Math shopping....

[3 ladybugs]

I feel like I am NEVER going to be perfectly happy with math curriculum. We started out with Singapore Standards. DS was in tears over it. Switched to Shiller. It worked for a while, then it stopped working for him. So then we went to Miquan. Again, started out strong and now not so much. I am looking at MUS now. Am I ever going to be happy with math for my son? It makes me not even want to start on it with my younger son. 

 

I had this same problem with reading then we went to AAR and now he is reading everything. Are we typical or have others had issues like us too?

 

My son doesn't seem to really like doing repetitive worksheets. He is overwhelmed easily. So if their is too many problems on a page he freaks out. Singapore was confusing with the diagramming or trees or whatever they were. Shiller had few worksheets but not enough repetition, so he was loosing concepts. Miquan he was doing well but I felt it wasn't teaching him enough and made him repeat things too much with what he already knew. 

 

Does MUS sound like a good place to try for us? He tested at Gamma when I tested him. Is there something else I should look at? I am not really worried about cost at this point. I am just wanting him to do well in math.

 

My son turns 9 next month. He is either going into the 3rd or 4th grade depending on where we are at a given time (live in a state that says he is in 4th by 4 days, he goes to school in a place that says he is in 3rd by a month). 

[HomeAgain]

I have found that it is more important to adapt the math to my son as much as possible rather than find the magic fit.  We have gone through the gammut, though

 

We started with Mathematical Reasoning.  Poor fit due to the choppy nature and lack of explicit teaching and was dropped pretty quickly.  The app Archimedes' Roost was a hit, though, so I went looking that direction.

Next was MUS.  Explicit, hands on, not too overwhelming. And I already had it. Bored him to tears, unfortunately, and math became a chore.  It was too incremental for him.

I wasn't willing to invest more so I found MEP - free, multisensory, and tight spiral.  Too many problems so we cut them down to only what he needed practice with.  We did most of the levels of that before it felt like it stagnated.  He grasped the concepts of the higher levels quickly enough that the amount of practice was ridiculous.

 

So I went shopping again this year.  I needed:

-spiral

-able to adapt lessons to stretch or condense

-not a ton of writing

 

 

I picked out Beast Academy to supplement our Life Of Fred books.  My son had other ideas.  He picked out Right Start after looking through their samples.  So far we're both good with it - it doesn't have a worksheet for every lesson, I can stretch and condense as needed, but I do need to prepare and read the lessons ahead of time so that we get the most out of it.

 

[OneStepAtATime]

Went through a gamut of math resources here, too, before I finally admitted that there IS no perfect magical something out there that will meet all our needs.  It is up to me to adapt what we are using to work for us.  That being said, some things, by their very nature, are more adaptable for our specific circumstances than others.  I ended up dumping some things I loved because they were just waaaaay to hard to keep adapting daily.  I ended up blending others so that we had the best of what each had for what we needed.

 

And I absolutely hack and slash where necessary.  Too many problems per page?  We cut problems, shift to the next day, work on a dry erase board, whatever needs doing.  Program works well but word problems are weak?  Substitute word problems from elsewhere.  Lessons have too much review?  Cut some of the review.  Lessons don't have enough review?  Create a 5-A-Day worksheet of review problems.  Need an alternate explanation?  Youtube videos, Khan Academy, CTC math.  And so on.

[Guest2]

Do you have a large white board? At our house , one problem at a time on a huge whiteboard has been magical. My son takes photos of his work with my phone to check it over and I guess that could be easily printed as well. I know at some point he will need to work on paper again, but college is a long ways away.

[nixpix5]

I have found that it is more important to adapt the math to my son as much as possible rather than find the magic fit. We have gone through the gammut, though

 

We started with Mathematical Reasoning. Poor fit due to the choppy nature and lack of explicit teaching and was dropped pretty quickly. The app Archimedes' Roost was a hit, though, so I went looking that direction.

Next was MUS. Explicit, hands on, not too overwhelming. And I already had it. Bored him to tears, unfortunately, and math became a chore. It was too incremental for him.

I wasn't willing to invest more so I found MEP - free, multisensory, and tight spiral. Too many problems so we cut them down to only what he needed practice with. We did most of the levels of that before it felt like it stagnated. He grasped the concepts of the higher levels quickly enough that the amount of practice was ridiculous.

 

So I went shopping again this year. I needed:

-spiral

-able to adapt lessons to stretch or condense

-not a ton of writing

 

 

I picked out Beast Academy to supplement our Life Of Fred books. My son had other ideas. He picked out Right Start after looking through their samples. So far we're both good with it - it doesn't have a worksheet for every lesson, I can stretch and condense as needed, but I do need to prepare and read the lessons ahead of time so that we get the most out of it.

I was going to recommend rightstart but Schiller is also based on Montessori math as well so it might feel similar. Rightstart is more fun than Schiller in my eyes though :)

[SilverMoon]

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Edited September 23, 2023 by SilverMoon

[ExcitedMama]

What about Math in Focus? It doesn't have too many problems per page and the pages are colorful. It does more step by step than Singapore.

[Jackie]

I'm adding a voice to the "use multiple resources" camp.

 

You say that Shiller was working, but without enough repetition. I'm not at all familiar with Shiller, but I'd go back to that and pick up something like Kumon grade-leveled workbooks to review/reinforce/practice the concepts.

[greenfields]

We worked on RightStart, Singapore Math, and some Kumon books for first grade.  It was okay.

 

Near the end of first grade, I discovered Mortensen Math which emphasized conceptual learning with blocks.  Mortensen Math (which began with Montessori) also covers many topics simultaneously - algebra, addition, multiplication, squared numbers, etc. in the same lesson.

 

I thought that the Mortensen Math program was unusual, but the conceptual approach even helps adults make sense of algebra, square roots, exponents, percents, etc. in a visual way. 

 

We also bought a large whiteboard for math (like Crewton Ramone's website), so math is always hands on, and we also study real-life problems (using real objects) to solve math problems.

 

We signed up for membership (access to videos) at Crewton Ramone House of Math because it's a visual/conceptual program.  At first, it was strange to not have teaching manuals, but you get used to the new freedom.  We also purchased blocks and sets from Anna's Math Page.  Crewton Ramone's website is cluttered, but it has a great deal of information and creative ideas.  AnnasMathPage.com is well organized, and she explains the products in wonderful detail.

 

 

[Syllieann]

With Shiller, you, as the teacher, are responsible for building in the repetition. Many of the activities are meant to be repeated. I kept a notebook with things that needed continual review. So, for example, each day we might do one addition problem with regrouping, one subtraction problem with regrouping, one multiplication problem with regrouping, and one division without regrouping. Then when regrouping in division is taught, we switch to that in the daily review. When the manipulatives move to abstraction, we switch that type of problem to abstraction in the review. That is certainly more teacher intensive than some other math options out there, but it sounds like Shiller is probably still your best bet if you are willing to change the way you use it.

[Zoo Keeper]

You're not going to find a perfect math curriculum. :p

 

...

 

Also, it's generally more effective to tailor any curriculum for your particular kid than it is to curriculum hop every year. A curriculum that just needs more review can have extra review added with games, apps, Prodigy, etc. A curriculum with too much review doesn't HAVE to have every problem completed. A kid with an attitude problem (looking at MY 9yo LOL) needs to be told to suck it up and finish that lesson anyway. Curriculum needs to work for you, and not make you work for it.

 

Just had to quote this because it is oh-so-true.  :)

[Jame]

From what I know about MUS, it seems like it would be a good fit for your son. We've been doing MUS Gamma for a couple of weeks now and it is very easy to use and the pages are black and white and uncluttered. You can use as many practice sheets as you want, so if he gets the concept, he can move on. If all goes well, I'm going to stick with it and use Beast Academy alongside it. 

 

 

[MotherGoose]

With my first child I tried everything out there thinking that surely it was the curriculum that was the problem and not me or her! By the time second came along I knew that The most important thing is that I think it's thorough and complete. She will have her up and down days, and days when she needs to just do math and be done. No fancy curriculum is going to make her love math. So we have our picks, and stick with them. We modify them as needed but don't totally change curricula.

[3 ladybugs]

Thank you everyone! I think that my biggest problem has been that DH thought that MUS was overly complicated. I looked at the multiplication demo online and suddenly (for me) multiplication and how to do it made more sense! Now I know multiplication but having it explained in a different way was nice to see. DH was taught all the "tricks" to math because (as he says) people that are good in math are just lazy. They want the answer in the quickest way possible so that is what he wants to teach our son. However if he doesn't understand the concept to begin with (I am finding out) then it is hard for him to achieve that. 

 

I do have a black board (not a white board) in my kitchen. We use that for school.

 

I also have 3A in Beast that he has yet to use. 

[fralala]

Well, I would just say there are multiple ways to be good at math, and the main thing is keeping up your son's confidence (especially if his dad is a math whiz and he feels the subtle pressure to just get things). It sounds like you and your DH are having a good conversation-- he can provide really good input on what he thinks makes a math curriculum good, but is it possible you might have the better intuition here for the kind of approach that might help your son "get" it? If what worked for his dad isn't working for him, my feeling is there's a good chance that your son might do well with the approach that you find makes good sense. I bet your intuition about MUS is a good one.

 

I agree with all of the PPs about making a math curriculum work for you, but at the same time...this does also require a certain deal of self-confidence with teaching math, and it's easier to feel self-doubt when your child is struggling or you feel like things should be going better, or your spouse is telling you the way things make sense to you is not the way people who are good at math do it! (Which I think was probably the kind of advice that was trying to be helpful in making a curriculum choice, but would not boost my self-confidence personally.)

[Guest2]

Op, when you play a board game do you touch each square with your game piece as you count? Does your son? Does your husband? In my family, the people that look at the board and move six spaces without touching seem to need less repition, they visualize the concepts, and like traditonal books. The other half need more repition, more explanation, and like the hands on component. That is not to say half or the family is better at math, but they sure do approach it differently.

Edited August 31, 2017 by Silver Brook