Math for 6th grade

[featherhead]

My dd will be going into 6th grade this fall.  Currently she is working in Math Mammoth 3rd grade, and should finish in a couple weeks.  Math Mammoth is great (and I own grade 1-7 on CD), however I don't think it's great for her.  There is very little review, just a couple pages at the end of each chapter, and I feel like she could use review more frequently.  She has been struggling with memorizing her times tables, so we got Times Tales which has helped a bit.  She is also highly distractible and can't get much done unless I sit with her and keep her on track.  This was her first year of homeschooling (other than 2 months in grade 1), so we've been working on finding the gaps left by public school.  She was fairly adept at slipping through the cracks and not letting on that she was not understanding.

So... suggestions on math for this coming year that has review more often, short lessons, maybe more parent directed?

I also have a ds who will be going into 3rd grade.  He has done well with Math Mammoth this year, so I will likely keep using it for him for next year.

[HomeAgain]

It's expensive, but I would really consider Math U See.  Each lesson is set up as one taught lesson per week, 3 pages of practice with the new material, 3 pages of review of older material, 1 "honors" page that extends it out, and 1 test.  My oldest used it and had success with a weekly routine of two pages each day, one new, one review, and the test at the end of the week.

Different kids have different needs at different ages, and you may find yourself sitting with lessons for longer than you anticipated.  Middle school was definitely one of those periods here, but it's an ebb and flow.

[SilverMoon]

Horizons. It's from a religious company, though it doesn't preach. A picture you make by coloring all the shapes with a mixed fraction inside might be a cross, and loaves and fishes might be in a word problem. 

It has small bites of several different concepts in each page, and they all grow in little, incremental steps as you progress through lessons. Usually only one or two things grow in each lesson and the rest is review. Since it changes gears after every problem set my high energy kids found it easier to stay focused. 

[MiddleCourt]

4 hours ago, featherhead said:

So... suggestions on math for this coming year that has review more often, short lessons, maybe more parent directed?

My daughter is very similar. She is also going into 6th grade. Finding a math she is willing to do is a CHALLENGE. I feel like I have tried almost every math curriculum under the sun trying to find the right fit- this year we even took the whole fall off of curriculum to work on multiplication. 

The best fit I’ve found for her has been Apologia’s elementary math- Exploring God’s Creation with Mathematics. Like most Christian math programs, you can use it if you’re not a Christian because the Christian content is pretty light. It hits your criteria of shorter lessons, some spiral review (but not as intense as some others, like Saxon), and can definitely be parent directed. It kind of reminds me of Math with Confidence. (Speaking of- if she needs a 4th grade math, you can check theirs out. They just released it.) 

Edited May 23 by MiddleCourt

[featherhead]

6 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

It's expensive, but I would really consider Math U See.  Each lesson is set up as one taught lesson per week, 3 pages of practice with the new material, 3 pages of review of older material, 1 "honors" page that extends it out, and 1 test.  My oldest used it and had success with a weekly routine of two pages each day, one new, one review, and the test at the end of the week.

Different kids have different needs at different ages, and you may find yourself sitting with lessons for longer than you anticipated.  Middle school was definitely one of those periods here, but it's an ebb and flow.

Yeah, it is certainly on the pricy side!  Maybe if I can save money somewhere else.  We do have cuisenaire rods which I know are somewhat similar to the Math U See blocks, and I should probably pull them out more often.

 

5 hours ago, SilverMoon said:

Horizons. It's from a religious company, though it doesn't preach. A picture you make by coloring all the shapes with a mixed fraction inside might be a cross, and loaves and fishes might be in a word problem. 

It has small bites of several different concepts in each page, and they all grow in little, incremental steps as you progress through lessons. Usually only one or two things grow in each lesson and the rest is review. Since it changes gears after every problem set my high energy kids found it easier to stay focused. 

I've never looked that closely at Horizons, so thanks for the rec!  I will definitely check it out.  Religious is totally fine with me.  

3 hours ago, MiddleCourt said:

My daughter is very similar. She is also going into 6th grade. Finding a math she is willing to do is a CHALLENGE. I feel like I have tried almost every math curriculum under the sun trying to find the right fit- this year we even took the whole fall off of curriculum to work on multiplication. 

The best fit I’ve found for her has been Apologia’s elementary math- Exploring God’s Creation with Mathematics. Like most Christian math programs, you can use it if you’re not a Christian because the Christian content is pretty light. It hits your criteria of shorter lessons, some spiral review (but not as intense as some others, like Saxon), and can definitely be parent directed. It kind of reminds me of Math with Confidence. (Speaking of- if she needs a 4th grade math, you can check theirs out. They just released it.) 

Thanks for that!  I've been out of the loop, and I just saw that they have a math program.  I'll have to check this one out too!

[Malam]

Saxon is commonly recommended for it's focus on continuous review. However it might be even less engaging than MM. You could use this placement test to see if she places into 5/4 or 6/5: https://cdn1.sonlight.com/pdfs/placement-tests/saxon_middle_placement.pdf

[HomeAgain]

6 hours ago, featherhead said:

Yeah, it is certainly on the pricy side!  Maybe if I can save money somewhere else.  We do have cuisenaire rods which I know are somewhat similar to the Math U See blocks, and I should probably pull them out more often.

 

Because your daughter is older, I will say I have had success with students using cardstock versions if they can't find MUS materials used.  Same with the fraction overlays - I have two versions: official MUS ones and cardstock/thick plastic c-rod colored and sized ones.

But you're right, the c-rods are good.  I tend to use them much more often with students because they're cheap, colored right, and we can do just as much with them.  There are many programs that use them, but I only know of 3 block based programs that go up higher than 6th grade:

Gattegno - c-rods, but no teacher's guide and a lot of mental mathematics, you must build in your own review.

Mortensen - original MUS program, currently hard to find materials, 2 or 3 of the big names (Anna Tarnowski, Geoff White, Crewton Ramone) have been working on creating new versions for people

Math U See - systematic, stripped down math without being overly wordy, goes through high school.  Good for students who are struggling with keeping concepts straight because it continually builds.

 

 

If you're not worried about changing math programs again in a year or two then you have a lot more options open to you.

[Green Bean]

nm.

Edited June 12 by Green Bean

[featherhead]

Thanks for all the recommendations!  Some of them I hadn't heard of before, so I will definitely look them all up. 

[Green Bean]

nm.

 

Edited June 12 by Green Bean

[Malam]

On 6/1/2024 at 3:01 AM, Green Bean said:

Horizons has a placement test. It is a bit advanced from what I can tell as my 7 yr old son places in 2nd with Horizons, but 3rd in every other program we have looked at.

The Horizons math tests are at thebottom of this page.

https://www.aop.com/homeschooling/assessment-and-placement-tests

This is the K-6 test.

https://glnmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/placement_tests/HMRT01.pdf

 

HTH!

Which other programs' placement tests has he taken?

[Green Bean]

On 6/2/2024 at 10:39 AM, Malam said:

Which other programs' placement tests has he taken?

nm.

Edited June 12 by Green Bean

[8filltheheart]

On 6/2/2024 at 10:39 AM, Malam said:

Which other programs' placement tests has he taken?

Horizons is on grade level.  It is not a yr advanced beyond other curricula.  It covers the same topics as MM and SM at the same grade levels (just slightly different approaches since it teaches via simple alg and not bar diagrams.  It is weak in word problems, though.  I supplement with HOE's Verbal Problems Book.

[Green Bean]

nm.

Edited June 12 by Green Bean

[Malam]

5 hours ago, 8filltheheart said:

Horizons is on grade level.  It is not a yr advanced beyond other curricula.  It covers the same topics as MM and SM at the same grade levels (just slightly different approaches since it teaches via simple alg and not bar diagrams.  It is weak in word problems, though.  I supplement with HOE's Verbal Problems Book.

I would consider SM and MM advanced (though not necessarily by a full grade level by 2nd grade) as they lead to algebra by 8th, which is one year ahead of average.

[8filltheheart]

13 hours ago, Malam said:

I would consider SM and MM advanced (though not necessarily by a full grade level by 2nd grade) as they lead to algebra by 8th, which is one year ahead of average.

Math programs cover a range from remedial to challenging in both problem sets and in scope/sequence.  Horizons is not a challenging program in its problem sets. Problems are solidly avg in difficulty to solve.  Its content in terms of scope/sequence probably falls slightly toward the more advanced end, but not dramatically so and definitely not enough to skew it toward a higher grade level.  It is a good, solid program that is weak in application.  It is completely lacking in appropriate word problems. 

It is a harder program to jump into mid-stream vs. starting off with it in either K or 1st bc of how it teaches.  SM/MM with their bar diagrams are similar that way.  It is easier to learn how to approach problems that way earlier on than with more complex ideas found in higher grades. 

[SilverMoon]

I always assumed the reason Horizons is thought ahead was because it covers a wider variety of concepts than average. Thermometers, time zones, lots of little things that are often left out. And Rainbow definitely favors gentle ratings. ✌️

The challenge level was just average for us, at times too light and they'd double up on lessons for a few weeks until it caught back up. One of mine bounced between the same levels of Horizons and Math in Focus, which is used on level in public schools. The major concepts were the same. 

(We did not like Horizon's prealg book, which has a totally different author and setup. Even my Beast Academy kid thought the instruction was insufficient.)

[8filltheheart]

12 minutes ago, SilverMoon said:

I always assumed the reason Horizons is thought ahead was because it covers a wider variety of concepts than average. Thermometers, time zones, lots of little things that are often left out. And Rainbow definitely favors gentle ratings. ✌️

The challenge level was just average for us, at times too light and they'd double up on lessons for a few weeks until it caught back up. One of mine bounced between the same levels of Horizons and Math in Focus, which is used on level in public schools. The major concepts were the same. 

(We did not like Horizon's prealg book, which has a totally different author and setup. Even my Beast Academy kid thought the instruction was insufficient.)

Agree! We also only used K-6.