Question for Math Mammoth users

[StephTX]

I'm using MM 4th grade, and we are about 5 lessons in. So far, I'm not liking it as much as I thought and I was hoping someone here could give me some tips.

 

First, there appears to be nothing that actually teaches a concept. Am I missing a teacher's manual (other than the answer sheets) that actually offers an explanation of the concepts? Otherwise, it appears it is simply a workbook with brief instructions. Being the first part of 4th grade math, I'm familiar enough with it to make it work, but the minute something that he isn't already familiar with comes up, it looks like I'll have to look elsewhere to find a way to actually teach a new concept. Surely I'm missing something here.

 

Second, every single day is a new concept?? There's no additional work to master a concept. I have the 'worksheet maker' but it appears to be about a 15 year old clunky program, so I've found one online that's more user friendly.

 

 

But overall, it looks like the entire "curriculum" is just a workbook where everyday you do a couple sheets of a new concept, with no actual teaching of concepts and no teaching materials. I knew it wasn't "scripted" but had no idea it didn't offer anything other than a sentence or two for each new concept.

 

 

Please tell me I'm missing something here. How do y'all turn the workbook into a full curriculum? Do you look elsewhere and put other stuff with it? If so, that's disappointing, as I would think a curriculum should contain enough explanation, materials, and practice to be complete all by itself, and anything supplemental should just be supplemental, not required. So far, I'm just really dissappointed in how incomplete it feels, and I'm hoping y'all could help me out. Thanks in advance.

[5LittleMonkeys]

Have you looked through the text?  The teaching is all in there in small increments that build upon one another. The concepts are taught to the child. 

 

Having said that, I do teach some of the concepts that dd needs help to understand but it's as simple as going over the material in the instructional boxes with her, giving her a few extra samples, or using a few manipulatives if needed.  I've never had to pull together lots of other resources to teach a concept. 

 

The first few lessons are going to be review from MM3 so there isn't going to be a ton of instruction. I would recommend looking ahead and sticking with it a bit longer. 

[jewellsmommy]

This is how we make it work for us:

 

I go over the included teaching (from the teaching boxes) with ds, and then we do some extra examples on the white board together. I just make up the extra examples myself. I make sure he has the concept down. He completes the work. I check it immediately. He re-works every problem that is incorrect. If he misses it again then we talk about the concept again. Then he re-works again. If he got too many wrong then I reprint the same lesson for the next day and we try again. After the work is complete and all correct, we cut out the teaching boxes and glue them into a composition notebook effectively creating a text book. It takes a whole 2-3 minutes to do this and allows him to have the teaching to look back on as needed for review. He likes this better than keeping the whole pages in a binder (not sure why, but whatever works.)

[alef]

I'm guessing you have been doing mostly review lessons so far. There are notes to the teacher, along with links to online resources, at the beginning of each major text section, but most of the instruction is in the little boxes with each lesson.

[Paige]

The first few lessons are essentially a review of concepts they should know. That's why there's very little text or instructions in the first sections and it moves very quickly. The first chapter of every MM level is a quick review of the previous year's skills. After that, the instructions are included within the pages in a little more detail, but there is an expectation that you'll be going over it with the student and answering questions or doing demo problems.

[dereksurfs]

Here is the explanation from User's Guide which we found to work fine.  It's all built in:

 

Math Mammoth Complete Curriculum is not a scripted curriculum. In other words, it is not spelling out in exact detail what the teacher is to do or say in a specific lesson. Instead, Math Mammoth gives you, the teacher, various tools for teaching:

 

The two student worktexts (part A and b are the most important part of the curriculum. These contains all the lesson material and exercises, and INCLUDE the explanations of the concepts (the teaching part) in blue boxes. The worktexts also contain some advice for the teacher in the "Introduction" of each chapter. 

The teacher can read the teaching part of each lesson before the lesson, or read and study it together with the student in the lesson, or let the student read and study on his own. If you are a classroom teacher, you can copy the examples from the "blue teaching boxes" to the board and go through them on the board. 

[TarynB]

Well, I hate to ask the obvious, but my first thought was, did you buy the golden worksheet series, or the light blue/blue full curriculum?

[HiddenJewel]

Taryn's questions was mine as well. The Light Blue series is the one with the instructions.

[StephTX]

I have the light blue series. I guess I just thought there would be more that explained each concept, but looking ahead, I do see where there is a little more in the upcoming lessons. I think I was just having a PMS moment. One that included an uncooperative printer and messed up Microsoft Office (that I needed for getting some other assignments ready).

 

The whole thing is just overwhelming I guess. I tend to think too much and freak myself out. What if he doesn't learn enough? What if he's 'behind' if/when he goes back to public school? etc etc This whole being soley responsible for your child's education is a LOT of pressure.

[Gil]

The whole thing is just overwhelming I guess. I tend to think too much and freak myself out. What if he doesn't learn enough? What if he's 'behind' if/when he goes back to public school? etc etc This whole being soley responsible for your child's education is a LOT of pressure.

Here, here! (or is it, Hear-hear?)

I encourage you to preview MM more until you are comfortable with how it  demonstrates/teaches things. It has worked beautifully for us

and we've used it since 1a and will be starting 6a in just a few days. My boys, who are pretty good at math without a math book, have enjoyed Math Mammoth a lot and it is sooo easy to use and allows them to learn and cement concepts without too much hand-holding. The progression is great. We have the older edition (there is a revised edition thats being sold now) and it has fit like a custom-made glove.

[MotherOfBoys]

I love the idea of cutting out the teaching boxes after you've done the lesson and pasting it into a notebook to make a textbook. It would be much easier for the child to look through quick to review and see the accomplishments. Especially right before a cumulative review. 

 

As to the teaching, I thought the same thing. It does pick up after the review and I noticed it's small increments of learning so small teaching lessons.