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Math Mammoth pros, cons, opinions, etc.


StaceyinLA
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I switched from Singapore to MM.  I found them similar but MM requires less creativity from me, I found the written explanations very helpful and I think my dd11 did as well.  There is more practice which was also great - if we don't need it all I will pick things like alternate questions.

 

I think I found the reviews more useful as well.

 

ETA - also, because it is inexpensive, I feel like I have a little more scope to supplement here and there if we need to or find something fun.  SM isn't that expensive, but it was a bigger chunk of my budget.

Edited by Bluegoat
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I think that MM is an overall excellent program, but there were a few things we didn't care for. One is her treatment of geometry, especially in grades 4 and up. Lots of people complain about the geometry. I felt that the concepts were not adequately practiced at the level they were taught. Instead, the geometry concepts were taught rather simply, and then the practice problems were much, much harder. For example, some of the lessons in area seemed to focus more on endless calculations of small bits of an oddly shaped image. I didn't find that helpful in reinforcing the concept at the level it had been taught.

 

Also, because the author is not a native speaker of English, some of her directions were not totally clear.

 

Additionally, towards the end of what we completed of the series (5B), we started to feel that the work was not challenging enough in concept but too time-consuming in execution.

 

After 5B, we switched to Dolciani pre-algebra, and dd was very well prepared for it.

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We switched from mep /miquon. I wanted something with a more standard scope and sequence. Mm is self contained, easy to use, relatively independent. Author suppor is great. I can stay with the same publisher for many levels. I looked at Singapore, but it seems they change editions like underwear. I don't want to repurchase new sets for each kid or fuss with trying to mix and match topics between levels in order to accommodate a new edition. I would also have wanted to add ip and cwp, which is way more books than I want to juggle every day for multiple kids. Mm is rigorous and complete all on its own.

 

Cons are pages that are more cluttered in the early years. Some kids have issues with that. There are no cute, colorful cartoons. Some people who are unfamiliar with so-called Asian math feel there is not enough teacher support. I think it is more than enough, but I'm naturally a math/science person.

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It works week for my dd because as a worktext it teaches the student directly. This is helpful for our relationship, minimizes my involvement between her and math.

 

She likes that half the problems are crossed it before she begins.

 

I like that if I feel like she has not really gotten a concept I can print out some old pages and she can do them again.

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We are big fans so far. I have a DD6 in MM1 (using pages selectively, there's so much to choose from and I'm pretty relaxed about Gr.1 math) and a DD8 in MM2.

 

It's been excellent. Open and go, clear instructions. Lots of practice if needed, if she has a concept down, I cross off at least 1/3 of the problems. We still do a lot of it together. 2-3 pages a day, with a pretty short school year and we will be done before I planned to be this spring.

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Ok so what did you do prior to starting MM? Dgs is going to be 5 and starting K. If dd were going to use this starting at 6, what would be good for his K year?

My oldest went to private school for kindergarten, so it wasn't an issue with him. For my youngest she we used a Mathematical Reasoning workbook and then moved into MM1A when she was finished. She's my mathy kid and has easily done three semesters worth of MM each year, so she's now just finishing 3B as a second grader. 

 

http://www.timberdoodle.com/Mathematical_Reasoning_A_Kindergarten_p/410-094.htm

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My older two kids had a strong math base from Montessori primary and early elementary. (Or what I think is strong. :) ) We started homeschooling DD right after 2nd because of dyslexia and some other issues. DS started after 1st. I have only used MM3A-6B, so I can't comment on the earlier years or the new 7. Obviously, I liked it enough to keep using it! It's affordable (bought the set during a homeschoolbuyerscoop sale). It's easily accessible. I print out the half-year and then bind each chapter as we get to it with the binding machine whose name has utterly slipped my mind at the moment. It's not fancy, and I print in black and white, but they don't care. It gets done. It's easy to customize if you need less or more. The only "work" I have needed to put into it and should have been more aggressive about keeping up with is a quick review of concepts on a regular basis to keep sharp. We added some extra problem solving at times, but when I was drowning in new babies, I knew MM would get done and without me having to recreate the wheel. Neither DH nor I are mathy people, but we went through AP/honors math in high school, both took Logic as our college math, and I took graduate level statistics in grad school. IOW, we aren't engineers or physicists but expect a fairly strong base. 

 

I agree that geometry is the biggest con. I'm researching a geometry unit for the summer. My kids will be THRILLED I tell you. Ha.

 

If I were starting preschool-K age, I might do a little Right Start because that seemed the most similar to Montessori. I really love the concrete manipulative methods in the really early years. We shall see next year or so how my crazypants 3 year old is doing. Preschool is my sanity break at the moment and math is not on my list of concerns. ;) 

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We're using it this year for 1st and 4th.  My 4th grader used Saxon before this.  I have mixed feelings about MM.  On the one hand, I think it takes the 4th grader less time to do than Saxon 5/4 would have taken her (which was my primary reason for switching).  And she seems to understand things fine overall and be retaining them.  On the other hand, the explanations aren't always very clear, and some of the break-everything-down-into-tiny-little-parts of it drives me crazy.  When it did this for multiple-digit multiplication, which she'd learned last year in Saxon 3 and understood fine, it seemed to confuse her and she had a hard time putting it together again at the end.

 

I am not at all thrilled with the 1st grade program.  If it's supposed to be written to the student, the explanations are FAR too long for the average 1st grader even if they were a fluent reader (which my DS is not).  There can be a ridiculous number of problems on each page--it is not unusual for there to be 40 problems on a page.  Often the blanks are too small, sometimes far too small, for 1st grade handwriting.  And the first few chapters in particular, on addition and subtraction, are basically 100 different way to do addition...and then 100 different ways to do subtraction.  My very mathy 1st grader hated it (and we did cross off half or more of the problems, and I scribed for him often, and he still hated it).  I've seen MM described as a joyless program, and I would agree with this.  I thought Saxon was a little dry, but Saxon 1-3 seems way more interesting than MM at this point.  I wanted something less teacher-intensive than Saxon, but I think I could easily teach Saxon 1 in the same amount of time I spent teaching MM and then motivating him to do the problems, and I think he would enjoy Saxon 1 a whole lot more.

 

I dont' know if we'll use it next year.  I bought the 1st-7th download, so I kind of feeling obligated to, but anyway.  DD wants to go back to Saxon, though I am not sure why.  I'm going to have her do some of Saxon 6/5 this summer, and if she can do those lessons in the amount of time it was taking her to do MM, she can switch to Saxon.  Otherwise, I'll stick with MM for her since I have it.  I know I won't use it for my then-2nd-grader--he's going to use Miquon + math drills for 2nd and 3rd grade. 

 

I would suggest MIquon for K.  DS used the Miquon orange book for K last year, and that what I plan to use again next year with my next K'er.

 

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Ok so what did you do prior to starting MM? Dgs is going to be 5 and starting K. If dd were going to use this starting at 6, what would be good for his K year?

We played with blocks (I bought the MUS blocks because I like them), baked, talked about numbers, counted things, talked about how many two candies plus three candies makes and how many does each child get, talked about shapes, etc. Basically used numbers in daily life. We did also learn to write numbers 1-10 in handwriting.

 

K math is so basic and intuitive and everything is reintroduced in 1st and 2nd. My older DD had no issue starting MM2 with no previous formal math. Doing MM 1 and 2 at the same time is making it clear to me how much repetition there is in the bookwork.

 

Maria Miller basically says K math is not essential, but she does have a list of resources she recommends if someone does want to do something formal.

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I love Math Mammoth. I purchased the full 1-6 curriculum when my oldest, who is now in 6th grade, was in the middle of 1st grade. This is my favorite homeschooling purchase. For 6 years of school, math has been figured out and very affordable. All three of my children have used Math Mammoth successfully. My oldest started with MM in first grade. We had used My Father's World curriculum for everything including math her K year. The first half of 1st grade we used Singapore, which wasn't cutting it. For my middle dd, I tried using MM 1st at a slower pace for K, but that wasn't a good fit. We started MM1 over in first grade. With my youngest I went back to the MFW K math. At the K level, we are mostly working on counting, with a little basic adding and subtracting. Little is needed. Math Mammoth's creator has a page with K level suggestions. http://www.mathmammoth.com/complete/kindergarten.php

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I am taking 3 kids through MM. Dd10 is on 6A. She did Saxon 1 starting in K (finished early), we hated it, but finished it. We moved to MM and it has been great.

 

Ds8 completed RS in K, finished early, and moved onto MM. He is currently on 4A.

 

Dd6 completed SM Essentials early in K and then moved onto MM.

 

I personally loved RS and it was a perfect fit for my hands on ds, but it was quite a step backwards to MM1. SM Essentials to MM was the easiest transition, but youngest loves workbooks so...;)

 

MM has been wonderful for teaching concepts, and I love the simplicity of it being written to the student.

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Ok so what did you do prior to starting MM? Dgs is going to be 5 and starting K. If dd were going to use this starting at 6, what would be good for his K year?

Here is what MM's author recommends for K math:

http://www.homeschoolmath.net/teaching/kindergarten.php

 

One of my kids did RightStart A before MM1. I think we jumped into 1BR when my oldest started with MM. But since I'm not organized enough to use MM, I didn't use RS the second time around. So I agree, I wouldn't go all in for RS if you plan to use MM. I did keep the abacus and games to use for K/1st, though.

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We started MM1A with my 5.5yo kindergartener and it's been going well. He had done the K Mathematical Reasoning last year very easily (Critical Thinking Co, mentioned above). He needs me there for the reading (we started when he was not quite fluent), and because he's not really independent at anything at this age. He's on track to finish 1B about 4-6 wks before the end of our official school year, and then I think we'll just work on math facts, review, and math games. I think. 

 

What we like - straightforward, easy to use for both of us, a good amount of practice. He does all the problems since he's still learning math facts.

 

How we do it - I aim for an average of 2 pages per day (4 days a week). One of those pages is from the core chapters - addition, subtraction, place value, etc. - and the other is from the "fun" chapters - coins, measuring, time, shapes. We will also sometimes mix it up and do only some of the problems on a page (the really busy pages will have 2-3 discrete "blocks" of problems) and do the same across several pages. Same amount of work, but I think it helps mix it up a little. 

 

So far it's working well, and has been just fine for my kindergartener, although not independent.

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I use MM to reinforce specific concepts that my kids have had a hard time learning through other programs. I find it mostly to be excessive on the drill and takes a long time to get through each concept without taking it quite as deep as I'd rather go. It is great for me when I want more work on a specific concept like percentages.

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I bought the complete set of MM. We used 1a and 1b last year for my 6 year old and she did fantastic. However, I had bought Bob Jones Math 2 not long into so this year we are doing BJ Math 2, she is doing fantastic with this as well. Due to finances, we will have to switch her back to MM3 for Sept. She wasn't happy about this because it's not at colourful and I will admit, there is a bit more on the page so we will work a bit slower with MM 3. 

 

We took my son out of school mid year 5 but we took a step back and went through MM4 and MM5, skipped about in 4 a and 4 b just to gauge where he was. Then moved him to Bob Jones Math 6 and he couldn't stand it, he really struggled but I he really never gave it his best shot. So we tried this Answers in Genesis math and used it for about 2 months and his a road block with it. Yep, right back to MM6! lol. We are a bit behind but he's nearly done with book a and will finish book b before Sept. He's been back on MM since the beginning of the year and he is doing so well with it and really putting though into his work. I never thought I would find a math curriculum that would work for him but I'm so glad we had MM.

 

My only complaint is that in some areas, there isn't enough explanation and I have to go and google for more help. This has happened about 3 times since we've started so not bad but for some of the difficult stuff, would have loved more explanation.

 

There are YouTube videos for math mammoth as well.

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i don't use MM exclusively but as a supplement. I'm homeschooling my teenage brother and he hit a road block with math and was really struggling, so we went back to basics to see where his problem lies. I began with the Learn Math Fast books that promise an older student could go through the whole series in about a year. Um, NO! We've had to jump from LMF back to MM and then back to LFM and back to MM. LFM has the sequence I need but doesn't really do a good job of explaining the concepts. This is where MM shines. It's thorough without cutesy graphics or a distracting layout. MM also includes the practice he needs on one concept before moving on. I love it.

 

I have also used MM to bridge the gap between curriculum. When my oldest DD, a then 3rd grader was burning out on A Beka Math 3 (halfway through the book), we were going to switch to CLE Math 300. There was a problem. A Beka doesn't teach beginning geometry and fractions until the end of 3rd grade but CLE started way back in 1st grade and built upon the concepts slowly. I needed something to introduce the missing pieces before we could even begin CLE. MM was wonderful for that. It covered everything we needed at an affordable price. We did actually move on to CLE and I see no signs of changing because it works for us. I mainly wrote this to encourage others that if MM doesn't work for them as a core math program they may want to consider it for concept review or a supplement.

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My son started using MM in 4th grade with MM5 (I took him out of Catholic school mid-year in 4th grade; he was already doing Grade 5 math there). He completed MM5, MM6, and now he is toward the end of MM7B (Prealgebra). Next chapter is Geometry, then a Probability and Statistics chapter completes MM7B. Comments have forewarned me about geometry, so I will see how it goes and get back if there are issues.

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DS13 used Rightstart Math for K and 1. We loved it, but with 4 kids, I couldn't manage such a teacher-intensive program. I switched him to MM and never looked back. He finished 7a last year and began AOPS prealgebra this year. We LOVE Aops and he was fully prepared with MM. He is definitely above average in his math gifting though. DD was unable to manage MM. So it isn't for everyone. It does not have enough repetition for some kids. My DS11 is in MM5B now and doing great. They do it entirely independently - a huge bonus imo.

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We started off with Singapore standards for 2-4.

My DD was overwhelmed by the number of books. I found she was not always retaining the concepts well.

 

I switched her to MM4b in September, and she is doing amazing with it. It seems very similar in style to Singapore, but it is written toward her.

She is now almost 100% independent in her math, and she's really getting the concepts.

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We used Math Mammoth for several years, but it didn't have enough review for my son. He needed a more spiral program to retain things. We went to CLE and it worked much better for him. I've started my daughter on CLE too and plan to stick with it through 6th grade at least, then maybe Teaching Textbooks. 

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