Math: using two curriculum at once, how does it work?

[CanadianAlison+3boys]

I was reading a math spiral vs mastery thread and several people mentioned using multiple math curriculums for the same child at the same time.

 

I'm curious... Why? And how do you fit it all in?

 

We are using math mammoth and its going well but I wonder if we are missing anything sometimes. Plus my middle is going to pass my older at the rate he is going and I'd like to slow him down but he wants more and more.

[Aiden]

:lurk5:

 

I'm curious about that, too. It seems like it would be too much, but so many people do it that I wonder.

[73349]

We're alternating books--right now, one Miquon followed by one Singapore. When we run out of Miquon, I will probably replace it with Beast Academy.

 

I like that the curricula have different approaches; I think flexible thinking is important in math. Also, we do about 230 days a year of school, but DS is not advanced enough to just barrel through more levels. (We've just started SM 2B, and he's finding some of it challenging.)

[lmrich]

I had "board' work for my dd to complete. I used the drill mentality of Rod and Staff for the board and kitchen math (meaning we sat in the kitchen after breakfast and it did) then she went to the board to complete the problems while I cleaned up or worked with another kid. We did Singapore later in the day. I am glad I gave her the extra problems from Rod and Staff as Singapore did not offer enough review and practice for her to master some of the trickier math (she had a hard time subtracting a mixed number from a whole number).

[~Victoria~]

I use Math U See beta with some of the topical math mammoth workbooks. I follow mus' order of lessons and then go more in depth with money, geometry, clocks, measurement, (and maybe one more topic) wherever it fits. I love mus, but like the additional viewpoints for those areas. I've never understood how people do two curriculums independent of each other back and forth.

[Farrar]

I've done it both ways. One of my ds uses a ton of different things. The other one has mostly used a single program with some supplements.

 

Don't use multiple full programs just because it seems like the hip WTM thing to do. Most math programs are pretty complete. They all have something they're better or worse at, but you can only do so much. Unless you have a real reason, I wouldn't turn to doing it. And if you feel a program is missing something, then I think the best thing to do is supplement with something that isn't a full program, such as with a drill book, a test prep book, living math books, math project books, word problem books, etc. instead of trying to do two full programs.

 

However, if you have a child who seems to need it for some reason, then by all means use different programs and cannibalize them however you want. Some people do two full programs and just go back and forth. That wouldn't fly for my ds. My ds who has pretty much always used different things used to have a main program (for a long time it was Miquon) and then a variety of other programs were used, but we never tried to do all of them, just the pages that seemed right or necessary. For him, it was usually a way to head of anxiety. If he got anxious about a topic, we would just drop it and move on to something else. Now he's using multiple programs because I didn't have a good fit for him in terms of a single program. He has outgrown most of Beast Academy but I keep inserting bits from the books we haven't done yet because it's interesting thinking stuff for him. But I mostly made a list of the topics he needed to cover before starting a real pre-algebra program and have been hopping from program to program having him do a chapter here and another there.

[Coco_Clark]

We go year-round, so that definitely helps "fit it in". But I've experimented with several combinations.

 

You can have a "summer" math. Last year one of mine did Miquon orange over the summer, Singapore 1 during the school year, then Miquon Red over the next summer. That was two complete programs, but it took us 15 months. It worked well because it gave him a change of pace during the summers, but also kept up his skills. It also kept him from burning through more than a year of his math during that year, since I had reasons to keep him in first grade math, but he was advancing very quickly.

 

You can have a "Friday" math. We have always done a chapter of Life of Fred, and then a math game, on Fridays. Its a bit of fun after a hard week.

 

You can do two programs simultaneously. This year I have my oldest doing both Math in Focus 2 and Two Plus Two is Not Four (a supplemental fact memorizing program). On M/W he does a MIF lesson on the white board with me, a MIF worksheet, and 2+2 flash cards drill. On T/Th he does another MIF worksheet and a 2+2 worksheet. This works well because while he's doing well in MIF, he also needs to keep working on his facts everyday to build speed, which is not something MIF provides.

 

You can have a "break" program. My pre-Ker works steadily in Miquon until he starts to struggle, then we switch to Math in Focus for a while, then back to Miquon. This works well because it keeps him from getting frustrated when concepts are beyond his maturity, or when he burns out on a concept like many 4/5 year olds are apt to do. We are not finishing ALL of both programs however, as we jump back in forth we skip things.

[umsami]

We did Math in Focus and Math Mammoth last year.  Basically, (and no, I didn't plan this well), I did the first semester book of Math in Focus (4A), and then did the MM 4A.  Then I decided that I liked Math Mammoth better, so just did MM4B.

 

It was too hard to switch to Singapore-style math in 4th grade.  It was tough for me to teach as well.  

 

I think if I were to do it again, I'd coordinate the chapters...although there is something to be said for letting them be hit twice with some space in between to let it sink in.

[CanadianAlison+3boys]

Thank you very much for all the responses. This is great info.

 

We will be schooling year round as well and that is one reason I'm worried about going too far ahead level and concept wise as he will have more days to do the actual lessons, thus even more lessons/levels getting done.

 

I think adding in more resources on a rotating schedule will help get those ideas solidified deeper and keep his appetite for more saited. I've downloaded the teacher manual for CSMP and am going to peruse. And I'll take a look at MEP too (since both are free anyway). Plus we live in a city with a huge library and I've requested some materials from there as well to see what catches his/our fancy.

[Chelli]

I use both CLE and MIF for my oldest. I wanted to switch her over to only CLE, but she likes MIF even though I think she needs more spiral than mastery. I do like the deeper thinking that MIF gives her. She does CLE on her own during her independent work while she does MIF with me during school time.

 

I use both MEP and MIF for my middle. Sophia is my mathy one and she flys through MIF lessons and we even skip some chapters because she makes 100% on the chapter test without even doing the chapter. Usually a MIF lesson takes about 15 minutes and so does a MEP lesson. She does her MIF worksheet on her own later during independent work.

 

The above is for Tuesday through Friday. On Monday, they both do Life of Fred and then Grace does pages in Mathematical Reasoning Grade 5 workbook while Sophia does some pages from Miquon. We call this Mathy Monday since it's more fun, supplemental stuff.

[bluedarling]

I started supplementing MUS for my youngest, because MUS only took her a few minutes.  It was easy to fit in another math program for her! (unitl we hit multi-digit multiplication, at which time I put the 2nd program on hold.)  I then started supplementing for my older kids as well, but not with full programs for them.  Since math took them longer, I supplement with a few problems from another resource, like Hands On Equations Verbal Problems, Problem Solving Genius, or Patty Paper Geometry.  I didn't supplement math with my older kids when they were younger...it was all we could do to get through one program!  It just depends on the kid!  Don't feel bad if you can't fit in another program....a solid base in one program now is fine.  My kids all had math that was very easy for them this year (at the beginning anyway.)  In that case, it made sense to supplement.  Supplement when they are flying though material or the material is easy.  Sounds like your middle child is flying...so a second program or select problems from a more challenging resource might slow him down a bit.  I really liked Beast Academy for dd...it was math she wanted to do!

[Chrysalis Academy]

Two words: variety & choices.  Both are absolutely critical to my youngest dd.  She is doing MM and BA.  Every morning she gets to choose which she does.  Sometimes she chooses to do both.  When she gets to choose, she is engaged and focused.  Some days she feels like the challenge and variety of BA, some days she feels like just doing the next thing in MM.  This is the primary reason she is doing two programs.

 

Other reasons are that we do a lot of math, and I'd rather go deep and hit a concept from multiple POV rather than just go quickly through one program and end up "ahead" just for the sake of being ahead.  MM doesn't take a full year to do if you do 2 pages a day in the lower grades, so we'd need something else anyway, or we'd be moving through it more quickly than I want to.  Given the interest in variety around here, dd will often do 2 pages in a main lesson, then a page or two in a different lesson (i.e. interleaving multiplication with time or money) so that takes us through it even more quickly.

 

I like having one program where she's on grade level and easily finishes in a year, and another more challenging program that I'm fine if she gets a little behind on.  I like that she sees questions that look really different, it helps me feel sure she really understands what she's doing.  I like how it interleaves different concepts, but in a more controlled way than a spiral program - it's kind of a choose-your-own spiral technique.

[Laura W.]

My children are all doing 2 math programs this year.

 

The two oldest are doing Algebra 1 and consumer math.  We're doing the consumer math more as a money management/life skills course for 1.  The older struggles with math, and we needed an easier high school math so she can complete her math requirements before graduation.  Since we school year-round, this is doable.

 

My 4 younger ones are doing MathUSee and Teaching Textbooks concurrently.  Two of them have learning differences that really affect them in math - the extra repetition and different ways of explaining a topic help them cement their math learning.  A third child does very well in math, and MathUSee provides the drill/mastery that is helpful, while he is working at a higher level of Teaching Textbooks for the challenge and introduction to new topics.  The fourth child just needs a little extra practice.  Neither program is time-consuming at the elementary level, and they do both programs pretty independently.  Within the next year or two, as they move into middle school math, we'll need to pick one program or the other, because doing 2 will be too time-consuming at that point.

 

Blessings,

 

Laura W

[Soror]

I started doing 2 programs with ds when BA came out, I had a feeling it would be a good fit for him and RS was just not the perfect fit it had been. After a bit of a rocky transition, trying to figure out what works for ds we are using BA as his primary program now but we're using other resources (books and living resources) as supplements. As it is he would go through BA too quickly on its own and I think for his maturity and EF skills delaying Algebra would be good. Plus, BA is more mastery and he needs some spiral to help with retention. For dd1 she used several different programs until we could find a good fit, which is currently Horizons. I'm not looking at adding anything for her, at least for the time being, although as a family we do strategy/logic and other "mathy" games.

[KaceeM]

I usually pair MCP Mathematics with Singapore Primary US version and we space the chapters to give the kids a semi-spiral. Recently however I've been thinking about using MCP with Mathematical reasoning. MR looks like it spirals some plus I really like the thinking skills it employs. We already use the CTC Mind Benders and a few of their other books.

[CardinalAlt]

We supplement for variety, extra problem solving and to slow down our pace through the main curriculum. If I was trying to get through a full year's worth of her main curriculum, it would feel hard for us to do as much supplementation. I would probably still use one, maybe a couple times a week...but it would be much less.

[rocassie]

Here our main math is Rightstart, but a friend of ours gave us the first four Life of Fred elementary set.  My DD thinks they are so funny and really enjoys them so I have since purchased the rest of the elementary math series.  We do Rightstart 3 days and Life of Fred one day during the week.  I only school four days as I school year round.  We definitely do Life of Fred for fun, but my DD has learned a lot from them, it has helped to reinforce some skills she has been learning in Rightstart, and given her a different way of doing things.

[sweetpea3829]

Oh there are lots of ways of incorporating more than one math curriculum.  And depending on which of my children we're talking about...we have a range of math curricula...lol.

 

DD has some LDs, especially related to math.  Her primary math curriculum is MUS.  But because I find MUS to be somewhat lacking in a few areas, I also add in Singapore's Process Skills problem-solving books.  I would not use an entire second curriculum with her, though.  Just MUS is enough.  She doesn't need math depth, she needs to master the basics.

 

DS8 is a math whiz.  His primary curriculum is Singapore.  I used Beast Academy last summer as a bridge, though we didn't complete all of it.  We're on a temporary break from both Beast and Singapore, because he finished Singapore 3A too quickly.  So we're focusing on problem solving with Process Skills.  When we return from the holidays, we'll return to Singapore and I will lag Beast behind.  Or, I might wait and finish the rest of Beast 3 as a summer bridge again.  

 

DS6 is an average math kiddo and struggles a bit with Singapore 1, so far.  So I've put it aside temporarily and pulled out DDs MUS Alpha.  We're completing a good bit of that, to give him a better foundation in place value (which is what he was struggling with in Singapore).  We'll return to Singapore early this spring, and will probably work through it over the summer.  

 

So there are many ways of using curricula concurrently...either lagging one behind the other...alternating...using one as a summer bridge, etc.  

 

 

[Reefgazer]

I use more than one math curriculum with my kids because they need the review that is built in with spiral, but I prefer a different curriculum to push them a bit out of their comfort zones.  So we use the spiral as our core/base curriculum, and supplement a day or two a week with the other curriculum.  If one curriculum suits a kid over another and that becomes clear over time, though, I will winnow it down to just one curriculum.  But right now, I am uncertain if one or the other is outright better for the kids now.

[BooksandBoys]

I have four programs, of which I use three every day. In our case, we use multiple programs to offer a deep exposure to the concepts that, so far, my son speeds through. At first, I alternated Miquon books and Singapore books, but beginning this fall, I've been having him do them at the same time.

 

This plays out as doing about 45-60 minutes of Singapore textbook and Intensive Practice, as well as the mental math. Singapore is done with my complete attention and any necessary instruction because it is hard enough that he would wander off otherwise.

 

We currently use Miquon and Calculadder to build independent work skills, as he is working at both below his skill level. He chooses any page from Miquon blue, we review the instructions, then he completes that page and a page of Calculadder independently. I check them later.

 

We read LoF sometimes for fun, but I'm not in love with the elementary series, so he has to ask for it.

 

I'm really happy with this arrangement right now. And, yes, I'm aware that he does A Lot of math, but he loves it and begs for more (we do word problems at dinner and in the car. He's obsessed).

 

We do school year round, which is another reason that I'm happy to use multiple programs.

[idnib]

We do Singapore during the week and an hour of Beast Academy Saturday and Sunday. Beast offers a different way of looking at things and because they have a slow publishing schedule, spending just the 2 hours/week has allowed us to remain behind the books coming out while having some review.