Can someone compare TT and Math U See for me?

[JennyCook]

I'm currently doing Saxon math with my first grader. I think I want to try something different. For my fourth and fifth graders I'm sticking with Saxon. Teaching Textbooks and Math U See are standing out a bit to me. Are these good solid programs or will I need to supplement? What do you like/dislike about them?

[LBoogie]

Interested in what others say...

[JennyCook]

Just bumping this....

[threeofakind]

I will share my experience, I tried sing TT with my son and it was not a good fit. MUS has been a great fit, but I think it came down to that TT is spiral and MUS is mastery- mastery is just a better fit for him.

 

With TT what I liked was that it was computer based and generally it did the teaching (of course I'd help as needed, but the bulk of it was explained) and then he would do a lesson and it kept track and graded it. It is a spiral approach and the way it was laid out he just did not get the immediate practice of the concept introduced. Now, this is TT4, by the way. So for example, the concepts introduced early in the year have more focused practice (like place value- they have a set of 5 practice problems and then a 'problem set'), but after the first quiz I noticed since they had more concepts introduced, the 5 practice problems were more mixed and not as related to the concept. Lesson 8 is on subtraction- the 5 practice problems is a mixed review and 1 subtraction problem. then they do the problem set of 22 and again it is a mixed review and subtraction, scattered throughout. Now, it may have worked for my son if the first 5 problems were solely practicing the concept they just introduced and then the review portion would work. It simply was not enough practice. I still like the program though and may use it for my daughter who does great with a spiral approach next year.

 

I like MUS because it is on DVD- again the main teaching from some one else and I am there to guide and lead. But it does take a different scope and sequence. It does have a focus on mastering the main concept- addition/ subtraction, or division, etc. At first, I had a hard time getting over that, but has worked wonders for my son. He is able to really grasp and feel confident in math. It is better for him that he can focus on less concepts but learn them well. It is flexible how you can use it- he watches the dvd (I do too at times) and then there are 3 worksheets focused on the concept introduced and then 3 worksheets for systematic review as well. So I was worried he wouldn't get enough review but there really is and then there are tests as well. Also, if you feel your child needs more practice in something their website offers extra worksheets to print off. Also, some of the review will be from the program you used before- like in Delta, there are reviews from Gamma and Beta, which I like too.

 

Anyway, hope that helped, I have never used Saxon though. But I also did try getting my daughter to use MUS as well and it was not a good fit! We had to go back to a spiral program and they are both thriving in math- so maybe think about what you are using now and what is working or not working? Hope others can tell you more too!

[Joyful_Journey]

I switched my three kids (dd 12, ds 10, and dd 7) over to MUS this year. We had used RightStart in the past (which I really liked for how well it taught my kids mental math, but it was quite teacher intensive so I couldn't find enough time to do the lessons with all three of them) before we switched to Math Mammoth. Math Mammoth was great, but I really needed to find something that was well suited for my visual learners and had DVD instruction (with the arrival of a new baby this fall, I needed a more independent math program). I had several friends using MUS with great success, so I took the plunge and moved all three kids over to it. What a great year of math for us so far! I definitely prefer the mastery approach which MUS offers, but I also like the fact that a couple of the worksheets each week have review included so my kids do not forget what they have already learned. For my second grader, a typical week looks like this:

 

Monday - Watch DVD lesson and do worksheets A and B

Tuesday - Do worksheets C and D

Wednesday - Do worksheets E and F

Thursday - Do the extra fun sheet (included in the test booklet)

Friday - Test

 

I also play one of the RightStart math card games with her weekly since they are so fun and reinforce the mental math, and she does a word problem each day in her Daily Word Problem book by Evan Moor (but I would be doing these things with any math program we use). Math Mammoth had become tiresome for her because it just took SO long to do all of the problems, and it did not make use of many manipulatives which she really needs with her learning style. Plus, I wasn't convinced that she really understood the "why" behind the math. With MUS, she has a great understanding of place value now and LOVES to do math. I plan to keep all of my kids in it for next year with my oldest doing Jacob's Algebra along with MUS Algebra (I just want to be extra thorough at the upper levels since SATs are not far in the future - I think supplementing with an extra math program in high school is helpful no matter what program you use). If you want to try MUS, I think they offer a money back guarantee within a certain time period (maybe 60 days? I can't recall). Hope this helps!

[airforcefamily]

We prefer TT. MUS is a good program but we found it to be somewhat dull. The best way I can compare the dvds is that TT has a cartoon style (fun little sounds when they get the correct answer, little animated drawings, etc.) while the MUS dvds are more of a documentary style. It's the MUS guy in front of a white board explaining things, some lessons have a class of children there as well. My favorite part with TT is that it is interactive. With MUS you or your child have to stop, turn the tv/dvd back on (or leave in on while doing the lesson in the book), wait for it to come up to the lesson you just watched, press the back button, and listen to things over again if something is not understood. TT seems to have a better flow. When a problem is solved after listening to and watching the lesson there is immediate feedback as to if the problem was answered correctly or not and, if not, it is explained again in another way. If it is answered correctly you can still get further explanation if desired by clicking a button.

 

What I don't like about TT is the fact that the dvd lessons are basically animated versions of the lessons in the book. If your child really likes to use the book then the dvd lesson will seem redundant (although the explanation part of the dvd lesson can be viewed/listened to without doing the problems). My only other issue is that each dvd allows just two students to use it. I'm not sure if there is a way around it for a family to keep using it or to be able to sell it. I can maybe understand them not wanting it to be sold over and over and therefore only allowing two families to use it but if I find out that I'm not going to have to purchase a new $100 dvd set for every two kids to use I'm going to start looking elsewhere for math programs.

[NoseInABook]

I've never used TT but MUS is wonderful. My daughter is telling me that math is "easy, peasy" and that she can do it with her eyes closed. I've never felt that way about math myself but MUS helps concepts click for me in a way that they never did before. Which is the reason why I chose to go that route with my kids.

[CatholicMom]

We prefer TT. MUS is a good program but we found it to be somewhat dull. The best way I can compare the dvds is that TT has a cartoon style (fun little sounds when they get the correct answer, little animated drawings, etc.) while the MUS dvds are more of a documentary style. It's the MUS guy in front of a white board explaining things, some lessons have a class of children there as well. My favorite part with TT is that it is interactive. With MUS you or your child have to stop, turn the tv/dvd back on (or leave in on while doing the lesson in the book), wait for it to come up to the lesson you just watched, press the back button, and listen to things over again if something is not understood. TT seems to have a better flow. When a problem is solved after listening to and watching the lesson there is immediate feedback as to if the problem was answered correctly or not and, if not, it is explained again in another way. If it is answered correctly you can still get further explanation if desired by clicking a button.

 

 

I totally agree. Because TT is so interactive, I think it would be hard to get very lost. The student is even involved in answering questions during the lecture to make sure they are following. So they are aware if they aren't getting it and need help from me (which is rare). What I think makes it successful for us, too, is that I don't allow my boys to go on unless they get a 90% or more (1-2 problems wrong). If they get more than that wrong, then I have them do the missed problems all over again. Obviously if you let them go to the next lesson when they are getting bad grades they will get more and more frustrated.

 

As far as independence, if that's a consideration, I definitely think TT is more independent than MUS. My experience was that my kids almost never understood the new math concept from the MUS DVDs. Technically, it is for the parent to understand the concept so they can better teach it to the kids. Although a lot of parents have their kids watch it as the main teacher. But, for me, my kid got basically nothing from the DVDs (for one - he goes pretty fast. Clearly the kids in the class he is talking to on the video have already been taught the concept, so he goes through it like bing, bang, boom and my kids are going :confused1: ). So I still had to re-teach the concept every single time anyway.

 

Other things I grew to not like about MUS: I thought the work itself got really dull for the kids. It is SUPER repetitive, IMO. Skip count by 2 one week, skip count by 3 the next, skip count by 4, skip count by 5, skip count by 6. You get the idea. Literally. All the way to 10 or 12; I can't remember. The blocks got old, so we only got them out now and then... mainly when one of them was having trouble understanding. The DVD was annoying to me because I'd put it in, find the new lesson, and once you hit play the new lesson would almost immediately come up and by the time I adjusted the audio (which was way to quiet - I had to max out the volume on my TV) he was 1/2 way through the lesson because he talks so fast and the instruction goes by very quickly. After the 20th time, it gets frustrating. :) Then, like I said, to find that the kids barely understood anything he said. He uses a lot of "tricks" which were actually neat to me (I was having a lot of lightbulb moments - lol) but only made it more complicated for the kids.

 

Since I'm being so negative about poor MUS, I will say a few things I liked: The blocks are fun (at first). The program is very systematic, and organized in a straight-forward way. I loved the check list at the front of the book. It is nice to be able to skip some of the practice or review days and move more quickly through the program if your child already mastered the lesson. The worksheet pages are so bare-bones looking that it might be good for kids who are very easily distracted by colors or pictures or too much "stuff" on the page.

 

However, I am very impressed with TT because, like I said, it is very interactive. It's cute, it's lively (but not crazy-lively), that audio is VERY well done - not too loud, not too quiet, not too annoying voice-acting, which I am surprised about. LOVE the automatic grading, that you can check the grade book and delete answers if you want. I like the bonus rounds that help them practice math facts. I think it's a great value that they can hear an explanation of every single problem presented and see it worked out. In the higher grades I think I will appreciate this even more because having the "answer" in the back of the book is not nearly like being able to see how it can be worked out to get that answer. That's a whole different ball game that I think will be super helpful. I don't find that I need to re-teach the lecture like I did with MUS. It does a great job of explaining and giving practice problems. If my kids are missing them, they know they aren't getting it and can ask me for help. It usually only takes us backing up the lecture and going through it together for the lightbulb to go off and they are on their merry way. Oh, I also like how it covers more of the fringe math topics like telling time, calendar and dates, etc, more frequently and thoroughly than MUS.

 

To each their own! But I mention details because I know it's only by hearing *why* someone liked or didn't like a curriculum that you can determine whether it's for you. :)

[journey00]

Great thread! :)

[dereksurfs]

I would caution two things when evaluating programs:

1. Expecting one program to work the same for all children who have different skills and learning styles all the way through K-12.

2. Looking too much at which program works for another family vs. your own.

 

Both of these we have learned through using a number of programs with our unique children. You will find *fans* in all camps - MUS, TT, Saxon, et. al. But you really have to get back to your own goals and how your individual children respond to different teaching methods and approaches. For example we started all three with MUS because we had heard good things about it. While ds11 thrived with its mastery approach our dds did not. They were not enjoying it and weren't retaining the material. So we switched them to CLE which is spiral and they are doing much better now. This is best learned through discovery with them as you have it sounds like with Saxon.

 

Also primary math is quite different from secondary math and the programs vary quite a bit as they move through various levels: K-12. Although MUS was fine I think from Primer through Zeta I was not as pleased with it once we hit secondary math in Pre-Algebra. I wanted something more rigorous for ds11 who has strong math skills and I wasn't thrilled with the S&S at this level and beyond. So we switched to TabletClass. Most programs vary between being easier, lighter to more rigorous and challenging. Remember college prep or honors classes? TT & MUS tend to be more on the easier side whereas others tend to be more challenging including Saxon, AoPS, SM, etc... Of course that's not to say that a student who went through TT or MUS wouldn't do well in college. There are fans who will tell how wonderfully it worked for their child. But these are things to at least consider when evaluating strengths/weaknesses of curriculum.

[airforcefamily]

I agree with the other poster that like the MUS blocks. Although we use TT the MUS blocks stay out and are used frequently. IMO they are way better than cuisonare (not sure on the spelling) rods. We had a set of c rods that were returned because the MUS blocks made so much more sense (not having to memorize, remember, and associate that dark green is a certain number and pink is another). I also agree with their review of the MUS dvd. It's a home movie, the sound isn't very good. The units are pretty repetitive. They were spot on when they said it's skip count by 2, then 3, and so on. Several months of exactly the same thing is good for mastery but it gets really boring.