switch from MUS primer?

[bethben]

My 5 year old has gotten to lesson 9 in Math U see. All of a sudden, it feels like a huge jump from number recognition and counting to place value. She barely understands numbers up to 20 and we're just working on counting up to 20. I'm thinking about switching to Saxon or something that spirals and is a little more basic at this point. Her level is really more preschool. She's barely writing her numbers. I'm just not sure she's really ready for place value when she is still just grasping the idea that numbers have symbols attached to them.

 

She can learn - due to a bunch of issues, she's catching up on all of those preschool years still. I'm not concerned. I just am trying to get her where she's at.

 

Beth

[Shelsi]

Probably not the most helpful advice but my 5 yr old is having issues with number recognition although she can count and understands the concept of, for example, what 6 socks would be although if she saw the number 6 she would say it's either a 6, 9, or 8.

 

So for us, we kept pushing along and went ahead into place value doing only 1 side of worksheet every day and also using it throughout the day (for example when saying it's Oct 31 we got the blocks out and put the tens & units in the right places). Although it drives me crazy the MUS way of saying numbers like "onety-five" or "threety-two" has really helped dd.

 

Last week we switched away from MUS to MEP but just because MUS doesn't seem to be a good fit for her. It bores her. She was able to grasp the place value concept though. Remember too that MUS Primer is not mastery but more a covering of topics. All the other levels of MUS are mastery in that you shouldn't move on until it is mastered but it's not so with Primer.

[Hedgehogs4]

Do you really need a curriculum to teach your child number recognition, etc.?

 

MUS is a good curriculum. The fact that it is not working completely for a 5yo is not about the curriculum, but rather the maturity of the student. My dd7 has done great with MUS, but at 5 she did not get the place value thing either. I say revisit it later. Play counting games and recognition games that will help her to grasp the concept of 1-20. Don't sweat it. really. I pitched the primer and gave her Kumon workbooks to "play with." They had lots of counting activities and dot-to-dot things that just helped her get the knack until she was mature enough to do the MUS. Let her play with the blocks. Let her count the number of beans you are putting in the soup. Just play.

 

I think we are quick to think that a curriculum is necessary for a 5yo, but really it's just counting and basic adding. Play with play-dough balls, buy an abacus and look at number groupings, look at dice, sing skip-counting songs (if you can get hold of one of CC's old memory cds these are great). I'm telling you from experience.

 

My son at 5 blazed through his primer. DD at the same age just didn't get it--it took a little longer. Now she gets it and loves math. She is 7.

[bethben]

I'm one of those people who does well with a set curriculum. I'm not so great with follow through on "random". Yes, I know I don't need a curriculum, but it keeps me on task. I've tried going the no curriculum route many a time with different things through the years, but I have no follow through.

 

Beth

[Hedgehogs4]

I'm one of those people who does well with a set curriculum. I'm not so great with follow through on "random". Yes, I know I don't need a curriculum, but it keeps me on task. I've tried going the no curriculum route many a time with different things through the years, but I have no follow through.

 

Beth

 

Well, I guess you know yourself best! :001_smile: Jmo--good luck.

[MomatHWTK]

Maybe you could download the MUS Primer activity sheets and review them before moving forward?

 

http://www.mathusee.com/support/downloads/

 

There are also general pre-school through 1st worksheets online that you could use and just revisit the MUS lessons. :001_smile:

[2007mama]

I'm no expert (we are just starting out!), but we are also using MUS Primer right now. DS had days where those place value lessons seemed to click, and days when he was really confused. Since it's not mastery based, you could always just skip ahead to something else... I think we are on 14 and it is counting to 20. I thought it would be really boring for DS but it has been good practice writing numbers, which we are also doing in handwriting. Oh, and there was a lesson about addition, which were fun for him because we finally got to bust out the blocks. :)

[rocketgirl]

There is a huge jump in the Primer book. My preschooler has been fine with Primer as far as counting, etc. The next step is place value and ya, she's not there. So we are using other materials for the time being til she's ready to resume. Math U See is an amazing program, I've used everything from Alpha through Epsilon and this year are using Zeta and Primer for the first times. We love it & are still constantly amazed by it. Right now I know my little one needs some time with number recognition before we move on. We're using some little workbooks we got from dollar tree to focus on certain numbers, counting them, writing them, recognizing them, sequencing them, etc. There's no hurry :)

[Hakg]

I ran into the same issue with my DS when he was 5. MUS was just too boring. We switched to the Singapore Early Bird series and it was much more engaging with the illustrations and colour etc. We stuck with Singapore for a year or so after the EB series, then switched back to MUS at age 7 when he no longer really needed the pictures and colour.

[swellmomma]

My 5 year old is really loving and doing well with Mathematical reasoning. We are nearly done Book A (which says age 3 but I think works well as an early K level), she has been doing number recognition, comparisons, sorting, shapes etc. SHe will carry on into book B which says for 4 year olds but I think again better for K. Once done those 2 books she will either do MUS primer or horizons K. We will see. MUS is a great program and my bigs have returned to it this year, but I like horizons too and that is what my 9 year old is using, he used primer and has been given teh option of which program he wants to do and he likes horizons better. Anyway, MUS is a great program, I think the issue like pp said is not the program but the maturity of the child. Find something different to use for a while and then come back to MUS.

[bethben]

Thanks all! I may try the Kumon workbooks and maybe get out the big decimal street poster I made for ds and try to explain numbers with that and the blocks. Thanks!

 

Beth

[TengoFive]

I like to use a variety of things in the K year, as my kids zoom through worksheets but still need more review than most books offer. I've found Developmental Math Book 1 to be great for this. It is all about number recognition and has at least 2 pages for each number.

 

Primer is really, really good, so I would probably do Developmental Math 1 and then go back to Primer.

[lexi]

We had that same problem. We spent a lot of time on those lessons and then just moved on. We were both frustrated. We didn't quite finish the book that year and we were both burnt out. The next year we did Right Start. We truly had many lightbulb moments as concepts stuck. It's been much less stressful!!

So, was it the curriculum or the fact that my dd was a year older? I don't know but we are making real progress in math now.

 

Ohh, and we did try the first part of Alpha. I almost forgot...the addition facts were NOT sticking. That's when I switched. Much better now.

 

So, switching worked for us. But you may be able to move forward in Primer with some reviewing and still be fine. It is a hard concept to grasp and can take some time to get.