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Denise in IL
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| Posted: June 02 2009 at 8:57am | IP Logged
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Martha wrote:
ug. I just bought the entire Math Mamoth on CD a few weeks ago - it's horrible, imho.
the lay out is very confusing to vague and there's not nearly enough practice. there is a lot of material to print off, but a LOT of it is duplicate stuff. for example everything in the blue is EXACTLY what is in the light blue book.
maybe it is actually more meaty once one gets into it, but so far I'm not impressed at all.
I'm really disappointed in it because I had really high hopes after hearing nothing but praise for it.
Now it's just $ sitting on the shelf that I'd really like to have spent elsewhere.  |
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It's funny how different one family's experience can be from another's. I have been using Math Mammoth this year with my youngest daughter and find it very good, with excellent challenge problems to build depth of insight and plenty of practice on each topic.
It can be a confusing program to get started with, since there are so many different types of books in it. I am using the "whole curriculum" books 4A and 4B (the light blue series). There are other book series, some of which are just practice workbooks to supplement other math programs, and some are designed to study specific topics---I haven't tried those. Many of the worksheets are repeated in different series (the lady explains this on her website), so a family should just pick the series that fits their needs and go with that.
Anyone who is considering Math Mammoth should start by downloading the extensive sample pack. This is a freebie and offers worksheets from all the different books, to give you a good idea of whether the program will work for you:
Math Mammmoth free samples download
--Denise
"Math is a game, playing with ideas."
www.letsplaymath.wordpress.com
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Martha
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| Posted: June 02 2009 at 10:05am | IP Logged
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Denise in IL wrote:
I am using the "whole curriculum" books 4A and 4B (the light blue series). There are other book series, some of which are just practice workbooks to supplement other math programs, and some are designed to study specific topics---I haven't tried those. Many of the worksheets are repeated in different series (the lady explains this on her website) |
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as for some of the sheet being repeated or for practice, um not in my opinion. the ENTIRE blue book is the exact same thing as what is in the light blue book. I, personally, don't think it's extra practice if the problems and everything are identical - that's just learning how to memorize a problem. I also don't think it's "some" when it's 2 entire books. blue (and most of green I believe.)
MM is intended to be a mastery program (which is the#1 reason I purchased it) any mastery program stays on one topic until it is mastered. But the lay out on disk is not ordered at all. making it a bit of a pain to navigate. I actually like what I see on it as far as actual math goes, I just feel it is way over priced for what I got and very jumbled up.
I'm thrilled it's working for you. I might even reach a point some day where it works for me, if nothing else as a suppliment. And it seems to be just the right thing for my friend. 
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Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
Yes, they're all ours!
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Denise in IL
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| Posted: June 03 2009 at 10:04am | IP Logged
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Martha wrote:
| ...as for some of the sheet being repeated or for practice, um not in my opinion. the ENTIRE blue book is the exact same thing as what is in the light blue book. I, personally, don't think it's extra practice if the problems and everything are identical - that's just learning how to memorize a problem. I also don't think it's "some" when it's 2 entire books. blue (and most of green I believe.)... |
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The blue books are not meant to be supplements to the light blue series, but to be used as supplements if you are using *another* math program and want extra worksheets. Since I haven't seen the books, I didn't know how much was repetition.
From the Math Mammoth website: "These two series have a lot of the same material. There are a few minor differences, which will probably become even less as I write more material... The MAIN difference is in how the material is organized..."
It has a bit to do with the order in which she wrote the books, I think. The shorter (blue) books came first, and she is now working on finishing up the light blue series, which, as I understand it, are an expansion of the others to make a complete curriculum. So those who want topical practice (for instance, extra work on fractions) would get the smaller workbooks, which may include worksheets from a couple of different grade levels. But someone who is looking for, say, a full 3rd-grade math program would go for the light blue series.
But you wouldn't want to use both series on the same student. On different students, perhaps, like maybe if I wanted a complete program for my dd and supplemental worksheets for my ds. I can see it being convenient to buy the complete set if I wanted to do that, so I wouldn't have to go through all the grade-level books to find the fraction worksheets. They would all be pulled together for me into a convenient package.
The gold and green series are like this, too---one is organized by grade level, and the other is by topic. You wouldn't normally use both, unless you were using them for different students.
--Denise
"Math is a game, playing with ideas."
www.letsplaymath.wordpress.com
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TracyQ
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| Posted: June 24 2009 at 11:10am | IP Logged
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We use Life of Fred along with the Key To Math series. It's been very successful for my extremely right brained learner daughter. Algebra however for Life of Fred does have a home school companion book, so I'm not sure how we'll fit all three in, or if we will, I still have to figure that out. 
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Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
 homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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Martha
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| Posted: June 24 2009 at 12:56pm | IP Logged
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TracyQ wrote:
| We use Life of Fred along with the Key To Math series. It's been very successful for my extremely right brained learner daughter. Algebra however for Life of Fred does have a home school companion book, so I'm not sure how we'll fit all three in, or if we will, I still have to figure that out. |
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the homeschool companion is NOT and additional math text. It is simply a guide to how to use the book, it gives you an idea of how to assign work, go over concepts or give additional problems IF neccessary. The text is still intended to be majority self-learning by the student. The home companion is more of a teacher's aid. Very worth having as a reference if you aren't confident in math as a teacher "just in case".
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Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
Yes, they're all ours!
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4Real Forums : Living and Loving Numbers
Topic: Pre-Algebra curricula?
