Math Mammoth HSBC sale -- it's a great price but...

[alisoncooks]

History: I started my DD with Singapore. When we hit a wall at the end of 1A, I moved to Math Mammoth exclusively for a month or so. I have decided that I prefer SM (DD does as well), but I want to keep using MM for review/supplementation (right now it's really helping with addition facts.)

 

This HSBC deal is just too good to pass up ... but I am too lazy for a PDF curriculum. (I'm currently using pre-printed/bound MM from Rainbow Resource). I love the ease of just grabbing the book and flipping to where we left off -- if I have to go print copies before a lesson, it'll never get done (our printer is very inconveniently placed in our home, I have to carry the laptop down there, etc etc. It's also terribly slow and I can't imagine having to print out the whole workbook...)

 

So, does anyone take their MM PDFs to an office supply store and have them fully printed and spiral bound? Do you still come out cheaper that way? This is my main concern -- that this "deal" will end up costing me more, with more work. What about store printed & then pro-clicked yourself? (I'm wondering -- in the long run it may be cheaper for me to ask for a Pro-click for Valentine's Day :p and then just have them printed and bind them myself...)

 

Thoughts? Talk me into or out of ... something. :D

[boscopup]

I think it would be cheaper to buy a laser printer that does duplex ($80), which make life easier for you in the long run anyway. And yes, Proclick is awesome. I always printed out the entire MM workbook and bound it with Proclick.

[ByGrace3]

Bestvaluecopy.com cheap color copies and they will spiral bound as well. Much cheaper than an office supply store. Also if you look around they usually have coupon codes.

[Jayne J]

I print the whole thing out, three hole punch and put it in a binder before the year even starts. I print in black and white for the most part, and once figured that, at the price per page my printer gets (about 2 cents per page), it costs about 9 dollars to print. In full color it would probably cost closer to 40$, so I print in black and white! Seems like a steal, even as a supplement.

[NittanyJen]

Do you by chance own an ipad or tablet? These days you can use your finger to write directly on the PDF on the tablet and not even have to print it out. YOu can either erase for another student, or just make another copy in DropBox or on your device. No printing at all-- no filing, no recycling, no losing worksheets, no storing for later for the portfolio if you need one . . .

 

If you don't, then I second the idea of looking for a laser printer on sale. Lively Latin, several science curricula, MM, History Odyssey, Lab of Mr Q and many, many others can be purchased so easily as PDF's. Then you can print (double-sided!) just the pages you need, and so cheap! I think my Brother printer prints at less than 2 cents per page, even using the manufacturer toners.

 

You can let them see the pages on the computer screen and write on paper.

 

There are alternatives . . . in the end, stick with what works for you!

[TengoFive]

We print and proclick a half year at a time. I have a laser printer that doesn't automatically duplex. It works well, but an auto-duplex printer is on my wish list. We tried it on the iPad today, as she was starting a new book. It was a lot harder for her. With the stylus it might work, but I ended up just printing it.

[skeeterbug]

My thoughts are if you worry about printer ink when printing something like MM then you have the wrong printer! ;) I print out a section at a time- I think about 40 pages? It's all in a binder and when we have worked through them all I assess what we need to do next and print that. I don't want it bound because I want to be able to hand over one page at a time. It sounds like having a bound copy works for you, in that case it's easy to bind if you have a binding machine. Perfect excuse to get a Proclick! You'll be able to use it for so many things.

[Hunter]

One of the reasons I like to buy a full pdf curriculum is that I HAVE it. With so many curricula going OOP and being revised, it's nice to HAVE a FULL series.

 

I think I'm passing on this sale, but I've been tempted to buy the blue.

 

I really was hoping to buy the entire original light blue, but it looks like it's already too late to do that. It helps me resist knowing that the light blue is a hodgepodge of partly revised and partly original. If this was a last chance to buy the entire original light blue, I'd be all over this sale.

[boscopup]

One of the reasons I like to buy a full pdf curriculum is that I HAVE it. With so many curricula going OOP and being revised, it's nice to HAVE a FULL series.

 

I think I'm passing on this sale, but I've been tempted to buy the blue.

 

I really was hoping to buy the entire original light blue, but it looks like it's already too late to do that. It helps me resist knowing that the light blue is a hodgepodge of partly revised and partly original. If this was a last chance to buy the entire original light blue, I'd be all over this sale.

 

Email the author, Maria Miller, and ask her if you can get the old versions if you purchase the new ones.

 

Also, you'd be able to upgrade to the new versions for free as they come out. You just e-mail her, and she sends you a link to the latest and greatest. For your purposes, the Common Core versions would likely be perfectly fine.

[Hunter]

Email the author, Maria Miller, and ask her if you can get the old versions if you purchase the new ones.

 

Also, you'd be able to upgrade to the new versions for free as they come out. You just e-mail her, and she sends you a link to the latest and greatest. For your purposes, the Common Core versions would likely be perfectly fine.

 

Common Core is a wider scope and takes more levels to complete. I am controversially narrow in the math scope I teach. Remember my thread about Sam Blumenfeld's How to Tutor?

 

I have no interest in textbooks for Common Core or Asian Math, or anything with a wide scope. I do teach some non-arithmetic math as elective/enrichment/living-book activities, but not with textbooks/worksheets. I throw the other math strands out there as "isn't that pretty" and "everyone has a right to participate in the 'Great Conversation'" or stand alone and unleveled unit studies. I only systematically teach arithmetic and some basic geometry with LEVELED textbook lessons before moving onto some basic textbook algebra.

 

It would be like if R&S grammar starting adding in literature. There are people who would then drop the texts. There are those that want to teach their literature without a textbook, even though they want one for their grammar. I'm not sure if that makes sense.

 

The original edition was wider than I liked, but it was at least narrower than it now is, and it was complete in 6 levels. I'm realizing I get lost in anything that has more than 6 levels, especially things with more than 6 levels that aren't yet finished, like the revised What Your _ Grader Needs to Know series, compared to the original one. The new Core Standards MM reminds me SO MUCH of the revised NtK. This is me not being impressed with either. :glare:

[ErinE]

For a few months, I didn't have access to a printer so I used Kinkos for b/w printing. It cost about $20 for a half year. I punched the holes and put it in a binder. I'll second many of the PPs and recommend a cheap laser printer. If you have multiple children using the program or buy other PDF curriculum, the printer yields great savings in printing costs.

[mom@shiloh]

Just wanting to comment because I've read from time to time that people copy MM in black and white. We had a few problems with that because sometimes the question referred to the color used.