What do you think of math mammoth?

[a27mom]

My Ker is mathy. But I feel like she is a bit all over the place. We have done Singapore 1A and are currently in 1B, but I don't feel like she is always getting it. And I don't use the HIG's

 

I am very mathy as well, but the classic scattered/vague gifted type. I had the 1A HIG and rarely used it. Having 3 separate books (or more) to reference for a math lesson is a bit cumbersome for me, I am not very good at following teachers guides.

 

I am also on a budget.

 

MM just looks so nice and streamlined, I can even get 3 "years" on 1 download for less than the cost of 1 yr of Singapore.

 

I know this sounds a bit scattered. But I am thinking I could buy the 3 "year" download, and then diagnostically chapter test her through 1a and 1b to cover the ground I feel like we are shaky on, then move on to 2a as she is ready. And I don't have to plan on new curriculum untill we finish year 3. (It also appears that she can do some of the worksheets on the computer to help with the writing output issue. )

 

Am I understanding how this works correctly? Does MM work for a mathy kid?

 

BTW I would still be willing to supplement extras, I just want a more streamlined way to get the foundation.

[boscopup]

Yes, MM can work for a gifted kid. I used 1A-4B, then switched to Singapore 4A. My son prefers Singapore, but I liked MM for accelerating to where he really was. And if you're stuck in Singapore, MM teaches very incrementally, so that will probably help.

 

There is a lot more info in the Singapore HIG, but if you're not using it, MM will be more info than you're getting now. ;)

 

Also, I highly recommend C-rods for demonstrating tricky concepts. I haven't had to pull them out in a while, but I keep them nearby, just in case.

[Wheres Toto]

If you wait until March, Math Mammoth will probably come back to the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op and you can get all 6 years for around $65.

 

My son is mathy and accelerated in math and likes Math Mammoth. We don't do one chapter at a time start to finish, then move on to the next one. He has worked through various chapters all at the same time. He was very interested in learning time and money, so we did those chapters while also working on place value, and borrowing/carrying. He liked that mix and it kept him from getting bored. Since I had purchased all 6 years, we can work on whatever he's ready for even if it's from different years. Right now he's doing multiplication and fractions, and we'll probably start division and higher place value soon.

[Alte Veste Academy]

MM was the biggest bust ever for my mathiest kid. The presentation was too incremental for him, like bite-size pieces of knowledge that he could intuit without direct instruction. The only things he liked about MM were the puzzle corners and links to games (some of them). He needed challenges. BIG challenges.

 

My best recommendation would be to think about how your kid is mathy. Does he pick up on instruction quickly and move on without much review? MM would probably be a good fit for that. (I have two of these kids and I honestly don't think they would care much what I use, just as long as I move fast.) Or does he think he actually invented all the operations in his own mind and seem genuinely befuddled that anyone would need instruction in them at all. MM would definitely not be a good fit for that kind of mathy. (I have one of these. :lol:)

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

Math Mammoth is flexible too, you can print the pages you want, you can skip problems, and it is affordable.

[Five More Minutes]

My Ker is mathy. But I feel like she is a bit all over the place. We have done Singapore 1A and are currently in 1B, but I don't feel like she is always getting it. And I don't use the HIG's

 

If your daughter is mathy but isn't always getting concepts, there may be a couple of factors at work that could play into your decision about Math Mammoth.

 

The first is that she may need a more tactile presentation of each concept (such as what is in the HIG) before moving to the textbook and then the workbook. If that's the case, then I don't think that MM is going to help out very much, because it's all on paper. I would suggest either getting and implementing the HIGs, or else looking at something like Miquon. (Miquon could be fun because it's designed for kids to go in any direction they please, and it uses the c-rods for tactile learners.)

 

The second is that she may just not be developmentally ready for some of the concepts, even if it seems like she is because she's doing what seems to be more advanced work. If that's the case, you could just take a break and play some games. (Alternatively, Miquon could be a good fit for treading water and shoring up concepts for a bit.)

 

And my final observation: MM is a great, thorough program, and I can see how with the right student it could work really well. It just didn't go over well here: the pages were too busy and my dds respond better to lessons when we start with the concrete.

[FairProspects]

I use the MM blue series for select topics. Basically anything that ds picks up easily, like fractions or spatial concepts, we use Singapore. For anything arithmetic related, like multi-digit multiplication, we go to MM and use just the pages necessary to get the concept and practice. I don't think it is the best choice for a really mathy student who picks up everything quickly, but some of these young mathematicians struggle a bit with computation and algorithms, and it can have its place for those students.

[a27mom]

Thanks for your responses. I have been using them to think about it.

 

She actually is pretty good with the math concepts. She can explain how to do it. It is more that she gets frustrated with the numbers. Remembering the difference between "twelve and twenty" in speaking, transposing numbers, and having a terrible time memorizing her math facts.

 

Some of it may be related to the fact that she isn't a fluent reader and still struggles abit with directionality and left to right progression, in math as well as reading. She is not quite 5 1/2 y/o so I think this is more a developmental thing as opposed to some long term problem, she is making good progress in it in her reading.

 

After my OP I realized it is actually the 1b HIG(us edition) that I have right now. It really doesn't give any help for these issues. I have actually been sitting reading it to see if it seems that it would help. She enjoys manipulatives for a short period of time. The ideas i come up with dont seem to differ greatly from the HIG. She usually gets that part right away. She has no problem demonstrating all the concepts on manipulatives. After doing it right several times though she gets bored and would like to move on.

 

I think I am considering switching to mm more for my sanity and cost effectiveness. I am the one who has a hard time with using 3 different books. I am a natural teacher, and teachers guide adapter/avoider. I also like things streamlined as much as possible since I am not good at keeping track of all the details. I am also very frugal and forsee possibly flying through the curriculum a bit once she gets some of the issues down. Plus I have another dd coming up, having 3 "yrs" on a CD ROM sounds wonderful.

 

I might just finish off this year working on math facts, manipulatives, and play/games. Then start next year w/ MM grades 1-3. (We actually school year round sort of, so next year would be more "when she can read better", which could be april or august etc...) Just going as far as we go by chapter testing through it to see what we need to work on. She loves the SM textbooks so we could read through those the rest of "this year" too. I have a 2a textbook I picked up used.

[a27mom]

 

Have you seen MEP?

 

Just looked it up. Looks interesting, but confusing as to how to figure out where to start, would it work as a complete program?

[Five More Minutes]

Just looked it up. Looks interesting, but confusing as to how to figure out where to start, would it work as a complete program?

MEP is confusing to sort out at first, but I found that after printing the teacher's manual and the student's workbook for the first level and spending an evening comparing them, I was able to get my head around it.

 

It's an excellent, rigorous, full curriculum. I chose not to switch to MEP because my dds were loving Singapore at the time, and I'm (trying) to work with the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it ..." motto. I did use it as a supplement for a semester -- it was a fun challenge for my dds.

[MamaSprout]

I've been where you are- I finally wrote about it, and what we did (below). To be honest, Math Mammoth would probably work well for you, but I wouldn't feel like you need a real curriculum at 5 1/2, even for a very mathematically gifted kiddo (maybe the curriculum for mom as a guide?). A nice big whiteboard and those nifty whiteboard crayons, maybe. We love base 10 blocks, too.

 

You can get a blue series MM book for less than 7 dollars to give it a try.

 

what I wrote: http://beansblues.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/math/

 

good luck-

Bean

[a27mom]

I've been where you are- I finally wrote about it, and what we did (below). To be honest, Math Mammoth would probably work well for you, but I wouldn't feel like you need a real curriculum at 5 1/2, even for a very mathematically gifted kiddo (maybe the curriculum for mom as a guide?). A nice big whiteboard and those nifty whiteboard crayons, maybe. We love base 10 blocks, too.

 

You can get a blue series MM book for less than 7 dollars to give it a try.

 

what I wrote: http://beansblues.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/math/

 

good luck-

Bean

 

Thanks, that blog post was very helpful!

 

I do think just doing math stuff for a bit w/o curriculum will be a good option for the next few months anyway

[Mommy2BeautifulGirls]

I didn't read all of the others' responses, but my gifted daughter loves it. We've been using it for a few years now. A lot of times, if I feel the concept is easy, I'll just have her do half of the problems. I highlight the ones she is to do. Other times, I'll have her do them all for extra practice.

[HappyGrace]

I tried Singapore with mathy ds10, and he liked it but *I* had trouble juggling all the books. I would have to prep each night the night before just to know what I was teaching and how. He just wanted to move faster, but then there were conceptual leaps in Singapore and with certain things I didn't know how to stop and fill in the blanks from point A to point B (I am NOT mathy!)

 

MM is working out perfectly for us- I have all of it, so we can jump around. We're in 4, but he wanted to learn long division, so we skipped ahead to that section in 4b. It gets boring doing all the time or money stuff together, so we do a couple pages and then do something else and then go back to time and money. It is pick up and go-super easy to teach. And I think her presentation is brilliant. She teaches it so step by step if you need it, but if not, it's easy to do a couple problems on a page and if he gets it, move on to the next page, which is the next step. We also do Singapore IP and CWP, but about a half yr behind. Once in awhile I throw in some pages from a spiral math book to make sure he's reviewing things like metric measurement, etc.

[Maela]

My 5.5yo loves MM. She liked Singapore too, but I just didn't. I can't even explain why. So we're sticking with MM, since it works for both of us. I, too, like streamlined stuff, and you can't beat the price. I bought the Blue Series packet for grades 1-3. Like pps, we're jumping around from topic to topic. I let her choose each day what she'd like to work on (money, measuring, clock, addition, etc.).

[UmMusa]

It is working out for the second year in a row here. We've used Grades 1,2, 4, and 5. This eliminated tears from my DD who tried Saxon 5/4 last year.

[mathnmusic]

Only have good things to say about MM here, for mathy ds8 and dd6, this is our 2nd year with it. We do supplement with other things, but MM is our spine and the kids enjoy it.

[zenjenn]

I *thought* MM was going to be great for my gifted child, but she found it too slow. I do love MM though, and recommend it to many.

 

This is going to shock some, but for my mathy gifted kid, the only formal curriculum I use is Teaching Textbooks. As a 2nd grader she's on the last quarter of Level 4 (so moving on to level 5 soon.) The lessons go very quickly for her and sometimes she does two lessons a day. At this point, I really kind of let her unschool math, and TT is kind of a safety net for her, to make sure her unschooling doens't leave out any nuts or bolts. So, she has to spend at a minimum, 1 hr a day on math. A TT lesson usually takes her 15-20 minutes. She often asks to skip the lecture if she gets the concept quickly - I'll ask a few questions to verify her comprehension and if I'm satisfied, she skips the lecture and blows through the lesson. The rest of the time she solves problems on Khan Academy, reads or does problems with Life of Fred, tries to replicate things Vi Hart does on her videos, tries to improve her speed on division facts on Xtramath. Sometimes if her sister is occupied I'll do something from Problemoids with her, etc. Periodically I throw random problems on the white board covering concepts from TT to test comprehension, and am satisfied.

 

I can't reasonably imagine her being much more accelerated with math, so I'm happy. No math curriculum is particularly challenging for her, but by the same token there's only so many new concepts a 7 yr old can reasonably digest in day without it being ridiculous. TT is simple and she picks up the concepts there at a fast clip, and can use the extra time to enjoy and challenge herself with math.

[a27mom]

So much helpful info. Thank you all.

 

I am pretty good about skipping problems if they become busy work etc.. My dd is very analytical, and even though she might fly through it to some degree I think she would enjoy an incremental approach. It would probably appeal to her very orderly nature.

[Grantmom]

If you wait until March, Math Mammoth will probably come back to the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op and you can get all 6 years for around $65.

 

How do you get in on this? What is the buyer's coop?

Thanks!

[Wheres Toto]

How do you get in on this? What is the buyer's coop?

Thanks!

 

 

homeschoolbuyerscoop.com

 

They put together group buys to get discounted prices on curriculum. It's free to join and you can set it up to get emails that will let you know what's available. Some of the buys you put in that you want to buy it once it gets to a given discount level (based on number of buyers) and you may not get charged, or get your stuff, until the end of the buy. Other things are immediate.