kjaye Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 I have an 8 year old ds, who I've been using Harcourt Horizons grade 3 math with this year. It doesn't seem to be a great fit for him. He picks up concepts really quickly, but he lacks self confidence with math. We will cover a concept one day with this program and may not readdress it again until days later. He shuts down, to include tears, because he feels like he should already know how to do the problem when we do come back to it. For this reason, I'm not sure a spiral-based approach is best for him and think he might do better with a mastery type program. He was in a Montessori program for 3 years, so his math foundation used a lot of manipulatives. This background made me consider MUS, but I've read mixed reviews of the program. This is our first year homeschooling, so I'm a little overwhelmed by all the options. I appreciate any help you all can provide! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christielee7278 Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 We love Math Mammoth here! My 8 yr old sounds like yours. When I was looking for a mastery type math program, someone described MM as a mastery program with spiral review. Our experience with it for the last three years has been great. I believe I saw a post on here talking about it being on sale now so you might do a search if you decide to go that route. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjaye Posted March 3, 2013 Author Share Posted March 3, 2013 Thanks, Christie! I'll look into it. I saw that it's on sale at the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christielee7278 Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 You're welcome!! I forgot to mention that you can geet free samples from the MM website when you sign up for the newsletter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennyCook Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 I'm new to homeschooling as well but I think I'm going to give teaching textbooks a try. I agree that all the options can be quite overwhelming. We are currently using Saxon math for my two oldest though and I'm going to continue with that because it's working great. I love that there is lots of review for previously learned concepts. Saxon isn't working as well for my almost 2nd grader though. It's too mom intensive at that stage and she wants to move faster than my time will allow. Anyway...hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolphin Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 We started in 3rd grade too. Math was hard. I really wanted to make Singapore work, but it just ended in tears. We tried so many things and at the end of the year we found Teaching Textbooks. For us, it has been one of the best curriculum's. I had my son do the sample on the computer and he begged me to buy it for him. I was so surprised that he was excited for Math. He kept checking the mail box to see if it had arrived. The nice thing about TT at this age, is it starts at 3rd grade, so they do not expect that the student has already been doing the program for 3 years. Therefore, it explains everything really clearly. DS went through and just did the quizzes until he got less than 95%, then he listened to the lesson and did the sample questions only, followed by the quizzes until again he got less than 95%. At that point he started doing each lesson. Then in 4th grade we discovered Life of Fred. We started to supplement with that. My son loves Fred. Towards the end of 4th grade beast academy came out. He did the first 2 levels with the workbook. Best of luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dahliarw Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 My son went from Montessori math to Singapore with no problems. I do use manipulative to teach (the HIG usually tells you to anyways). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjaye Posted March 4, 2013 Author Share Posted March 4, 2013 You all are a wealth of knowledge. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 (edited) . Edited January 12, 2016 by wapiti Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 You can integrate any Montessori materials into your math program, whatever you use. Some are really easy to make. I have a homemade multiplication checkerboard (quilted) and have been making my own beads. I plan on making geometry insets soon. Any of those Mont materials will be fine to use whatever math curricula you choose imho. RightStart and Schiller are Mont based and if you don't want to use them exclusively, you could just use the manipulatives. I personally think math manipulatives are awesome and can be used with any math book. I used Miquon in the younger grades and now use Saxon, but we still use a lot of Mont. materials and methods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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