lots of anything on a page will work.

I don't really care for the posters. They strike me as hideous.

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They don't type on it, they write on the screen with their finger or the stylus. I had to buy the PDF expert app so that I could write on any PDF that I save on my iPad, but the $9.99 was well worth it when compared to printing costs. Almost every curriculum is available in PDF format now, so we have almost everything on the iPad, not just MEP.

 

DD especially likes it because you can select different colors and line thicknesses. Sometimes her worksheet looks more like fingerprinting than math! :D

 

I also have the kids email every tenth page to me, and I print that page and put it in their portfolios. All the rest, I delete. I hate having worksheets everywhere.

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FWIW, colour printing isn't an issue after Reception. There are a few colour sheets referenced in Y1 for counting objects, but I had no problem using picture books instead (Anno's Counting Book is awesome). I use pencil crayons to add colour to the (very) few overhead/copy masters that require it.

 

We have that! Best. Counting book. Ever. :D I love his illustrations. We also have Anno's USA.

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We had been using MUS for my oldest and switched last year to MEP. Even though she had finished Primer, Alpha and Beta in MUS she still would not have easily fit into Year 3 of MEP.

When I looked at it then, it seemed heavy in number lines something that MUS had not used. But more importantly it seemed to assume that beginning multiplication was already known. So I decided to start her in Year 2. That's been working out very well. :001_smile:

The MEP group had also recommended putting her in Year 2. I think that MEP runs 1 to 2 grade levels a head of a lot of programs. But you might only notice this if your switching to it. My other kids that started with reception or year 1 just started with it in K or gr 1.

I found it easier to look at what skills are taught in each year then to think that the year had to equal the grade level.

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Hmmmmm. Interesting. My guy would LOVE that. They can type their answers on it?

 

Not the PDFs, but from Y3 up interactive web versions are available on the MEP site.

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Wow, interesting-looks like people are using it on grade level (ie-MEP 2 for 2nd grade).

 

That's surprising, as on the yahoo group they have them using it a year ahead!

 

We actually used (and loved) some of yr 1 w/ ds quite awhile back, and now he's in 3rd grade and I'm trying to figure where to place him. Didn't want to put him in 3 if people are using it ahead (so he should be in 4) like the yahoo group says.

 

Feel free to keep the answers coming! Thanks!

 

That's not a year ahead -- recall UK years are one ahead of US grades.

But like any other math program, you should be going at your child's pace, and switching programs may require dropping back a level.

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We actually used (and loved) some of yr 1 w/ ds quite awhile back, and now he's in 3rd grade and I'm trying to figure where to place him. Didn't want to put him in 3 if people are using it ahead (so he should be in 4) like the yahoo group says.

 

I'd just go through whatever of y1-2 or beyond you think he needs, inc just sections, and then have him work wherever his skills need building up. Don't put him in y4 if he's not prepared. I really haven't seen this advice from the yahoo group; there are quite a few posts about how to deal with an older student, and quite a few people who've worked through even y1 with an older kid.

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