Math for mom's with multiples and/or busy season

[mommysanders]

My son will be finishing Right Start Math B this year. I love it, and I think the games and hands on activities are great for that age. However I have been debating weather or not to get Right Start C for next year. First, I have seen some poor reviews of level C (but maybe that was before the updated version?). And secondly, I'm pregnant with my fourth baby who is due right at the beginning of the next school year, and I will also start teaching Right Start A to my daughter. Since Right Start is very teacher intensive, I'm wondering if there are other options that I will love just as much? Or will any good math curriculum for this age be teacher intensive? I hesitate to change what has been working, but I'm worried it may not continue to work given the reasons listed.

 

Any advise? What is the favorite math program of moms with multiple children and/or a busy season? If it helps, my son is bright and seems to have picked math up quickly so far.

[Guest]

If you love it and it's working...which sounds like the case...I would just take a break from teaching and dial extras back instead of trying to switch math programs.

 

When I had my baby and two older kids, they did math, reading and very light writing for about 6 months, with a two week break completely off. It was only about 2 hours a day for them, mostly reading,  and an hour from me, and it was done.

[h2bh]

My oldest two did Right Start and then I kept adding children and some things had to change. My oldest two switched from Right Start to Math Mammoth. They are doing well in Algebra now. MM served them well and it was hands off for me. The teaching was on the page. I just checked the work. It wasn't the most exciting program, but it met our needs.

Edited February 6, 2017 by h2bh

[Soror]

I used RS math(1st ed) with my son through E I think. We did enjoy level B the most but liked C well enough, the charm started to wear off in D and he didn't care for E at all. 

 

I an see going both directions, trying something new or sticking with what works. As it is although RS is teacher intensive pretty much anything will be at this age, there is also a bit of a learning curve to learning any new program. I'd also say that I don't think there is anything quite like RS other programs have similar aspects but it is really something different. 

 

Something to consider is not starting your 4yo(turning 5yo?) on RS A. I started ds straight on RSB, before then we just played games and did RL stuff, I know at least before that RSB was the original entry point to the program and I tried RSA a couple of times(with 2 of my girls) and really didn't care for it. Early math is very easy to do through play, her and big brother can even play together. I'd also consider cutting back as okbud mentioned. At the ages of your kids they don't need much and the time and energy is best invested in the 3Rs. I'd focus on math & reading, go to the library as often as you can make it to get big stacks of books and hit the great outdoors to explore as often as possible. 

 

 

[Guest]

Oh yeah, I'd just not do anything formal math-wise with a five year old.

[SilverMoon]

If you switch just for teacher intensiveness, at this age, you're likely to be disappointed. The early years just ARE mom intensive. There's no way around it. If you really like RS and it's worked thus far, I'd "wear" that new baby in a sling and keep on keeping on. :)  Spread the schooling throughout the day; gate toddlers into a safe area with you; take advantage of naptimes; use slings for nurslings; focus on 3 R's and read aloud the rest.

[maize]

Math Mammoth is a conceptually strong program that is open-and-go. It is a worktext format with instructional material directed directly to the student.

 

How teacher intensive it is will largely depend on the student; if your child is able to focus and work fairly independently and is reading well you may be able to just sit with them at the beginning of a lesson to help explain any new concepts and make sure they understand the assignment, then be available if there are questions.

 

I like to buy the printe workbooks from Rainbow Resource rather than download and print PDF's but the workbooks are black and white so if color is going to be important to your student you could get the PDF's which go on sale every March through Homeschool Buyers Co-op and print or have them printer. Many of us who use MM do not assign every problem to our students--I would star about half the problems and if the child does well with those move along.

Edited February 6, 2017 by maize

[wendyroo]

Math Mammoth is a conceptually strong program that is open-and-go. It is a worktext format with instructional material directed directly to the student.

 

How teacher intensive it is will largely depend on the student; if your child is able to focus and work fairly independently and is reading well you may be able to just sit with them at the beginning of a lesson to help explain any new concepts and make sure they understand the assignment, then be available if there are questions.

 

I like to buy the printe workbooks from Rainbow Resource rather than download and print PDF's but the workbooks are black and white so if color is going to be important to your student you could get the PDF's which go on sale every March through Homeschool Buyers Co-op and print or have them printer. Many of us who use MM do not assign every problem to our students--I would star about half the problems and if the child does well with those move along.

 

I agree.  We switched to Math Mammoth (from Singapore) when I needed something with less moving parts.  MM has served us very well.  I bought the whole curriculum as a pdf when it was 50% on Homeschool Buyers Coop.

 

Maize, RR offers MM in color now as well.

 

Wendy

[Soror]

MM did not work at all for my RS boy, we tried after RS stopped working. The layout was horrid for him- mastery based, too many problems, too little white space and the way it taught didn't resonate it. The auditory aspect of RS was great for him and he doesn't do well with anything that is supposed to be more self-teaching/independent. 

[maize]

I agree. We switched to Math Mammoth (from Singapore) when I needed something with less moving parts. MM has served us very well. I bought the whole curriculum as a pdf when it was 50% on Homeschool Buyers Coop.

 

Maize, RR offers MM in color now as well.

 

Wendy

Thank you!

[Amy M]

I think Simply Charlotte Mason recommends Right Start Math or Math U See. We use MUS and I really like it. I still spend 10-15 minutes with each child per day, however. Even with my oldest in the Zeta level, I will still spend some time with him almost daily to make sure that he can teach back the material and that he understands it. Even with the teacher DVDs, I still watch the lesson with him. But, it's only 1 or 2 lessons per week. The rest is review time, which I farm much of the drill out to xtramath.org or iPad apps. You could continue using some of your RS games, but still get the conceptual instruction with manipulatives with MUS, without taking so much teacher time. However, if you're really happy with RS, you may regret switching to anything else, no matter what it is. You will have to decide as a teacher what resources you most want to use, and how much time you're willing to give to them. If you want to stay with RS, you may have to choose a more independent spelling instead of, say, AAS, for example.

[ealp2009]

I have used MM and right start and MM is fine but for us, it was not any less teacher intensive than RS because I have to sit next to my son pretty much the whole time either way. So consider how well your child can work independently before making the change, or be ready to reevaluate if it is not working. I don't regret MM because you can get the whole series for pretty cheep in a PDF so it is a nice extra curriculum to have on hand if something is not working in your main curriculum.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mommysanders]

Thank you all! I will look into Math Mamoth, but I'm also considering all the opinions to just stick with what working. For those doing MM, do you supplement or is it good all by itself?

[Elizabeth 2]

We use it as is, except for multiplication/division facts. I have them do fact practice for those until they know them cold. If you don't quite understand the instructions, Khan academy videos are great for you as a teacher. Occasionally I need to use manipulatives, but it's usually a matter of using real units/tens/hundreds instead of the illustrations in the lesson.

 

On a daily basis, I sit in the middle on the couch and go back and forth between them. I require them to read the instructions, say it back to me in their own words, then move onto the problems. I started this in first grade, so it's not new, but expect some growing pains if RS is teacher led. My boys were teacher led in school, so it was an adjustment. But it was worth it. Math now takes as little as 10 minutes. Even for 5th grade, it takes about 45 minutes for an entire lesson. The only reason we are even doing full lessons every day (3-4 pages each), are due to being behind from diligence issues at the beginning of the year. The schedule would normally be 1-2 pages per day. Another bonus: there are no excuses for lost papers. I just reprint, and a chore for wasting my time and paper. They don't bother trying that anymore. Math is the least of our worries now.

[myfantasticfour]

Thank you all! I will look into Math Mamoth, but I'm also considering all the opinions to just stick with what working. For those doing MM, do you supplement or is it good all by itself?

 

Since we have used Math Mammoth as well as other things, thought I would share our mileage:

 

Math Mammoth is something I am now looking into again, after doing it for 5th grade and 2nd grade. My daughter benefited the most from the incremental nature of it, and the detailed explanations of the conceptual. My son, who was quicker to intuit arithmetic abstracts, found it tedious.

 

We have also used Khan Academy for years now, and my daughter went through several stages of love/hate with it...specifically, in order to learn long division, she really did need to do it at a chalkboard. Something about doing it large, with her whole arm, going in that triangle shape, cemented the algorithm for her in ways a computer screen could not. She also sometimes listens to Salman Khan's friendly digital blackboard-style lectures and goes glaze-eyed, if the concept isn't easy for her. His words turn to gobbledegook. My son actually prefers listening to Khan lecture, than to me explain, even when it's something I am itching to explain to him in far fewer words than Khan's video.

 

My daughter now, at 12, enjoys Khan Academy, but found out it wasn't enough, when she was over halfway through Khan's pre-algebra, but fell on her face trying to do the Bridge activities in Life of Fred: Fractions. She was appalled and embarrassed, but has embraced Life of Fred as a supplement to Khan. On Khan, all her progress is saved, and she can do Mastery Challenges. Life of Fred is helping her fill in conceptual holes she didn't know she had until she attempted Life of Fred. She was too used to just performing the calculations, and not enough used to flexing her mental muscle to use math as a tool when presented with outside-the-box challenges such as Life of Fred presents.

 

We have Life of Fred: Decimals on its way through interlibrary loan, and I am looking again into Math Mammoth for its very thorough 7th Grade/Prealgebra curriculum, because once a kid masters that, they are fully ready for high school algebra, no need to do an 8th grade intermediary step such as "basic algebra" or "8th grade prealgebra".  I think we will always use Khan along with whatever else, but she needs more practice and review than Khan alone supplies.

 

Khan has improved dramatically since we started, and there is now the choice to view a grade level of math curriculum as a series of instructional/tutorial videos, with sets of practice exercises to follow, more like being in a virtual classroom or attending distance learning. That is helping my son, because it presents 3rd grade math with a sensible flow of topics made up of lectures, followed by "try it" exercises.

 

I don't think I ever found anything to beat Khan Academy for times when I needed to put homeschooling "on life support" while I was having a complicated pregnancy, or during the newborn phase, or during several weeks of round-and-round winter colds and flu.

 

Even if nothing else gets done and the laundry is piled up and dishes are in wash-in-order-to-eat mode, my older two (9 and 12) can get on Khan, fulfill my minimum requirement of any and all mastery challenges plus 3-5 new topics to practice (or else in the more classroom model, watch the instructional videos and practice the problems for 2 new things), and make positive forward progress that adds up, with reports available for Daddy to see, without my doing a thing.

 

To add to the benefit, Khan now has added a lot of history, science, and last I heard, also adding Grammar offerings in the forms of videos, and that progress is also listed in each kid's record, for us to see or show to Daddy.

 

So if I needed to, I could assign my older daughter to use Khan as fully automated educational life support, and she'd still come out better than her public-schooled counterparts. it's not the best I could do under good circumstances, but it is good enough, if it needs to be.

 

I have a child who just turned 6, and a toddler as well, and my mother is in seriously failiing health and we are trying to get the renovation done for a bed/bath for her to move into by the end of the month, so I am now just doing handwriting with DS9 and DS6, doing read-aloud/snuggle with DS2 and DS6, and setting my daughter her choice of LoF or Khan for math, and finishing out her LA textbook because she can open-and-go without my help, and overseeing DS9 on Khan for math, and the rest is Curiosity Stream documentaries on the sofa, and audiobooks.

 

Curiosity Stream has so much for science, history, the arts, and even math appreciation, that it has been a major benefit to us, and it's only $3 a month.

 

Sorry for rambling reply, but hope any of this helps.

[8Arrows4theLord]

I agree 100% with silvermoon. Keep using what works & wear a sling. You can always work over the summer too, and take your "summer break" after your baby is born. That worked well for our family. Then just ease back into school. Don't try to be super mom, that is a sure way to burn out.

  If you feel that you need a program that is more self directed, Teaching Textbooks is a safer route than Khan. I use both in our house. I just don't like my little ones on the internet while I am busy some place else. Khan is not all kids, there are a lot of adults and college age kids on there. Khan is good for a supplement, with supervision. If it applies to your family, Khan is very non Christian. They have some very anti-Christian advisors. My high school DD says she would not recommend putting a little one on Khan alone. If you use it please monitor your child. Too many little ones on Khan tell way too much personal info. :sad:

  Teaching Textbooks are a good quality math program. You will want to use a placement test at sonlight.com to see which level you should start. They move a little slower than Saxon, not sure how they compare to Right Start. Hope you can find something that will work! :001_smile:

[blondeviolin]

I don't know... I think that CLE is fairly self-directed. There's a difference between actively teaching a lesson all of the time and then teaching a small portion and letting them review the rest of their stuff.

[maize]

Math Mammoth is enough by itself. The two modifications I make are a) not assigning every problem and b) switching up the daily work by assigning pages from different sections (so, maybe a page from a multiplication section and a page from a geometry section rather than two pages of multiplication). I snip off the corners of finished pages as a way to easily track what has been done in each section.

[lmrich]

Throwing in a different idea - can you do a math lesson or two while your dh is home? Maybe on the weekend or early in the evening? 

[mommysanders]

Since we have used Math Mammoth as well as other things, thought I would share our mileage:

 

Math Mammoth is something I am now looking into again, after doing it for 5th grade and 2nd grade. My daughter benefited the most from the incremental nature of it, and the detailed explanations of the conceptual. My son, who was quicker to intuit arithmetic abstracts, found it tedious.

 

We have also used Khan Academy for years now, and my daughter went through several stages of love/hate with it...specifically, in order to learn long division, she really did need to do it at a chalkboard. Something about doing it large, with her whole arm, going in that triangle shape, cemented the algorithm for her in ways a computer screen could not. She also sometimes listens to Salman Khan's friendly digital blackboard-style lectures and goes glaze-eyed, if the concept isn't easy for her. His words turn to gobbledegook. My son actually prefers listening to Khan lecture, than to me explain, even when it's something I am itching to explain to him in far fewer words than Khan's video.

 

My daughter now, at 12, enjoys Khan Academy, but found out it wasn't enough, when she was over halfway through Khan's pre-algebra, but fell on her face trying to do the Bridge activities in Life of Fred: Fractions. She was appalled and embarrassed, but has embraced Life of Fred as a supplement to Khan. On Khan, all her progress is saved, and she can do Mastery Challenges. Life of Fred is helping her fill in conceptual holes she didn't know she had until she attempted Life of Fred. She was too used to just performing the calculations, and not enough used to flexing her mental muscle to use math as a tool when presented with outside-the-box challenges such as Life of Fred presents.

 

We have Life of Fred: Decimals on its way through interlibrary loan, and I am looking again into Math Mammoth for its very thorough 7th Grade/Prealgebra curriculum, because once a kid masters that, they are fully ready for high school algebra, no need to do an 8th grade intermediary step such as "basic algebra" or "8th grade prealgebra".  I think we will always use Khan along with whatever else, but she needs more practice and review than Khan alone supplies.

 

Khan has improved dramatically since we started, and there is now the choice to view a grade level of math curriculum as a series of instructional/tutorial videos, with sets of practice exercises to follow, more like being in a virtual classroom or attending distance learning. That is helping my son, because it presents 3rd grade math with a sensible flow of topics made up of lectures, followed by "try it" exercises.

 

I don't think I ever found anything to beat Khan Academy for times when I needed to put homeschooling "on life support" while I was having a complicated pregnancy, or during the newborn phase, or during several weeks of round-and-round winter colds and flu.

 

Even if nothing else gets done and the laundry is piled up and dishes are in wash-in-order-to-eat mode, my older two (9 and 12) can get on Khan, fulfill my minimum requirement of any and all mastery challenges plus 3-5 new topics to practice (or else in the more classroom model, watch the instructional videos and practice the problems for 2 new things), and make positive forward progress that adds up, with reports available for Daddy to see, without my doing a thing.

 

To add to the benefit, Khan now has added a lot of history, science, and last I heard, also adding Grammar offerings in the forms of videos, and that progress is also listed in each kid's record, for us to see or show to Daddy.

 

So if I needed to, I could assign my older daughter to use Khan as fully automated educational life support, and she'd still come out better than her public-schooled counterparts. it's not the best I could do under good circumstances, but it is good enough, if it needs to be.

 

I have a child who just turned 6, and a toddler as well, and my mother is in seriously failiing health and we are trying to get the renovation done for a bed/bath for her to move into by the end of the month, so I am now just doing handwriting with DS9 and DS6, doing read-aloud/snuggle with DS2 and DS6, and setting my daughter her choice of LoF or Khan for math, and finishing out her LA textbook because she can open-and-go without my help, and overseeing DS9 on Khan for math, and the rest is Curiosity Stream documentaries on the sofa, and audiobooks.

 

Curiosity Stream has so much for science, history, the arts, and even math appreciation, that it has been a major benefit to us, and it's only $3 a month.

 

Sorry for rambling reply, but hope any of this helps.

 

 

Thanks! Not rambling. And very helpful! My son may find it tedious just like one of your DC did. You've given me more to think about. I'm leaning toward just sticking with what we have and making it work. Thanks!

[hisforhomeschooling]

MM is super open-and-go if your kid is mathy and a good reader. We are doing 2nd grade this year and my fluently reading 7 year old does it by himself. I sit by him and he asks me if he doesn't understand something. We don't supplement with anything else. He is my oldest so I can't say we have been using it for years, but I think he is doing great and knows what he should know. We are planning on trying Beast Academy next year. 

 

My 5yo is advanced and has been doing the 2nd half of first grade curriculum until last month. We just adopted from China. 4th kid, 1st daughter, 1st adoption. Lots of regression, lots of change, and MM was something he couldn't handle anymore. So, MM is going to depend on your kid for sure.