Math Mammoth Questions

[Teresa in MO]

I just learned about this curriculum in another thread this morning. It looks interesting. I am considering changing math curriculum from A Beka for my 4th grader next year. Was considering going with Horizons w/Singapore. Can anyone compare these programs. Is there enough review in Math Mammoth? Do you supplement it with anything other program? I would probably be interested in the lightblue series. Any information would be appreciated?

[Teresa in MO]

anyone use this?

[cillakat]

Do you supplement it with anything other program? I would probably be interested in the lightblue series. Any information would be appreciated?


Tons of review in Math Mammoth. It would also go well with Singapore instead of Horizons. I also *almost* like it as a stand alone program. It has all of the wonderful in depth ways of using and thinking about numbers that Singapore has but falls short in one department: word problems. IMO, no one can beat Singapore with it's early introduction of the use of a variety of approaches to address word problems.

K

[Mrs. Frankweiler]

Hi,

I've been using Math Mammoth this year. This is our first year homeschooling so I have nothing else to compare it to. I heard nothing but wonderful things about it before we decided to go with this program, but I don't know if we're going to use it next year. I have a first grader and a third grader using it. Pretty much all of first grade (so far) has been learning the addition and subraction facts. Third grade started off with a review of addition and subtraction of double digit numbers, then off to multiplication tables. We've also done time and he's starting the unit on money after Christmas.

Good points first....its a very solid curriculum and the kids have learned a lot along the way. It's all work...there aren't any superfluous pictures or exciting fonts wasting valuable page space. What you see on the website is what you get.

The author does not use any manipulatives, which, depending on your situation, might be a good or bad thing. This is pretty easy to solve...just use dry beans or buttons to show your point. She does use pictures to make the lesson more concrete...but they're pretty basic pictures. Such as, three circles and four circles makes how many circles? Again, the website has good examples of this.

The author is very good at drilling the concept about why certain things are true. The example above with the circles is used over and over again for all the addition math facts. She wants the child to see why an answer is correct, not just that it is correct.

She also uses word problems to apply the lesson being taught to real world situations. I really like the word problems, and they're very relatable to the kids.

In my opinion, I don't think there is enough review included in the lessons. This is a mastery based program, so the lack of review doesn't surprise me, but I am surprised at how much it bothers me so much that it's missing. Does that make sense? I guess I didn't think it would be a such big deal. The author uses the same pattern to teach each new addition/subtraction/multiplication fact, but even though the pattern is the same, it's a whole page of new things every day. (there is some review naturally built in with the math facts...for example, you'll learn 2 + 3 =5 on one day, then the next 3 + 2 = 5...and she's show you how the two are related.) The author does provide lots of math website suggestions where the kids can review the the facts they've learned. OUR problem with this is that by the time the kids finish their math assignments, the last thing they want to do is more math, even if it is a "fun" game. Also, since the computer is not in the same room where we homeschool, the kids and I lose our momentum if we have to switch gears and get on the computer, look for the website, etc.... This probably sounds like a non-problem for most families, but it is an issue for us. We would be better off having a review section with each lesson. So it sounds like a spiraling approach would work better for us, and that's what I'm looking into for next year.

There are also LOTS of problems on each page. Think "lots of drill" and that's what you get.

Finally, I had read that the kids would be able to do a lot of their math independantly--that the instructions are pretty self-teaching. That has not turned out to be the case with us. I heard it was self teaching from lots of different reviewers, so this may just be my particular situation.

I hope I don't turn you away from it, as I did hear only great things about it. I think maybe our family might be the exception. And, since this is our first year, I might be getting "the grass is greener" syndrome. On the website you can order just one unit for pretty cheap (I think it's a downloadable version for about $4.) Maybe you could try it out like this before you splurge on the whole program. If you do end up using this curriculum, I highly suggest getting the printed version with the CD that WP sells instead of just the CD. Otherwise, you'll have to print out the whole book and it will probably cost you more in the long run on toner and paper. Last thing...you don't get an actual book when you order the printed version. You get something similar to the a stack of math pagers that are 3 hole punched and you have to put all the pages into a binder. They're only printed on one side, so it looks like a lot more pages than your average math program.

Sorry this is so long....I just wanted to be thorough because there isn't a lot of information about this program on line. I hope this helps!

-Mrs. F

[jg_puppy]

I have used some of the individual units when my dd got stuck on a certain topics. They worked well for what we used them for.

There are two reasons I have not been tempted to use the graded program. One is that there are a lot of problems on a page. It would overwhelm my dd. Now that she is older it would probably not bother her as much. The other was that I didn't see that there was much review. I did just get a newsletter this week that said that cummulative review has been added to all of the graded programs. I would say that puts Math Mammoth on the possiblities for next year for us.

Jan

[Omma]

We have been using Horizons, but just downloaded the light blue series for 3A and 3B, along with 2B for my dd. My 3rd grader is almost done with book 1 of Horizons 3, but he has been struggling with his multiplication facts, so I've been looking around. Well, he is very excited about switching to Mammoth Math now, even though he told me he only wanted Horizons before. He does not like Singapore (we used Singapore alongside Horizons at first).

Mammoth Math looks so much more thorough in explaining the how's and why's of math. Also, they seem better at mixing up the math problems in a way that really test the true math knowledge of the student and also help the student in real life application of math principles. I really like what I see of it.

However, it is such a change from Horizons in approach (from spiral method to more of a mastery method). I think I will spend a few months in Mammoth Math and then go back and do some more Horizons, which should incorporate some of the added review that I am looking for. I must add that I haven't even downloaded everything yet, so I still have to check out the 'cumulative review' section.

I just wanted to share that both of my dc seem thrilled with Mammoth Math so far, even though the math book looks so huge compared to what they had before!

Brenda

ds almost 9

dd just turned 7

I'll be interested to keep reading what others have to say. Perhaps Mammoth Math is so new that not that many people have used it so far.

Brenda

[mom2moon2]

Did you see my post in other thread ? I wrote about it yesterday or so ..

I'm a math mammoth user (light blue). We use it to get my dc to understand concept more thoroughly. So, I usually start with manipulative (counters, abacus), then move to pictorial and abstract stage with math mammoth.

The pictorial and abstract stage has a lot of drill. So your dc will not only understand the fact, but also the concepts.

Don't do all of those if your dc understands things quickly. Maria intentionally puts a lot of drills because she knows many moms complain that S-pore math (which has similar approach to her math book) does not have enough drills. So she wants her math books to have sufficient number of drills.

It's a semi mastery-based program like S-pore, but I had an email from Maria the other day that she has made cumulative review ebooks to go with the light blue series program. So you can use these review books for review ... it's free too.

Alternatively, you can make your own review everyday. I make 5 review problems a day in his notebook and this has worked wonders. I also make sure that my ds has oral reviews daily for his math facts and counting (skip counting, counting up and down, days of the week, months of the year .. you name it )

Since it's a mastery based program, sometimes it moves to the advance part of a topic pretty quickly, i.e. within the same chapter. E.g. for the clock lesson, it starts out with telling time but at the end of the chapter, it goes to the time elapse, like: an hour later, half an hour later, etc.

We marked that section, and skipped that off because my ds was not ready to do the elapsed time. In the mean time, we work on other chapter.

I don't use MM in sequence, I try to fit MM around my boy. If he's not ready for a certain concept, even if it's in the next chapter, I won't do it. Instead, I move to other chapter which I k`now he will be able to do.

That's why I like a mastery-based program ... it's easy to fit into my child's maturation level. With a spiral program, you'd have to do everything in sequence.

You can read my MM review (the long version, under user name mom2alma) at www.homeschoolreviews.com (http://www.homeschoolreviews.com)