Tawlas Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 Ugh, my oldest child is such a conundrum! I spend 90% of my "thinking about school" time thinking about her. She's a tough nut to crack! We are using math mammoth and it's *mostly* a good fit for her. She "gets" concepts fairly well, almost intuitively. But math mammoth doesn't have enough review for her and she's already an easy-to-frustrate child. The cumulative review pages, sometimes even the chapter review pages, are pure torture for us both. I've been looking at other math programs with more review, even dabbled in a few of them, but I'm not satisfied with their depth or even explanations compared to math mammoth. I was looking on their website and these forums and noticed that some people go from MM5 or MM6 right to algebra. And that MM7 *is* pre-algebra, and that there would be no shame in doing pre-algebra in grade 8 even, if that's the way it went. That makes me feel like if I wanted to, I could get the Gold/Green series that's on sale with HBC and use them for more consistent review and just LET GO of trying to get "2 pages done every day so we can get the whole year done by June". There are some real, legitimate pressures to "keeping up to grade level" in her life and while I know it's not okay to just check off boxes, I was really feeling it. This feels like a weight off my shoulders. Any one else done this? Slowed down the light blue series and used gold/green for more review? How does that look in your house? Any tips? Golden hindsight? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 I don't have direct experience to offer, just empathy. I am detouring my dd through One of the Pizzazz! books on fractions that I found for the downloading in the internet. We may have to continue later into summer, though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nansk Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 Not what you asked, but if you want more review, there are two affordable options: 1. Print worksheets using the free worksheet generator on Maria's blog. 2. Get the workbooks in the Keys To series: Keys to Fractions, Decimals, Percents. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartlikealion Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 (edited) Are any of the topics covered in the other blue books? I know that wouldn't give practice for every chapter but maybe could help with certain topics. I'm trying to understand what is frustrating about the review pages? They don't have enough problems or ?? We use MM, but don't have experience with other math products except some supplements like math-aids.com, xtramath.org and the Two Plus Two is Not Five book. I just noticed your dd is much older so I probably won't be of any help. I have never tried the math page generator. This thread reminded me that we got some bonus pack (some type of program) with our purchase and it has a few subjects on it. We need to try it. I don't know if that thing would help if you have one? Edited January 23, 2016 by heartlikealion 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 I bought the MM grade review books. There are extra pages for each topic and lots of mixed review. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartlikealion Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 (edited) I bought the MM grade review books. There are extra pages for each topic and lots of mixed review. awesome, I didn't know they sold "review books"! Edited January 23, 2016 by heartlikealion 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 What is preventing you from just doing review work more frequently? After you complete chapter 1, make up 15 problems similar to chapter 1 and do 3 of those problems a day, while you are working on chapter 2. After you complete chapter 2, make up 15 problems similar to chapter 2 and do 2 of those and 1 from chapter 1 while you are working on chapter 3. So and so forth. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 I do use the worksheet generator on Maria's website to create extra problems for review, and have her do a few each day for a week if I think she needs extra practice to cement a concept. Some days you just can't get through 2 pages a day if you also need to do review or if it is a concept they are struggling with. Other days we can do 3 or more, and don't need to do all the problems on the page because clearly, she gets this concept. It seems to balance out, but it can be a struggle to get through the book in the year. I'd definitely say that the key is to add practice where it's needed, but don't do all the problems where it's not needed. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SporkUK Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 Like nansk said, I would use the worksheet generator rather than buying the green or golden books. That way you can review exactly what is needed for as long as needed. Something I tend to do is after a review section I'll mark down what kind of problems went badly. For example, in the last one, my eldest missed 5 problems: an addition that had 5 addends, a 5 digit by 5 digit subtraction, a 3 by 3 digit multiplication, a one digit by 5 digit division and a two digit by 5 digit division. I used the worksheet generator to create one of each of those and each day after his usual stuff, he would get 5 problems - one of each. The first time I would have him talk through everything, after that I would write them on the board and check them at the end. The goal [my eldest is all about goals] is that if he can get them right with no help 5 days in a row, I would drop it from what I called his post lesson review. This helped me see what were from easy mistakes and what he really needed to work on -- and made sure he worked on it at least once daily. I totally get the feeling and pressures of keeping up. If my eldest wasn't the type to happily do a lot of maths, I might have alternated new work days with review days on those topics. We're using Math Essential this year with Math Mammoth as a boost for areas he needs more in because it has daily review and easy to add more onto as it is quite short compared to many other programmes so he can firm things up to hit his goal of starting MEP 7 later this year. I tried their Grade 4-5 book with my 9 year old and, like you saw with other things, it didn't have the teaching we liked so we're just using MM with daily Math Trainer to keep reviewing calculations. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syllieann Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 Rather than adding review you might try working in several chapters at once, thus spreading out the time to sink in. The chapters in b are usually fairly independent of other chapters. Also, make sure you are using the cumulative reviews. It seems like some people miss them since they are in a different folder. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freedom Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 (edited) I second the others about using the worksheet generator that comes with MM because that is exactly what I do with my DS. Math is intuitive for him as well but I want to be sure he has some understanding of how it works so I bought Two Plus Two Is Not Five for extra review. What I do is, give him a review sheet, either worksheet generator or Two Plus Two page and assign 1 (sometimes 2) pages of MM. I had to detach myself from "I need to do 2 pages a day to finish" at whatever timeframe I chose...no easy thing for me! Edited January 23, 2016 by Freedom 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tawlas Posted January 23, 2016 Author Share Posted January 23, 2016 Okay. thanks so much everyone! I've been looking through the generator since it's been suggested so many times. I guess what I liked about the gold/green series is that it's all there, I thought there would be less brain-power involved. I'm feeling maxed out right now as far as how much time I'm putting into preparing. My two oldest are dealing with dyslexia, so not reading independently, I have a very bright but scattered six year old and a toddler to keep things interesting. But really, it's not like printing out a page from a work sheet generator is any different than printing it out from gold green series lol. You know, I think what I really want is something like CLE, but to Math Mammoth standards and maybe a bit less incremental? I really want to get Math Mammoth to work for her. Syllieann, I've tried to do 3 chapters at once, but it felt too scattered. She'd start to catch on to something new, but we'd move on for a day to a different chapter and we've have to almost start over. I should say that there is definitely some learning disabilities that is making things tricky. She's getting an eval done later this year, but for now we're looking at dyslexia (that doesn't seem to affect fact memorization) but definitely has some working memory and auditory processing issues. Getting her to figure out the instructions on her own seems way more challenging than it should be. Heartlikealion: The frustrating part about the review pages is that what should be review ends up being a three day ordeal where we start from scratch figuring out what "should" be at least semi-known already. She has a low frustration tolerance as it is (and I think this is partly because there's something else going on). So I was thinking if we're always reviewing, it's always kept more in the front of her brain, not lost in the back abyss somewhere lol. Gil: Nothing is preventing me from doing my own problems except time. Or maybe my conception of time. Maybe that is just the simplest, quickest thing. Again, my oldest son uses CLE and I love it for him. It's perfect and he's really blossomed using it. It just seems like for my older dd, it's *too* incremental and there's *too* much review. Is it possible that I'm just being *too* fussy?! Nansk: I'm going to look into the Key To series. they've been mentioned many, many times on this board in general and I know that fractions are a weakness on my part (mostly my fault in this case) and she could use some strengthening there. SportUK: thanks for the detail in your response. I'm going to watch how our next week goes and consider how that might work for us. Freedom: I have 2+2 is not 5 but I bought it for my son when it became obvious that the drill in CLE booklets were moving to fast for him. My dd doesn't really need review in fact memorization more like review in concepts. I bring out the cumulative review pages (I have begun to use them, thanks Syllieann) and she looks at them like they're written in a foreign language. I do so appreciate ALL the advice and suggestions. I'm sorry I appear so picky. I really feel like Math Mammoth is so good for her, except she needs more spiral approach. It must seem odd that I insist she's "mathy"-ish but yet needs so much review. It's just how I feel about her and it. Maybe I should be asking: How do I make Math Mammoth more like CLE, but still math mamoth lol :( Anyone think that's even possible? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourisenough Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 Yes, I know how to do it! Keep on with MM light blue series, but add a Simple Solutions Common Core Math (same grade level as you're using MM). My Dd11 does one hour of math daily, including 5 minutes of fact practice; 15 minutes to do SS; 40 minutes of MM. 60 minutes of math and we always complete at least a full grade level per year with great retention. The Simple Solutions book includes a daily, 2-page spread with 12 spiral review questions on the left side and space to work them on the facing page. She self-checks her work and makes any necessary corrections. Every problem type comes up often enough that she has no time to forget any concepts. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tawlas Posted January 23, 2016 Author Share Posted January 23, 2016 Interesting fourisenough, thanks!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carriede Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 I make MM a tad more spiral by doing 2 chapters at once. I have DS do 1 page from a more bland chapter and a page from a more fun chapter (money, measurement, not sure that applies in the higher grades). I think it gives all the material more time to sink in because you take longer to get through a single concept. Or just have her do half the problems on one page, then several weeks later have her finish an old page with her new work. Good luck! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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