Mommie_Jen Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 DS has 2 years of church preschool under his belt. He has a good grasp of more, less, numbers up to 20, and can do very simple addition and subtraction with counters. Should we start with primer still? Or skip to alpha? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorrainejmc Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 My ds was like that. You could maybe go to Alpha but I actually printed the additional sheets for Primer off the MUS website and had ds do those to see how he did. He flew threw them so we were all set to start Alpha but we went with Math Mammoth instead. He started MM1a with no problems so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sasharowan Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 I would start with alpha and just be prepared to spend some extra time where needed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lbakos Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 I would start with Primer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgialee Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 I would start with Alpha. Primer is mostly just counting and writing numbers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommie_Jen Posted February 13, 2012 Author Share Posted February 13, 2012 Does one teach place value more thoroughly than the other? Is telling time covered in one but not the other? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyLittleBears Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 The primer is good reinforment for what will be in alpha. I would not skip it. It teaches much more than just counting. It teaches geometric shapes,addition with one, addition of doubles, addition by tens, counting by 10s,5s,&2s, place value, skip counting to find areas, tally marks, solving for the unknown, prelimary subtraction, and some telling time. Alpha builds on what's in the primer but moves more quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slipper Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 I'm a big believer in giving my kids lots of confidence, so I started with Primer. She loved it and felt like she was H.O.T. HOT in math! lol She flew through it, asked to do it in her spare time and was in Alpha in two months. She then flew through Alpha and is now in Beta. She's in 1st grade, so she's older than your child. I would start with Primer but not worry about the teacher's manual or dvd, just the student book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystie Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 I did just Alpha with my oldest (spent 2 years in it) and Primer & Alpha with my second. I *loved* Primer. It is the basics out of Alpha, plus writing numbers and counting, more slowly and gently done. The great thing about MUS is you can go at your son's pace. My second son only did about half the pages from Primer, but I think it gave him a strong foundation. I think Alpha is actually a pretty challenging first-grade book. It really wants the student to have addition and subtraction facts down cold, absolutely memorized. You could go to Alpha without Primer, but I would plan on it taking 2-3 years, depending on how things "click" with your child. I was surprised, because I usually don't care for preschool and kindergarten programs, but I really loved Primer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommie_Jen Posted February 14, 2012 Author Share Posted February 14, 2012 Thank you, all. I'm pretty sure I will be using MUS, and will go with Primer. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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