From SM 3A to MM? or BA?

[mamamindy]

A while back we hit a wall in SM3A with long division….and we've been mostly reviewing/waiting for maturity and using Miquon, and some SM IP books in the meantime, and now we're ready to move on...but I'm not sure we want to stay with SM.  I really like the idea, but for a long time now I have suspected this isn't the best program for my DD's learning style.  She really dislikes the teaching/demonstration portion.  She just either wants to figure it out and get on with it, or just a bit of instruction, or even to work through it together if it's something really tough (but without the lengthy "lesson" portion is how she would put it).  I briefly considered MUS, but I think she would be frustrated with the manipulatives.  She really only rarely wants to use the rods with Miquon.  She IS enjoying Miquon, however.  I have considered BA, and she enjoyed the assessment.  Or Math Mammoth.  I thought maybe that would keep us both happy since it would have the scaffolding that gives me comfort, but some small amount of instruction to the student, so she may feel more independent.  (No, I don't plan on just handing it to her and letting her have at it.)

 

Any suggestions for me?  If we went with MM, which level would we start with?  We're on Unit 4 in SM3A, and I would like to just finish the book, but she is very resistant.  Since she's math-happy again, I'd hate to go back to where we were.

[Flowergirl159]

My DD is using SM 3A, and has always preferred to teach herself maths. She is naturally mathy and doesn't like using up time for me to explain it to her when she can mostly work it out on her own. Until now, this hasn't been a huge problem.

 

I have just begun (only a few weeks ago) taking 15mins each day to use the HIG and textbook to teach her the lesson and we are going well with that. We are a little further along than the long division now, multiplication for 6, so we have paused 3A. I am now working her through 3B as the topics in that book are lighter. Apart from our 15mins for HIG/textbook for 3B, I will be spending time each day working on our multiplication tables. I have printed off Math Mammoths multiplication 1 book, and I will be spending about 15mins each day going through that with her. Once we get to 6x, then we will go back to 3A.

 

With my older DD, I wasn't aware of MM then, so we used 3A and 3B alternating between topics. So using Singapores 3B is an option :)

[mamamindy]

My DD is using SM 3A, and has always preferred to teach herself maths. She is naturally mathy and doesn't like using up time for me to explain it to her when she can mostly work it out on her own. Until now, this hasn't been a huge problem.

 

I have just begun (only a few weeks ago) taking 15mins each day to use the HIG and textbook to teach her the lesson and we are going well with that. We are a little further along than the long division now, multiplication for 6, so we have paused 3A. I am now working her through 3B as the topics in that book are lighter. Apart from our 15mins for HIG/textbook for 3B, I will be spending time each day working on our multiplication tables. I have printed off Math Mammoths multiplication 1 book, and I will be spending about 15mins each day going through that with her. Once we get to 6x, then we will go back to 3A.

 

With my older DD, I wasn't aware of MM then, so we used 3A and 3B alternating between topics. So using Singapores 3B is an option :)

Thank you.  Not sure why I hadn't thought of that…  I don't actually have 3B yet, so I hadn't even looked at it.

 

My DD is a bit intimidated of SM right this very minute, but I'll give a look at the next book.

 

I appreciate the suggestion! :)

[Flowergirl159]

You are welcome :) Just to give you an idea, the topics in that book are: Mental calculation, length, weight, capacity, graphs, fractions, time, geometry, area and perimeter.

 

You can just pick and choose topics you think she will enjoy, you wouldn't necessarily have to go in order :)

[Ausmumof3]

We hit the same wall and are just getting back to a now. It is still tricky but now the tables are solid it's going better.

 

Just a thought if she really doesn't need that much instruction could you just have her use the workbook. I like the teachers manual etc where concepts are really difficult but for the simpler stuff, it's probably not strictly necessary.

[SoCal_Bear]

Sometimes taking a break and doing something else for a couple of weeks helps. Feeling like you are doing the same thing all the time can be frustrating. I wouldn't suggest BA for a kid that doesn't like to struggle and wrestle with math. It is not easy nor always obvious since it is discovery oriented. It's a good thing, but not for every kid. The assessment is definitely does not reflect the type of or degree of difficulty of the questions that are in BA for sure. I am often stumped and have to think and work at problems that come up in BA because it isn't automatically obvious. I wasn't a slouch when it came to maths either. DH is a software engineer and thinks the problems are pretty tough at times.

 

[MamaChicken]

We hit a the same sort of snag last year, switched to BA and he's been happy since. We use khan academy on days when he doesn't want to think as hard and only made it through 3a and 3b, in part because we didn't start 3a until December last year. I did not think he would enjoy the challenge, but he surprised me.

[poiema]

My DS hit the same bump in 3a. I had him go on and do everything else in 3a/b, but he still wasn't ready to grasp long division. I switched him over to CLE last year and that really cemented long division and math facts for him, but I plan to switch him to MM this year. Younger ds switched to MM after SM1b because he is very math-independent and found the TB to be tedious. They both started BA this summer.

 

I would absolutely recommend MM for your DD. So far it's working really great for my independent DS. He's now in 3b. It's incremental so he can be more independent without being totally off on his own. He can handle only bits of teaching at a time. So this works for him. I'm hoping it will end up working out for older DS too. He needs variety and review, so I need to make sure to mix up some pages for him.

 

I bought MM when it was on sale at HSBC so I have every level. Even after SM1b I still went back to MM1b and gave him a few pages to fill in the gaps. SM and MM are similar but not exactly the same S&S. If you aren't able to get the MM bundle then I would suggest taking the placement test. If you can afford both, go ahead and get BA as well. Both of my kids are really enjoying it for summer math, and we'll probably continue to use it as a supplement, but I can't imagine using it as our sole math program. It's pretty awesome though.

[mamamindy]

Thanks for all these suggestions.  I will wait until MM is on sale.  Its such a good deal, it's worth a try to see how she likes it.  Part of what motivates her doing SM, however, are the puzzle-fun-type things that are in the WB.  She likes the "reward" or doing the math practice.  She's really always needed to be rewarded for math….I need to think about that.  Even puzzling through tough stuff in the SM IP books motivates her.  I didn't think MM had things like that.

 

I talked to her about what she likes/dislikes the most about math, and part of it was when she felt I took too long to explain a concept to her, using up her time.  So we came up with some solutions.  1) Doing math for a set amount of time (using a timer) and that would include my instruction time.  She really liked this idea and we've been doing that for a week.  2) If she gets it, she shows me, and we don't have to do any "lesson".  We haven't had this come up yet, but I think it will work well.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions!

[Flowergirl159]

Thanks for all these suggestions.  I will wait until MM is on sale.  Its such a good deal, it's worth a try to see how she likes it.  Part of what motivates her doing SM, however, are the puzzle-fun-type things that are in the WB.  She likes the "reward" or doing the math practice.  She's really always needed to be rewarded for math….I need to think about that.  Even puzzling through tough stuff in the SM IP books motivates her.  I didn't think MM had things like that.

 

I talked to her about what she likes/dislikes the most about math, and part of it was when she felt I took too long to explain a concept to her, using up her time.  So we came up with some solutions.  1) Doing math for a set amount of time (using a timer) and that would include my instruction time.  She really liked this idea and we've been doing that for a week.  2) If she gets it, she shows me, and we don't have to do any "lesson".  We haven't had this come up yet, but I think it will work well.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions!

 

Yes I do that with my girls now too. If I begin to teach them and they get it, I will just do one extra example, or have them tell me. This way I know that they know it. And they are then free to go and work in their workbook. Most days it only takes 5mins for me to teach them :) And both of mine don't like me taking too much of their school time if they don't need it, so I am very careful to not spend time on something they already know :) If its a new concept though, we usually allow 15mins.

[poiema]

Thanks for all these suggestions. I will wait until MM is on sale. Its such a good deal, it's worth a try to see how she likes it.

 

It's on sale now, but it's only at 20% off. Keep checking back and it will probably get up to 40-50% off.