MellowYellow Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 What do you think about Math Mammoth? Do you love it, hate it, or just think it is okay? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 Lots of posts on MM. We love it here. It teaches conceptually yet with plenty of practice. We add a little extra review to make it a little more spiral, but RS games are a fun supplement for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stef03 Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 We love it here! So far we've used grades 1-3 and just started 4 (Light Blue); we've also used a few of the Blue books too and they've all been great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stellalarella Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 I love how MM teaches mental math. She teaches kids lots of strategies to add within 20, for example. I put my kids through MUS Alpha and Beta, then through some sections of MM to cement their ability to do mental addition (and subtraction). I think it helps so much when they get to multi-digit multiplication. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edeemarie Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 We actually use the dark Blue series as our main math curriculum and the kids are flourishing with it! They love the mastery style of it and I love that there is much more independence with it than there is with some other math choices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Five More Minutes Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 I like its approach, but the pages were too busy for my kiddos. We prefer Singapore, which teaches concepts in a similar way but without the visual clutter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 We really like it. My son does things from different chapters at the same time so it keeps his interest. I like that it has plenty of review if needed, but is also easy to accelerate if needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allisondacia Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 I just bought the light blue series from HSBC, so excited to get started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 We actually use the dark Blue series as our main math curriculum and the kids are flourishing with it! They love the mastery style of it and I love that there is much more independence with it than there is with some other math choices. Do you do all the books on one topic in sequence - add 1, sub 1, add+sub 2a etc or do you do them in a more spiral format eg. Add,+sub 2b, mult 2, div 1 ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracyP Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 I love it. I think it is a phenomenal math program. I also think it is the most boring math program I have ever seen. This is especially true in 1st-2nd grade. My odd is almost done with MM 5 and we both love it, but I don't think I will ever use grades 1-2 again. It hasn't been a good fit for my kids at that level. MM 3 is on the border, MM 4 and up are AWESOME! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellesmere Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 We just switched into it but so far it is a huge relief to us. We were using a good program that I wasn't good at teaching. This one works for both of us so much better. I really like Maria Miller's blog and I'm a bit of a broken record when people post and ask about kindergarten math. She has a good resource page about K on her site and there is another one that addresses what to do after completing MM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raindrops Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 TracyP, what would you use for 1st-2nd grade then? I was leaning towards MM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 I am using MM as a supplement to school - it is not that boring but I think we don't like a lot of fluff. Eta.then again we started with blue series at the 2 level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracyP Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 I like CLE at that level. MEP would probably be my next choice, and Singapore 3rd. (those are the others I am familiar with) This is JMO, but I like spiral programs for younger kids. I don't care for a spiral approach as kids get older, but my younger kids have really preferred that. They don't like to do addition for 6 weeks, telling time for 2 weeks, etc. They get bored and I don't blame them. Lots of kids have no problem, ymmv. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momma2Luke Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 Love it... I bought it originally thinking it would be a great portable supplement to Singapore...something that we can use on a clipboard when need be... BUT what I've found is that we are using MM way, way more than Singapore now.... We're using Grade 1 and haven't found it to be too boring.... especially since there are lots of puzzles and games to break things up.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 Love it for one kid. Not right for the other one. Pros: - very, very incremental - simple to teach - lots of practice so it really pushes the mastery of information - conceptual - all that practice is also with different methods that helps build a deeper understanding - flexible format with the different series Cons: - busy pages, sometimes without enough room for small hands to write big answers - black and white (unless you print in color, but even then it's limited) - the "extra steps" that MM uses to scaffold understanding may be confusing to some kids or may be frustrating for kids who just "get it" really intuitively I'll add that one of the reasons it wasn't right for one of my ds is that it pushed mastery so much it made him more anxious. He needed something more open ended and more spiral (he has now gone through most of Miquon, which was perfect for him). So sometimes even though it's a great program, it's not a great fit for a particular kid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edeemarie Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 Do you do all the books on one topic in sequence - add 1, sub 1, add+sub 2a etc or do you do them in a more spiral format eg. Add,+sub 2b, mult 2, div 1 ? I guess I use them more in a spiral format. There is a suggested order of the Blue books here http://www.mathmammoth.com/study_order.php and for the most part I follow that. I break up books like time, money, measurements, fractions, and early geometry and do those in between the other books. For example, when ds finished multiplication 1, I had him work on measurements for a while before continuing on to division 1. If I ever wonder what is grade level appropriate I just pull up the table of contents on the MM light Blue series and see what needs to be done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelmama1209 Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 I like its approach, but the pages were too busy for my kiddos. We prefer Singapore, which teaches concepts in a similar way but without the visual clutter. i disagree. we tried right start (too teacher intensive and manipulatives were distracting), singapore (too colorful and distracting), and mep (*I* could not convert from classroom to homeschool) before landing on mm and it has done wonders for my dd. because of all the switching and the difficulty finding the right fit, my 7yo was over a year behind in math. but we have diligently been working through mm, sometimes doubling up chapters (addition and time, subtraction and measuring- a "boring" one and a "fun" one) and she will be caught up by september. does she find it "boring"? about every 3 weeks, yes. do i care? no. she is getting it. it only gets "boring" when she comes to something that makes her think. she doesn't like to think so then it becomes "boring" for a while until she "gets" it, then it's fine until we come to something else that makes her think. it's a nasty vicious cycle and i hate the down times, but i love the resultsand the confidence she's building. i only have her do roughly half the problems in each section. if she has trouble, she has to correct the mistakes and do one additional one for each one missed. if she gets them all correct, i take that a mastery and move on. sometimes if she has trouble later on, i have her go back to a related section and do some of the skipped problems for a refresher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 TracyP, what would you use for 1st-2nd grade then? I was leaning towards MM. I think this is very personal. My dd has completed MM 1-3A and I have been happy every step of the way. Ds is starting in MM1 and I can't imagine using anything else for math. Some find it boring, but my kids don't complain. We add in manipulatives and games and do some on the white board, and it is a great fit for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tardis Girl Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 I have to say that I love it, too. My 1st and 3rd graders have done great with it. I find the other "color" math programs really distracting. The kids haven't had any trouble writing in the space allotted. 1st grader is almost through 2B and still no issues. From time to time (very rarely) they have written on the facing blank page if they wanted to draw a diagram or write out something (we print off the pages single sided and 3-hole punch them and put them in a 3-prong folder). And because she does walk them through the steps, they really "get it" -- usually without any explanation from me. It gets done sooo consistently because they don't ever have to wait on me like they used to with other programs. ETA: We also do play the RS card games from time to time, and the beginning of each MM chapter has a list of math games online that deal with that topic so my kids think it is a fabulous treat to get to try out some of those. We actually don't do this part very often at all, but they love it when they do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess4879 Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 We love MM here. The pages are boring (to look at) and my middle child definitely needs things to liven up the lessons from time to time. We use the games listed for each chapter and some of the RS games as well. What I love is that I am so easily able to discern which topics she knows and what we can skip or cover via another method. With other programs *I* always had trouble making heads or tails of what was being taught and I was afraid to skip things incase they were building blocks to something else. With MM I feel more confident. I also don't have those secret *huh?* moments that I had with our other program. I read over the lesson and I understand what is being taught and how to help my kids figure it out. (Math is not my strong suit at all!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punchie Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 I also love MM I think the directions are straightforward and that while there are a lot of problems per page, it's not cluttered with unnecessary fluff. DD is in first and atm we switch between MM and RS every few weeks. With MM, I generally only have her two around half of the problems per page. If she misses too many, then we do the other ones. Right now b/c we're on a section that's reviewing math facts, I'm making her do every problem. Admittedly, sometimes I'm the one writing down the answers when she tells me them. When we're on a MM cycle, we also play math games on Fridays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 My son can't do pretty pages with pictures because he'll want to color them in and decorate it more and no math will actually get done. For him, we work on multiple chapters at a time. Right now he is finishing up Multiplication tables (3A I think), doing Fractions (4B) and Place Value (4A). He likes to mix things up and this has working very well for him. For dd, we recently started MM1A. We are still working through Chapter 1 and I'm considering mixing things up for her but she's not as mathy as her brother so I'm not sure. I do supplement with Evan Moor Skill Sharpeners Math, which has lots of pictures but she's much less likely than her brother to want to embellish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raindrops Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 Thanks, I'm leaning towards MM for 1st. I have manipulatives if I need them from RS B, and will likely supplement with LOF to add variety. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 Hmm. I'm up in the air about Math Mammoth. *I* think it's pretty good (even great some days) - my daughter doesn't care for it, so we're getting rid of it right now. I'm one who doesn't think it has ENOUGH review - it is very much a mastery program. Even if you add in the cumulative reviews, unless your kiddo is one who can master a subject and move on, retaining for the long term with almost no practice once "mastered, I certainly think it's lacking in "review" work. My daughter is very mathy - but by the time we mastered ratios and proportions, moved on, months went by with almost no practice, she forgot it. The program assumes you'll insert review on your own here and there, but I'm one who prefers a program that does that for me (so a personal issue again, not necessarily reflective of the program itself). Now, it could just be that my daughter needs spiral. It could very well be a personal issue, lol. One other issue we've had - the "step by step" lessons, and subsequent practice problems, are entirely confusing for my mathy girl who just "gets" it. The only peeves I have with the problem are very centered around "my child", and by no means will they be the same for yours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lea1 Posted March 30, 2013 Share Posted March 30, 2013 My kids hated MM for 1st and 2nd so we finally switched to CLE when we were a month or so into MM grade 2 (and we have also tried Singapore and RightStart). I went back and looked at MM yesterday because I already have it all printed out and I was wondering if I might be able to use it. After seeing how CLE works and then going back and looking at MM, I could really see the POV of my sons! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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