Math Mammoth Pdf Download
Irena Sheehy
It is fairly important that you have your student(s) take a placement test or several prior to introducing the student to Math Mammoth. Many popular math curricula are easier than Math Mammoth and thus there is a danger the child is placed too high, if you simply follow the "grade level" from the child's previous math curriculum.
We have developed a type of "lesson plans" for the online planner Homeschool Planet. These lesson plans pace the Math Mammoth curriculum, assigning certain pages to be done on each day, along with instructional videos and Internet resources (games, quizzes, animations) that match the lessons. The planner Homeschool Planet allows you some flexibility. For example, you choose how many days a week math is studied or on which date to start the lesson plan. You can also "push forward" all the remaining days in the plan if you miss a day.
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We started the year with my 1st grader with RS. I like a lot of the concepts for RightStart but it jumps around too much for me and made some leaps that dd was not ready for. We switched to MM and I have been very pleased. It teaches a traditional scope and sequence but includes the conceptual and mental math that I want taught. I looked ahead to 2nd grade because I thought some mental math was missing and saw that they teach it starting in 2nd. First grade is more basics with a little cool thinking thrown in. I also like the use of word problems. MM does include game suggestions to use throughout. We use the rods from Miquon math and the RightStart abacus alongside MM.
That kiddo now uses a combo of TT and MM blue series. My younger two are using MM light blue. I really like it. I sit at the table with the younger two and they work on their math at the same time with some guidance and help from me. There is no way I could have two levels of RS going at the same time. I use manipulatives to demonstrate new concepts if they need them and we sometimes play the games that are mentioned throughout the program, but they would really just prefer to get it done like their older brother. We do use and enjoy the RS abacus with our MM.
My middle son has been through MM 1A, 1B, most of 2A, and parts of 2B. I can see him adding and subtracting numbers in his head in a way that his older brother still cannot. I wish I had taught my oldest to add and subtract this way, but I didn't know about MM when he was that age. It teaches mental math, but in a way that is not so abstract that my dc cannot see where it is going or what is expected of them. Plus, the price cannot be beat. I purchased the whole package in the fall from the co-op for less than one level of RS would cost and am done for the younger two until after 6h grade, plus have the blue series to supplement for my oldest.
I've never seriously considered RS because I need math to get done every day. I don't see how I could spend that much time on math for each kid and still be able to do other subjects. We have the RS math games (you can buy a set of just the games) and use Math Mammoth. If I had one or two kids, I could do more teacher-intensive programs. I have five, so I need to choose more carefully. :)
I guess I would be asking myself, do I want a manipulative based curriculum or a pencil and paper based one to which I add the manipulative activities as needed? That would partly depend on my knowledge of my own children and them not changing after I buy the curriculum ... these are shifty factors for me at this age ... so I would then fall back to what I can see myself actually doing and although I haven't chosen RS over MM, we stopped doing MM because although I was thinking this is so flexible and I can add what is needed - the reality of day to day life ended up with that not happening and DS just filling in the pages. So, at this level, MM just hasn't worked for me personally, in our home and our circumstances, to get math done with the pleasure and understanding I want for my children to have and we moved on to something else.
If you have any LD students you will mostly likely find that RS doesn't have enough practice. I and my kids are dyslexic and dyscalculic and RS alone would not provide enough practice to make things automatic. Generally my kids score very high on the conceptual side of math (theory, why it works), and lower on the computation side (doing math) because they don't recall their math facts right. It isn't that they don't know their math facts. It is a processing problem where the brain mixes things up. Anyway that is largely why I do both Singapore and RS now. I hear through that RS and MM are closer in sequence, so if I were starting over I might go with those two.
I have used both. I think RS A and B present an unbeatable introduction to math and numbers for kids. My kids really understand how numbers work, place value, and addition and subtraction (both mentally and on paper) because of what they learned in RS. The hands-on math is, imo, really good for younger kids who may be held back in traditional math programs if their handwriting is not good.
It wasn't hard for my kids to make the switch, but I will say it's a totally different way of having math class. Instead of sitting on the floor with all the RS manipulatives, the kids sit at the table with a workbook and pencil. (I LOVE that they can do their math at the same time, and I am there to explain and answer questions, instead of me scheduling separate time blocks to teach RS at two different levels to two different kids. Makes our day much shorter!!) I teach differently, too. It was far more of an adjustment for me, but we are all happy with the way things are going. I think that the kids get more math done in 20-30 minutes of MM work than in 45-60 minutes of RS.
In your case I might sit down and ask myself what kids really need Singapore, because they struggle with math, are extremely hands on or are just young. Then ask who would do fine with the worksheets in MM. You can work out a schedule for them to play the games either way. As in even the kids doing MM can play the RS games. Right now my schedule is:
BTW my 7th grader is doing Geometry, my 5th grader just started E last week. My 4th grader will start D this coming week and my 2nd grade ds will start C by summer. He is right at the end of the book, but the four plus digit math intimidates him, so I am allowing him to do one problem a day, which means it is going to take a while to finish. None of my kids are near the B=1st grade, C=2nd grade, D=3rd grade, E=4th grade and Geometry=5th grade. That said the lowest test score I have gotten is my 3rd dd, who struggles a lot with accurate computation (not theory) and is the farthest behind, but she still got a NP of 75%. Being behind isn't the end of the world if they are really getting the why of math.
We use SWR also! We switched from RSB to MM1A midyear. MM does not cover the visualization of the numbers like RS. But I have been very pleased with the mental math of MM. Level 1 does not contain as much as level 2 but I can see how she is introducing mental math concepts all along the way. Dd7 is currently in MM1B and just completed a lesson completing the 10. Have you looked at the sample MM sheets and table of contents? If I had more than one child to teach I would definitely use MM and add in RS techniques that I saw missing but still felt were essential.
Last summer, my son started doing DreamBox Learning online for math. He'd enjoyed Headsprout, so I thought an educational "babysitter" would be good to have. Many of the games, especially in the kindergarten and first grade levels, use an abacus that looks like the RightStart abacus.
I'm not very far into RS, but my understanding is that as far as methods go, the only things RS teaches that MM doesn't is the seeing numbers without counting them (which I don't know how useful that *really* is... I guess many of us do it naturally and don't have to be taught? I don't know if my oldest does it or not, but he has no trouble with math, so I haven't worried about it) and making 5s AND 10s... MM just makes 10s for addition/subtraction across a 10.
I totally love this math curriculum! The only problem I have is that it only goes through 7th grade!! I hope that one day there will be higher levels available! But if you are looking for middle/high levels, you can read her suggestions and recommendations. I have a son in high school, so I was very excited to read her reviews of high school Algebra and Geometry!
I've chosen Math Mammoth so I had him take their end of year for 3rd grade (as he is in 4th and I will be ordering 4th). He made a 65!!!! They recommend a student make between 70-80 % before moving onto the next level (using one's own judgment for careless errors and/or temporarily forgot vs lack of understanding). The thing is, he makes all A's at school and never really has any problems in math.
The way the word problems were done was also different than what he is used to. He kept saying they sounded weird. I pulled out some of his current math work from school to compare them. What I noticed, was that the MM used more multi-step problems than his current work. He's used to word problems where he simply pulls the pertinent information out of it, and creates a simple equation with it. Only occasionally does anything require 2 steps. Almost all of MM's did. Also, MM had more emphasis on order of operations. From what I could tell, he's never done that at all.
I actually was able to order Math Mammoth, all levels, through Homeschool Buyer's co op, for not terribly much at all. That way I have access to everything and if there is an area that needs additional work, I can go back a few lessons, or a lot of lessons, and solidify those concepts. I had kids in a brick and mortar school and now that we homeschool I have finally learned to detox my brain from the public school mentality that grade level actually has much meaning. It doesn't. What matters is learning and MASTERING the material. If there is material that hasn't even been covered, go back and cover it, thoroughly, even if you go back to material that MM labels as kinder or 1st or 2nd. Your child will function far better in upper level math if he has a really solid foundation in basic math.
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