Please tell me what's your and your child's favorite and why? Have you tried something you or your DC didn't like? Why didn't you like it? Thanks!
My kids still devour McRuffy! Things that didn't work so far have been Singapore, Math Mammoth, and Life of Fred elementary series.
We love, love, love Singapore! 6 yr old is doing Singapore 2a & 2b this year, and my 4 year old is doing Singapore Essential math A & B.
Sommer~why not Math Mammoth? We are doing McRuffy K. My DS likes it but it just seems so thrown together to me, it drives me crazy.:roll:
Last year for 1st we did McRuffy and it was great! I'm not sure how different it is from Kinder though, but it doesn't feel thrown together to me- but rather spiral in nature? I tried converting her over to Math U See, which my son does great with, but it did not work, so we are back to McRuffy with her! Sorry other than that I have no other experience with math at that level- I have heard great things about RightStart, Math Mammoth...
I don't understand the thrown together thought you have about McRuffy, we are using K and 1 right now (finishing them next week and starting 1 and 2 in the new year). I have never felt like it was even slightly unorganized.) MM drove me batty, it does not help you as the teacher at all, you have to figure it out and teach it all yourself. My kids hate the pages and I don't blame them, they are busy and it's hard to focus on a problem when they feel piled on top of each other. My kids both had melt downs over every page from MM I have ever put in front of them.
Here is how I do McRuffy. I have all of my manipulatives seperated into little bins (these are mac and pot salad containers from the grocery store, we have them in many sizes so it's nice for different things that need different amount of space). I have all the copy masters, the number lines and all the laminated pages in a hanging folder. (one folder for each grade level) I have all the cards, still in their baggies, in a big mac salad container. (all levels are in this one bin for now) I have my book and the student book open to the page that we will do next, at all times.. so when we finished today's lesson, I turned both pages. I look at the list of materials, and while the kids put away their manips from the day (I put away things in the folder), I am getting the next things around. I tell the kids to grab the manips when they put the "old" one away and I get the things from the folder. I do not read ahead beyond that. I read the lesson as we go..most of it out loud, even what isn't scripted.. the next day and start the cycle all over.
We used Horizons. Dd loved the colorful pages and the fact that there were some math puzzles in some of the lessons. I would just give dd her math sheets and she would work on them. I rarely got out manipulatives to use unless she really needed them.
This is what I do too! My DS likes McRuffy but doesn't seem to be learning from it. And as far as me thinking that it is just thrown together, maybe I just can't wrap my brain around the fact that today we need three new addition facts and those three won't roll around again until who knows when. Maybe it's just me.:roll: Sommer~ didn't I buy my McRuffy from you?
yes, yes you did I didn't know what I had till I didn't have it any more!! hence us being half a year behind, we went back to it in March.
Don't think so in depth with it. It is just exposing him right now. In grade 1, when the verbal problems come into play, you will understand the snippets more. It's really just helping with mental math and eventually it will move into the verbal problems theaching them to pay attention and switch gears. Stick with it, you'll see. It is a well thought out spiral.
:lol: Don't worry, I've done that before too! I'll try and stick it out, seeing as how I already have McRuffy first grade math.
My oldest did Dorling Kindersley and Abeka in 1st Grade. Then we switched to Lifepacs until 4th Grade, then she want to Teaching Textbooks. Liked DK and Abeka....dealt with Lifepacs....LOVE Teaching Textbooks (sorry, doesn't do 1st or 2nd grade!). My middle started with Lifepacs, and tolerated them until he tested into Teaching Textbooks. My youngest started with Horizons. Which I LOVED, but she saw her brother & sister doing Teaching Textbooks. After finishing the 1st Grade Horizons, I did the placement test for TT to show her she wasn't ready, and well, she proved me wrong and tested into the 3rd Grade Teaching Textbooks, so she's doing that this year. Horizons is a GREAT program, and if I could get her to do it, I would still do it. But she's loving TT.
I think after McRuffy 2 you could easily go into TT4 and I don't think it would be too far of a stretch to go into TT pre alg if you go through McRuffy 5 (which is as far as Brian plans to go). I'm not sure I woild do TT 3 after McRuffy 1 though butbyou probably could. My plan is to finish Mcruffy then test into TT. I still keep hoping Brain goes beyond 5th.
I've used a million things, it seems. Abeka and Horizons - didn't like the spiral approach, and the busy/colorful pages were way too distracting. They moved too quickly to a new topic before really teaching the topic they were on. Singapore - again, spiral. Not as busy-looking as Abeka and Horizons, though. Miquon - love it, but it's mastery and all about explorative learning, which doesn't fit for all kids. It may or may not work for you. Life of Fred - love it!! The only curriculum that my kids beg to do and actually learn something. My oldest takes a book and disappears into his room. He doesn't come back until he's stumped by a question, his hand hurts from writing, or he's done a gazillion lessons. :lol: Rod & Staff - I love it, but my kids hate it. It's old school, and it's drill and kill. IXL.com - I love it as a supplement, but not as a curriculum. It doesn't teach and then drill. It drills and then teaches. It's frustrating and confusing to a child sometimes, but other times, it's super fun.
My 5 yr old and 7 yr old do one lesson of Saxon. Then the 5 yr old does xtramath. My 7 yr old used to do xtramath too, but I got frustrated b/c it would only let him practice one operation at a time. I wanted him doing mixed practice with addition and subtraction. So I switched him to Quisition. Quisition didn't work either b/c it made him review even easy math problems every 24hrs. So then I switched him again to Anki. Anki is an offline flashcard program where you can mark the cards you got right as hard or easy. Easy cards don't come back for four days. Anki doesn't look as nice as xtramath or quisition; but for now, it is working. and btw....I can't say enough good about xtramath. It is free and looks beautiful. If you haven't tried, I highly recommend it. Like I said, I don't understand why they don't offer students the option of mixed practice. If they did that, I would be back on that in two milliseconds.
Another problem you might have is looking for your "child's favorite". Who cares what they think? Seriously, park him/her in front of whatever you chosen and tell them to hop to it. One whimper of complaint brings down the long arm of the law. In our house, if you do well on your drill, you get to skip the drill the next day. If you complain, you get a whack. and everyone has to do one Saxon lesson a day. Kidz future is too important and time is too precious to waste wondering what my kid is going to like or not. (by this time, you've probably figured out I am the husband)
We're using Ray's Arithmetic and a Harcourt state workbook for my oldest. We're using Ray's and Starfall for my youngest. My oldest is really good at mental math and word problems but not near as good on paper but he really likes worksheets, so this combo allows us to work on both. His mental math is great but he's a bit behind on worksheets, not quite on grade level with his written math work...so it's a delicate balance. I know he's going to have to improve on his written work to get through higher math later on... I'm thinking of actually getting MathUSee for him next year...
I love CLE math. Dd1 just started the grade 1 math. We are only doing about 2 lessons a week for now. It's not that she couldn't handle more (she'd love to do it everyday), its just that our days are full enough right now, and I also don't want her getting too far ahead yet.
