disneymom3 said:
Nuzmom--can you tell me more about math u see. Kind of a "this is what we do each day/this is how our lesson goes" type of thing? I am debating between that and Moving with Math.
Sure. I used Math-u-see for 2nd and 3rd grade with my DS9 and am now using it for my DS4. For DS9, I had the "old" Math-u-see (foundations). Best I can tell, it covered grades 1 through 3. Even though my DS had done very well in ps 1st grade, I started at the beginning of the book so he didn't miss anything. I was very glad I did because it's a very
visual way of learning math. The big thing I noticed is that it teaches to
NOT use your fingers to add and subtract. It teaches a more "adult" way of thinking - you learn certain fact's (doubles, 10's) and then everything else is related back to what you already know. For instance, we know that 8 wants 2 to become 10 (
first introduced as 8 having 2 vacuum cleaning nozzles that sucks 2 over), so 8 sucks 2 over and becomes 10 and there's still 2 units left, so that's 1 ten and 2 units, that's 12. You use blocks to help SEE this happen.
I'm off track - With DS9 (2nd and 3rd grade), We would watch the teaching DVD together (only 2 to 5 minutes long and it covered 4 workbook pages). The he'd get his workbook while I glanced at the teachers manual. We'd get out his blocks and I'd make sure he understood what the video had introduced (there's a fair number of creative ideas in the teaching book for each lesson). I'd watch him do his workbook page. One workbook page usually took no more than 5 or 10 minutes. I'd have him do from 2 to 4 pages at a time.
At the beginning, they are taught how to "build" each problem with the blocks and then answer the problem. Only after completely understanding math with using the blocks did I let him start not using them. Oh, a great thing with Math-U-See is the skip counting CD. Kids learn to skip count by learning skip counting songs. We'd play the CD in the car - it was amazing how fast he learned to skip count. This laid a GREAT foundation for multiplication!!! Anyway, because of MUS, my DS can skip count by 4's, 9's, 7's, etc. It's great. Anyway, there's skip counting practice on the bottom of the workbook pages, so he'd fill in the missing numbers there. IMHO, MUS really forces kids to completely learn addition and multiplication and basically really understand that numbers represent something. They're not just funny looking letters, they
represent quantities.
With DS4, I am using the Primer edition of math-u-see. My DS and I watch the DVD together (every 6 workbook pages, so about once per week) and then do the workbook. He has learned what 3 digits numbers mean and can say them properly (632 means there are 6 living in the hundreds castle, 3 living in the tens, and 2 in the units - ie, 6 hundreds, 3 tens, 2 units - pronounced 6 hundred 3 "t" 2). He has learned that adding means to "smush" blocks together and see what they match (equal). Because he's gone through that process to
understand what's going on, he can now do all the +1's, 2+2, 3+3, 4+4, and 5+5 without blocks. He can count to 100 quite easily and I believe he could go to 999, but I'm usually wiped out listening to it by then
. He can look at blocks that represent 3 digit numbers and tell me how many there are. He writes numbers sequentially up to 20. Remember, the numbers between 10 and 20 are a challenge because they aren't named in a way that makes sense. If 41 is four T one, and 61 is six T one, then why is 11 pronounced eleven and not one T one? When my DS4 has school (about 3 times a week), he usually does 2 pages. I really try to make him stop before he wants to, to keep his interest up. My DS has learned all of this with MUS and he's only just over 1/2 way through the primer edition.
A final comment, after DS9 completed MUS foundations (middle of 3rd grade), I switched to Saxon Math 54. I wanted more challenging word problems and a more textbook approach. It was difficult to switch from "workbook" to "textbook" and my DS struggled with having to rewrite so many problems. But, he's doing great and I attribute it to him having such a solid foundation from MUS. Truely, multiplication and division has been a breeze for him!!!!
I know I put a lot of information in this post. Hope it helps anyone who is interested.
disneymom3 - if you have questions about any specific area, let me know.
in common!!!
I totally agree with "when do they get time to play?". IMHO, you son seems like a totaly normal kindergartener to me. Really.
