S/O: How do you use two math curriculums?

[PinkInTheBlue]

I just finished reading the 'two math curriculums' thread and it was well timed. I finally ordered and got in our new Chalkdust(12yr old), Math Matters(10yr old), and LOF Fractions and I am as thrilled as I thought I would be. However, I'm completely torn about how to use them together. I thought since many of us use two, you could tell me the logistics of how.

 

I don't see how to do it.

 

Thoughts please!

[Cindyg]

OK.

 

BJUP is our spine. So we just do one lesson a day, primarily just the textbook and workbook. We have HomeSat, so we sometimes watch a few minutes of the video teacher's presentation, but only sometimes. The workbook page is independent work for my son.

 

Then we alternate lessons between LOF and MUS. So this year we've just finished LOF Fractions and MUS Epsilon (fractions). So, on the first day, we did Lesson 1 of LOF; the next day we did Lesson 1 of MUS. And so forth. I made no attempt to coordinate the topics. It works out in the end.

 

In MUS, we simply watch Mr. Steve's short lesson. We don't do any workbook problems. In LOF, we read the story and do "Your Turn to Play" and the bridges. Frankly, I would have preferred to just read the stories, but most of the learning is in "Your Turn to Play." In other words, there's not much math in the stories. At least that's been my experience so far. Since we already have the BJUP workbook page to do, we keep this really short and really casual. If the LOF Your Turn to Play is long or complicated, we stop and pick up there the next time.

 

We also do a pre-algebra program called Hands On Equations (which is awesome). In this program, we do a single problem a day. It takes no more than 5 minutes. That doesn't sound like much, but my son started this in the 4th grade, and any algebra at all in the 4th grade is amazing. He's now in the 5th grade, and we're about half way through the program, and he is solving really complicated problems. We'll probably finish it in the 6th grade. Since this is our FOURTH math curriculum, I keep it really short and really low key. (I think this is the key to using multiple math programs.)

 

Then we have a separate math facts practice every day. (So you might call that our FIFTH math curriculum)

 

We don't take any math tests from any of the programs.

 

Our "together time" in math is maybe 20 minutes a day, and then maybe another 10-20 for him to do his independent BJUP math worksheet.

[PinkInTheBlue]

Thank you Cindy :) So you alternate days. I can see that.

 

Anyone else? I know many of us use more than one and surely we do it in different ways.

 

Thanks!!

[KAR120C]

We're using three... :)

 

Two of them are Statistics, and I arranged those by topic, using one as the spine and the other as the supplement. Most of our work is in the "supplement", but I like the arrangement of the "spine" so we go by that. Statistics is our main math program right now, and we do it M-Th.

 

The third curriculum we have is a geometry supplement (Zome) and we do that on Fridays.

 

That's the short and simple explanation, leaving out various other parts that pretty much follow the same pattern... I could go on ;)

[Sunshine State Sue]

Partially because I work, we've never done math more than 3 days per week. We did different things different years, but the last year we used MUS and Singapore's CWP, there were 30 lessons in MUS, so ds did 1 lesson per week. He also did 9 CWP per week. It worked out to 2 pages per day of MUS and 3 CWP per day. Both 3x per week.

 

This year we are using MUS Algebra and LoF Algebra. There are 34 lessons in MUS, so again 1 lesson per week. There are 108 lessons in LoF, so 3 lessons per week. Ds does math 3x per week. Again, it works out to 2 pages of MUS and 1 lesson of LoF.

 

HTH!

[Cindyg]

Thank you Cindy :) So you alternate days. I can see that. Thanks!!

 

We alternate LOF and MUS. We do BJUP, Hands On Equations, and math facts every day. But we keep everything light.

[kalanamak]

Partially because I work, we've never done math more than 3 days per week.

 

Well, because I work, we do math almost daily! (But only for 30 minutes). When I reach a wall in my spine, or we need a change of pace, I go over to my secondary, which I have annotated with correlations of topics with the primary. If that doesn't fix it, I drag out the games and think of other ways to present it. I am skipping most of my secondary. I only use it when I need it.

[jennyt]

Hi,

 

I use 2 curriculums but one of them is Horizons which covers quite a number of topics progressively every lesson. My dd's do their Horizons books in the afternoon for half an hour, and in the morning we do a half hour of "fractions" or "place value" or "money" or whatever unit we're focussing on at the time. It sounds like you're doing 2 "units" at the same time so mornings and afternoons may seem a bit much for your dcs.

 

Cheers,

 

Jenny

[fractalgal]

I just finished reading the 'two math curriculums' thread and it was well timed. I finally ordered and got in our new Chalkdust(12yr old), Math Matters(10yr old), and LOF Fractions and I am as thrilled as I thought I would be. However, I'm completely torn about how to use them together. I thought since many of us use two, you could tell me the logistics of how.

 

I don't see how to do it.

 

Thoughts please!

 

The best way to begin to approach this is to think about what are the strengths and weaknesses of each of the math programs you are considering, and then work them in together to accomplish your goal.

 

To be more specific, what I do is to look ahead a few weeks in each curriculum at what is coming up. I consider which idea(s)/approach(es) are where I want to take the student, and then I plan it out from this point.

 

I would allow adequate time for presentation of the new concepts, review/reinforcement, and then a way to measure the progress (quizzes and tests).

[Pongo]

For 1 child I am using NEM/LOF another 2 BJU/MUS.

 

I pick 1 for the spine and the other as the supplement. I correspond the chapters of the supplement to the spine. I write in the spine workbook/textbook pages, I put the page numbers of the supplement we will go to before moving on and what pages I will cover

 

For example my ds did BJU 3 up to ch. 14 (at the top of the workbook page, I wrote MUS Lessons 18-20) so before we go into division , I wanted him to get multiplication down so we moved back into MUS to solidify multiplication. Then we will go back to BJU.

 

It allows the kids to slow down as they learn another way to solve problems, and really get it. I have to admit, it has worked really well, and it was a suggestion by SWB many years ago about using 2 math curricula simultaneously.

[Ummto4]

I use Math Mammoth Light Blue 1 (i.e. the complete curriculum series) and Right Start B. I use both to help my son solidifying math concepts because he has difficulty on really understanding them only via Right Start B.

 

Because of that, I re-plan both books and cover the same topics at the same time.

 

At this time, we use Math Mammoth's scope and sequence as the spine (because it's a mastery program like S-pore). Then I look at corresponding RS B to present the concept first with manipulative, followed by pictorial and abstract presentation by Math Mammoth. Math Mammoth has a lot of problems in their worksheets, so I don't assign all of the problem at once. We only do a couple of math problems until I'm sure my son understands the concept. Then we use the rest of MM math problems during our daily review session.

 

SO our daily math session comprises of these things:

- Written review using practice sheet: consists of 10 problems which my son has to do on his head. I either write up the problems myself, or tell him to do the math problems from Math Mammoth book, e.g. 10 problems on +1 and the commutative law, 10 problems on math facts under 10, 10 problems on adding tens, # bond, etc.

 

- Oral review ala Right Start: calendar, days of the weeks, +1, +2, +5, counting up and down, etc.

 

- The main program of the day, either from math mammoth or Right Start.

 

This approach has worked very beautifully for my son. It takes us around 35-45 mins daily for math.