Math-U-See
For Kaylee’s Second Grade I decided to try Math-U-See instead of Abeka Math.
Why I switched
Kaylee was going great at memorizing her addition and subtraction facts (Abeka is big on memorizing) but she was having a real hard time with some basic math principals; counting high numbers, before and after numbers, place value etc.
What I loooove about Math-U-See
1. You go at the child’s pace: There are 30 lessons for the school year, you do a lesson as many times as it takes for your child to really grasp it. There are 3-4 optional work pages, if your child has it down you skip to the lesson test, if you child needs more practice you do as many pages as it takes for them to get it.
2. Hands on: The whole course works with these blocks and they use them to build numbers, add, subtract and even tell time. If your child is a hand’s on type, this is the course for you.
3. Videos: Each grade comes with a dvd of the teacher teaching the lesson. I have been watching these first the night before to get myself familiar with it and then in the morning Kaylee watches it for her lesson. The teacher is real fun and plays games with the kids etc. It is very informal. (If you don’t have the time to watch it the night before you could watch it with your child that morning but if you haven’t taught Math-U-See before it is pretty important to know what and how they are teaching)
Grades: The grades are a bit different from regular grades. There is an online placement test on their site to determine which level to start at. I started Kaylee on the ‘first’ grade, Alpha, as they mentioned that if your child is using his fingers to figure out math problems they need to go back to the basics of addition and subtraction. The first part is a little too easy for her but she is tearing through it and will probably be on to the next grade in a few months.
April 26th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
I’ve heard about that program and it looks great. But what I was wondering (this might be a dumb question) is say you use the program for a couple of years can you switch back to A Beka or whatever curriculum you choose or is it best to stick with this program through the higher grades? For instances if your child does it up until 5th grade and then you switch to Saxon 6th grade math is your kid going to be behind or have a hard time since the presentation is so different?
April 27th, 2009 at 5:54 am
Well, what I would do is look in the scope and sequence for Math U See and then see what public school is teaching for that grade and see what the learning gaps are. I think it would be like that for any program you use; for example Crystal said she noticed when putting her kids in school that they had a hard time with figuring math problems out because ABEKA is more into memorizing facts. So that would probable be a smart thing to do no matter what course you are doing.
I personally don’t think it will affect the way they do math in another program because it’s not like they are learning a completely different way of doing math, her worksheet says 5+4= the only difference is that her brain is working it out differently now.
Sharon would probably know better as her kids did Math U See and so does Gin.
Love you,
Paula
April 28th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Cool, thanks!