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Math Mammoth Blue v/s Light Blue


Asker123
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Canadian Newbie here eh.....

My boy is in grade 2. I am thinking to put a structure in place for him for Math. They dont have any book as such in their school ( at least nothing suggested to us by school to buy) . They dont even give homework so my wife bought a book from Costco for grade 1 last year. He has followed that last year and knows additions , subtractions place value of digits , he is also learning multiplication and basic division.

I am an engineer and good with Math but till now I have left his skill development to my wife but now want to participate too.

I heard  good things about MM. Someone told about Beast academy as well but I dont think we should overload him too much right now. We will see BA next year.

MM has light blue and blue. I searched this forum and found out that some of parents have used Blue as main curriculum and match the TOC from light blue for grades. 

Any fresh  views or experiences in this regard?

$ wise it is Light blue ( $175) vs Blue ( $120 + $25 for review workbooks to make it equivalent to light blue)  so savings of $30 over 7 years is not that significant

Also if anyone knows any current coupon or discount for MM, will highly appreciate it

TIA

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OK Thanks everyone.

After some search ( including this forum) I found a few more differences between Blue and Light Blue. Light Blue has Tests at the end of each chapter. It also provides cumulative review starting from 3rd or 4th chapter. And it comes up with a worksheet maker. 

I found that the worksheet maker is actually just a link to another site, which I can go myself. Cumulative reviews are also not that big a deal. 

Do you think Tests at the end of each chapter should be a deal breaker?

I am interested in Blue because I can adjust the topics and areas of strength and weakness better with Blue. Also in later years if a topic need to be revised, it is simpler with Blue as the topic is available separately and I wont need to dig in to previous years books.

If anyone is using Blue series, can you please let me know how do you conduct Tests if there are no Tests for each chapter in Blue series?

TIA

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49 minutes ago, Asker123 said:

OK Thanks everyone.

After some search ( including this forum) I found a few more differences between Blue and Light Blue. Light Blue has Tests at the end of each chapter. It also provides cumulative review starting from 3rd or 4th chapter. And it comes up with a worksheet maker. 

I found that the worksheet maker is actually just a link to another site, which I can go myself. Cumulative reviews are also not that big a deal. 

Do you think Tests at the end of each chapter should be a deal breaker?

I am interested in Blue because I can adjust the topics and areas of strength and weakness better with Blue. Also in later years if a topic need to be revised, it is simpler with Blue as the topic is available separately and I wont need to dig in to previous years books.

If anyone is using Blue series, can you please let me know how do you conduct Tests if there are no Tests for each chapter in Blue series?

TIA

I never use tests. When they have come with the curriculum, they go by the wayside. Or just used as reviews. Honestly tests are for big classrooms when teachers have no idea if the child actually knows the stuff, or just gets help at home. Tests are done in the classroom. Since you are the one teaching your child, you can see as you go if they know the material. You do not need to test. You are also not worried they are going home and having a friend or sibling or parent doing their work.

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Some people on forums have mentioned that MM site has the light blue TOC published for each grade but I could not locate it. Can anyone please provide the link if they easily can. 

That way, although I will follow Blue,  I can match the learning with what goes in the LightBlue series. 

The link that Plum has put above is helpful too. 

Edit :  Got it and putting it here so that it can be helpful to others too . You need to go to following page and then click on each grade one by one and then on that page on right side, you have link to the Contents and Samples

https://www.mathmammoth.com/international/international.php  ( This is for international, for US you need to go to US version) 

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I had few email conversation with Maria. She said she will be running Thanksgiving Discount so I will wait it out for another month. Does anyone know how much discount she usually offers around Thanksgiving time?

Seems like I will go for Blue series and those review workbooks for all 7 grades. 

 

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5 hours ago, Asker123 said:

I had few email conversation with Maria. She said she will be running Thanksgiving Discount so I will wait it out for another month. Does anyone know how much discount she usually offers around Thanksgiving time?

Seems like I will go for Blue series and those review workbooks for all 7 grades. 

 

Just for the record, you can never get refunds on anything that is a download. And it is not uncommon for someone to start a program and then not like it. I never would purchase seven years worth of anything in advance. You are far better off just purchasing one year worth and make sure it works well for you all. I know money can be tight, but you will only feel worse if after a bit, you do not wish to continue with this program.

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On 10/17/2019 at 5:12 AM, Asker123 said:

I had few email conversation with Maria. She said she will be running Thanksgiving Discount so I will wait it out for another month. Does anyone know how much discount she usually offers around Thanksgiving time?

Seems like I will go for Blue series and those review workbooks for all 7 grades. 

 

Last year homeschool buyers coop ran a really good discount on buying the whole series in digital format.  So might be worth signing up for the emails and looking out for that.

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20 hours ago, Janeway said:

Just for the record, you can never get refunds on anything that is a download. And it is not uncommon for someone to start a program and then not like it. I never would purchase seven years worth of anything in advance. You are far better off just purchasing one year worth and make sure it works well for you all. I know money can be tight, but you will only feel worse if after a bit, you do not wish to continue with this program.

Generally I’d agree but math mammoth is the exception because it’s pretty cheap st times.  Cost me the same for the whole 7 years as one year of Singapore!

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I use light blue with my 7yo daughter, and blue with my 12yo daughter.

For my 7yo I chose light blue as this is her only math curriculum and I wanted all topics covered, in "grade level" order.  She is not advanced, so I don't expect to get ahead of grade in any topic, and I didn't want the trouble of having to organize what I'd be teaching.  We simply started at the beginning, and are working to the end, getting as much done as she can in 20 minutes a day.  I save all chapter review pages to cycle back to later, and did not purchase the test book.

I use the blue series with my 12yo daughter as a supplement, because she has learning disorders that create gaps in her math understanding.  She uses Teaching Textbooks independantly in the morning, and MM with me in the afternoon ONLY on topics she needs further help in or review in.  What she's struggling with may be presented in her grade level, or it may be from a previous grade- so topical makes a lot more sense than progressive.  As an added bonus I've pulled from this series for my other children (using Beast Academy or Miquon) as well when they've needed help.

So I suggest Light Blue if you are wanting entire grade level overview learning or review, but Blue if you are wanting to fill gaps, give extra help in struggling areas, or move ahead of grade level in choice topics.

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While I wait for Thanksgiving deal to come, my friend printed me some pages of Multiplication 1  ( mentioned as Grade 2-3) and Division 1 ( grade 3)  so that I can work in the meanwhile.

so far so good. My boy is in grade 2 but he is grasping things smoothly. Maria explains the concepts slow and steady. The exercises are a lot in number( actually way too many)  and repetitive in my opinion. I asked my son to skip a few but he likes doing those all so we will see.

 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Hi all, I have a question. Has anyone used  Review workbooks from Math Mammoth? These are for Grade 1 to 7 

https://www.mathmammoth.com/review_workbooks/

I am going to buy Blue series as main curriculum and these review workbooks are advertised as good compliment to the Blue series.

Are these worth buying? Can any one who has used these please comment?

P.S. - Math Mammoth is running a 25% discount till Dec 1. Please check their website if you want to buy anything. 

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If you're using the main light blue curriculum, I wouldn't think the vast majority of kids would need the review. One of MM's strengths (and sometimes one of its weaknesses for certain students) is the sheer amount of practice. The topics are by mastery, so there's not a ton of spiral review built in... but in my experience most kids thriving with MM's methods don't need it. I think the review would be better if you're using the Blue series or if you're using a totally different program and wanted some spiral review from MM.

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6 minutes ago, Farrar said:

If you're using the main light blue curriculum, I wouldn't think the vast majority of kids would need the review. One of MM's strengths (and sometimes one of its weaknesses for certain students) is the sheer amount of practice. The topics are by mastery, so there's not a ton of spiral review built in... but in my experience most kids thriving with MM's methods don't need it. I think the review would be better if you're using the Blue series or if you're using a totally different program and wanted some spiral review from MM.

 

I am going to use Blue series as main curriculum. 

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