ds bored with MUS...help!

[kids&me]

Having problem with 8yo ds being bored with MUS. He has done Alpha and is just finishing Beta. I love the program because of the teaching video, simiplicity, and the thoroughness. I am not a math person! He is not having any problems learning but he is going very slow and is dreading math everyday. I don't know if this is just to boring for him and we need to make a change or if we should just keep going. I don't know what other program would be as teacher friendly and more fun. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you,

Angie

[HollyDay]

we had this problem at the same point you did. Dd was sick of adding and subtracting ALL THE TIME. She wanted more variety. I switched her to Saxon - which she loved for about a semester. Then that became repetitive and therefore boring again. We settled on BJU for the past 2 years and that has worked. My advice would be switching to a program that is not mastery. I know there are many advantages to a mastery program - but some dc just dont like it.

 

If you want a video program - perhaps TT would be a good option. It gets bashed pretty regularly around here - so research it first. :) I have used it and I do see the pros and cons of TT - alot depends on your dc and your teaching style.

[Larissa]

from MUS. I thought it was tiresome to focus on only one topic for a whole year. TT is very thorough program for students to use independently.

Larissa

[Spy Car]

Here's a link to a recent related thread:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90228

[kids&me]

we had this problem at the same point you did. Dd was sick of adding and subtracting ALL THE TIME. She wanted more variety. I switched her to Saxon - which she loved for about a semester. Then that became repetitive and therefore boring again. We settled on BJU for the past 2 years and that has worked. My advice would be switching to a program that is not mastery. I know there are many advantages to a mastery program - but some dc just dont like it.

 

If you want a video program - perhaps TT would be a good option. It gets bashed pretty regularly around here - so research it first. :) I have used it and I do see the pros and cons of TT - alot depends on your dc and your teaching style.

 

 

My ds did saxon in first grade and was bored too! I have noticed a lot of people use BJU, is it teacher friendly, and was it hard switching from MUS over to BJU? What is TT?

Thank you

Angie

[kids&me]

Here's a link to a recent related thread:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90228

Thank you for the thread!

Looks like he is not the only one with MUS boredom.

[HollyDay]

BJU is pretty teacher friendly and no it wasnt hard making the switch. Now, having said that, I am debating on using BJU for 5th. We need more time with division than BJU gave this year. No big deal - I have the MUS dvds from when we did it with older dc. I could supplement with that and go ahead with BJU 5 next year. But, they also moved pretty fast through a few other things - like fractions at the end. I dont know if this is just BJU introducing more difficult concepts at the end to simply expose the dc. Or, if this is "actual instruction" rather than an intro - exposure type thing. BJU has two "backup" books - Stretch and Spring - that add another dimension to the lesson. It is great when you need more.

 

My neighbor raves about Horizons - and I am looking at that as a possibility for next year by the way.

 

TT is Teaching Textbooks - a cdrom/worktext math program. From what I am finding - you either love it or hate it - not much in between. There was a recent thread on this topic.

[Spy Car]

Thank you for the thread!

Looks like he is not the only one with MUS boredom.

 

The "mastery" approach of MUS seems to me a perfect fit for some children, and not a good fit for others. We as parents are fortunate to have many good choices to choose from that fit our children's learning styles.

 

Good luck in your search for the right program for you and your son.

 

Bill

[kids&me]

BJU is pretty teacher friendly and no it wasnt hard making the switch. Now, having said that, I am debating on using BJU for 5th. We need more time with division than BJU gave this year. No big deal - I have the MUS dvds from when we did it with older dc. I could supplement with that and go ahead with BJU 5 next year. But, they also moved pretty fast through a few other things - like fractions at the end. I dont know if this is just BJU introducing more difficult concepts at the end to simply expose the dc. Or, if this is "actual instruction" rather than an intro - exposure type thing. BJU has two "backup" books - Stretch and Spring - that add another dimension to the lesson. It is great when you need more.

 

My neighbor raves about Horizons - and I am looking at that as a possibility for next year by the way.

 

TT is Teaching Textbooks - a cdrom/worktext math program. From what I am finding - you either love it or hate it - not much in between. There was a recent thread on this topic.

 

 

Thank you for all of the info. I will check out BJU and TT>

All the best

Angie

[kids&me]

The "mastery" approach of MUS seems to me a perfect fit for some children, and not a good fit for others. We as parents are fortunate to have many good choices to choose from that fit our children's learning styles.

 

Good luck in your search for the right program for you and your son.

 

Bill

 

Thank you Bill !

Angie

[ElizabethB]

We switched from MUS to Singapore and have been very happy. At the lower grade levels, it seems very easy to implement. I haven't had to break out the Home Instructor's Guides yet. However, they're step by step and very thorough if you need them. You could try buying an IP book, they have everything that is in the workbooks plus a few extra challenging problems. My daughter has really enjoyed the challenging problems, she's good at them and (usually) enjoys the challenge. If she's having a bad day and the problem is extra challenging, I'll just move and and try it again later. Just an IP book is a cheap easy test to see if you'll like it and can do it.

 

Edit: I've also seen people posting here for help from 4th grade Singapore on up and several other math programs at higher levels, so if you pick something without a video and occasionally need help when stumped, I'm sure someone here will be able to help.

[Vrouwtje]

Both my son and a friend's daughter finished Beta not too long ago. Both of them did not feel quite as excited about math at that point. But Gamma has been really refreshing for both my ds8 and my friends' daughter (also 8). My friend's little girl has gone from dreading math to loving it after starting Gamma. If you own Gamma already, you may try a few chapters and see how it goes. If you don't have Gamma I understand it is a harder decision.

 

Also, you could throw in some fun with e.g. "Games for Math" by Peggy Kaye. My son has liked "Fast Track" from that book, which allows you to practice whatever math facts you want your child to using a home-made board game.

 

I guess that for me something pretty drastic would need to happen to move away from MUS. It is such a solid program and so easy to implement.

 

HTH!

[ddandgirls]

I originally used the "classic" MUS with my first daughter until they changed the format and we had to switch to the current program. I think the "classic" was a little better at keeping topics moving.

 

However, I am still using the current program with her and I am now also using it with my other younger daughter who is working in Alpha, and yes it can get a little boring to work on mastering those basics. So, I mix things up a lot. I often will write her problems on the dry erase board or on the chalk board and let her do them that way. Somehow to her it seems different. I also will turn it into a game. How fast can she do five problems and I time her and then give her 5 more problems to try to beat her time. All the while I am using the problems from the books worksheets. I have given her a bell to ring when she is finished or a buzzer from one of our other games. I have made them into flash cards and put the answers on the floor and she hops from answer to answer.

 

I think there are ways to keep it fresh. I could care less if the answers are always written in the book as long as she knows how to do it. We may do the paper format 2 - 3 days a week and 1 - 2 days we do it in some other format. Or we play a game like number bingo or something.

 

So, maybe try having 1 or 2 days a week where math is just fun. My younger daughter never knows which day it's going to be, just whenever I feel we need a change.

 

I have loved the program for both daughters, I am not a math person and my oldest is now going into pre-Algebra with MUS and has always done well with it. But every program can get "boring" at times. Just find one that works for you and make it fun.

 

HTH,

Dannie

[Lovedtodeath]

Chalk Dust was recently recommended. It is on the computer I believe.

[Lovedtodeath]

 

Fretting with Math--please help! here it is!

[kids&me]

Both my son and a friend's daughter finished Beta not too long ago. Both of them did not feel quite as excited about math at that point. But Gamma has been really refreshing for both my ds8 and my friends' daughter (also 8). My friend's little girl has gone from dreading math to loving it after starting Gamma. If you own Gamma already, you may try a few chapters and see how it goes. If you don't have Gamma I understand it is a harder decision.

 

Also, you could throw in some fun with e.g. "Games for Math" by Peggy Kaye. My son has liked "Fast Track" from that book, which allows you to practice whatever math facts you want your child to using a home-made board game.

 

I guess that for me something pretty drastic would need to happen to move away from MUS. It is such a solid program and so easy to

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you,

We already bought Gamma, so maybe we will try it the rest of the year and see if it gets a little more interesting.

At least I have a couple more months before summer to figure if it is working better. Ahank you for all of the suggestions.

angie

[Alison in KY]

I'm a MUS fan, but that's because it's working.

 

No one loves math here. None of the kids get excited at all when it's math time, but they are that way about most of their school.

 

What I do is set the timer for short math lessons. My son is in 3rd grade. I used to set the timer for 35 minutes. I switched some things, started making changes in our whole day and I started giving shorter lessons. So now he does 20 minute, and believe it or not, things seem to go smoother. It's not perfect, but I think it's easier and he's actually doing the same amount of work, just not dragging it out.

 

Also, if they "get it" then I'd skip some pages. No one said you had to do every page. In our case, most of the pages are challenging, so we do everyone.

 

HTH

Alison

[mo2]

Here's a link to a recent related thread:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90228

 

 

I was going to link this thread as well, but you beat me to it! If it helps any, I think I'm going to try a mixture of Singapore and Miquon. Singapore moves quickly, so I'm going to get the Challenging Word Problems book and possibly the Extra Practice book.

[mommyrooch]

I use MUS for both of my kids ages 10 & 7.

 

I originally had them using Abeka for math. It teaches with the spiral method.

 

My son did very well with it. He could do virtually any problem that was set before him. One problem I noticed however. He knew HOW to apply any type of math he had learned but knowing WHEN to use it was a different story.

 

For example, he could add 8+4 in his sleep. He could also work 12 divided by two. However, if you gave him the following word problem

 

Mom bought 8 pints of juice and Dad brought home 4 pints. How many quarts of juice did they have?

 

There are the two problems 8+4 and 12 divided by 2 in that problem. Where my son knew HOW to solve these problems in his sleep if they stood alone, he had trouble knowing WHEN to apply what he knew.

 

Even though he knew HOW to add, subtract, multiply, divide, etc. he had trouble knowing WHEN to apply those.

 

MUS stresses that you must understand and know both in order to really "know" math. It doesn't do us any good if we know how to multiply if we don't know when we need to do it.

 

After switching to MUS my son caught on to what he was missing quickly. Now he has very little trouble not only solving his problems but also knowing when to apply what he knows.

 

My daughter also needed MUS. She is a VERY visual learner and using a basic textbook approach just wasn't working for her. She had to actually "see" why 9+8=17. Seeing 9+8 on a piece of paper meant nothing to her but by using the manupulitives she was able to see and touch the 9 and see and touch the 8 and then see and touch the 17 when you put them together.

 

Anyway, it has been a good fit for us. Like another poster stated, something drastic would have to happen to make us change. If it were just a matter of boredom I would supplement other things and maybe add in some math games but I would not change from MUS as our primary math curriculum. It is just too solid of a program for us.

 

That is for us though. I realize that every child and every family is different.

 

I do ditto what others have said. Things sped up much more with Gamma. Try doing some in that and see how it goes.

 

Good Luck!