Hi all, My son (5 1/2 years old) is about 3/4 of the way through the Alpha workbook. We didn't bother with the DVD because the concepts are so basic. He totally gets it, and is able to complete one or two pages (front and back) pretty quickly. I think he's bored... I'm certainly tired of it! Ha! But he doesn't have all the addition and subtraction facts memorized, maybe only half of them. He can think through most of them, sometimes he counts on his fingers, and he pulls out the manipulatives occasionally. But the concepts themselves of simple addition and subtraction (how they're pretty much the same thing) are easy for him. Should I keep plowing through the rest of Alpha? Or is he ready for Beta? Ought I make sure he has the addition and subtraction facts memorized first, or not bother? What has been your experience? Thanks!
Since he is only 5 1/2, I would just keep going through it. The alpha slowly builds up, so by the end of the book there is mroe to it than the beginning. I think math facts should be completely memorized, so no counting on fingers. It is so much easier later on, if they have this down. On the other hand, if he really is bored, then I say change the curric or liven it up. You don't want math to be something he dreads to do!
I say definitely finish the book but perhaps take a break from it for a bit while he masters the facts he needs to know up to this point. I've done that with my kids as moving forward wasn't going to do any good unless they knew their facts so we would do other things to help. Mostly math drills that take only a few minutes a day but which aided them more than learning new concepts all the time would have. Have you used the online drill on the MUS site? That's one we use and then there's another online one as well which I can find the link for if you want it. My older kids do Saxon drills. With the online MUS drill, the goal is to complete all 20 problems in 1 minute or less. If your child can do this, then that is considered mastery. So, basically, 3 seconds per problem. My older two do the 100 problem drills where the goal is to get them done in 5 minutes or less which is not at all an issue for them. I've used MUS with all three kids and nothing else. My eldest is doing Algebra 1 this year and my youngest is in Beta. One more insight -- moving ahead in math seems less wise to me than finding new ways to solidify the information appropriate for the child's age level. Now that my oldest is in 8th grade and doing Algebra, I can see he never would have been able to grasp these concepts at a younger age. The ability to think abstractly just wouldn't have been there. My youngest right now could easily breeze through the Beta book but I'm having him go slow. Even though he has mastered a technique, I'm not jumping ahead in leaps and bounds. He's half a year ahead already so we have a cushion if he hits a rough spot but I don't want him any further ahead than that. He needs to be old enough to handle the higher level maths when he gets there.
We've been all the way from the MUS Primer to Geometry (so far). My rule of thumb is that once the child has mastery they don't need to be burdened with busy work. I would still work your way through the concepts in the Alpha book; however, once he masters the concept, move on to the review portion or the test and then on to the next lesson.
I am not sure how the younger books work, but in the books from MUS I have used there are several lessons over the new concept. If he really gets the concept in that chapter, maybe you could simply move on to the new chapter. In the extra time you could review the addition/subtraction facts.
I wouldn't skip the rest of Alpha, but you can easily skip some pages and just spend 1-2 days per lesson to finish it off. I would probably take a few weeks off from MUS to memorize the facts, then go back to it at a faster pace.
