Hi Michelle,
I am using Jump Math with my 9 year old daughter, who is about half way through the grade 4 program. She has always found math relatively easy, but until we started using Jump Math she complained when it was time to do math and said it was her least favorite subject. (Well actually “I hate math!” is how she descripbed the subject.)
Now she enjoys math much more, and even says, “I like math!”. Jump Math breaks everything down into many steps. For example when learning vertical subraction with regrouping you might spend a day or two simply identifying which problems will require regrouping, without actually doing the subracting. Once that is mastered, then they will move onto doing the actual subtraction.
Jump Math originated in Canada and as far as I know there aren’t “US equivalent” workbooks (but I could be mistaken). This means that the metric system will be the focus, and the money will be in Canadian currency.
It is a mastery based program, rather than spiral, however the main concepts are cycled through twice in each year. There are two streams – one is called Jump Math at Home, which seems to be more of an extra resource for children who go to school, but that could use extra practice at home. The main curriculum has two books for each greade (for example in grade 4 they are Jump Math 4.1, and Jump Math 4.2).
If you sign up on their website (which is free), you can access the teacher’s manual for free, as well as the answer keys, and tests for each section in the student book. I rarely need to use the teacher’s manual, however they have a lot of great idea that may help if your child is struggling. In fact they would be useful even if you are using another curriculum.
There is a free introductory unit on their website that covers fractions, which my daughter used before I bought the workbooks. You can find it at http://jumpmath1.org/introductory_unit (I’m not sure if you need to be logged in to access it.) My daughter found this introductory unit to be more challenging than the curriculum iself, so don’t be discouraged if it is too difficult for your son.
Like any curriculum it isn’t perfect but it has helped with my daughter’s confidence, which has in turn helped her to enjoy math more.
Hope this helps!
Sue