Anyone used Jump Math?

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  • Mum In Zion
    Participant

    My ds10 and I are struggling with Math.  Nearly everyday he is in tears.  We are using Math Mammoth Grade 3, doing some review of vertical subtraction with regrouping at the moment, and it is like he has never seen it before.  He says he just doesn’t understand what I am saying and the more I try to explain the more confused he seems to get.  He is an anxious child by nature and is also very easily distracted.  

    A friend of my suggested ds may have dyscalculia and need more help learning/retaining basic math concepts and facts.  We do math wraps for math drill and use a math drill app on the iPad for variety.  But we never seem to progress.

    Anyway, I came across Jump Math   http://jumpmath1.org/   and wondered if anyone here has used it.  The reviews make it sound like it would be good for an anxious, teary, reluctant Math student who is stuggling with the basics.

    Any thoughts, or suggestions on something else that might help would also be most welcome.  We are going to take a short break from Math to give us both a rest from the daily struggle of it all.  Hopefully I can find a new approach to our math that won’t result in tears every day.

    TIA, Michelle

     

    suzisue
    Participant

    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

    Mum In Zion
    Participant

    Thank you Sue for your response.  I actually contacted the Jump Math people and received very prompt and useful help.  They recommended I start with the Introductory Unit and then move onto Jump at Home to ease into the curriculum.  If it works for us then they recommend using the full curriculum that you described.

    I signed up on the website and have read through several teacher’s manuals and I think the method used by Jump Math may really help my ds.  It is a very affordable curriculum, so if it doesn’t work for him, I won’t have spent a lot to find out.  But if it can help to regain some confidence and enjoyment in math again, it will be worth it.

    We are Australians living in Israel, so the metric system will work well for us.  I will need to subsitute the money sections no matter what Math curriculum we use because they don’t use shekels 🙂

    Blessings, Michelle

     

    greenebalts
    Participant

    I just read a review regarding Jump Math and CM here….

     

    http://wholeheartedhomeeducators-canada.blogspot.com/2010/01/many-of-us-have-looked-high-and-low-to.html

     

    I wanted to bump this thread to see if anyone has updated experience or stories to share regarding this program.

     

    Thanks,

    Melissa

    DebM
    Member

    We are using Jump Math for 5th grade this year.  It has become my son’s favorite subject.  We use the US edition; currently they only have 4, 5, & 6 grade US editions, but it looks like some time this summer 7 and 8 grade will be available.  Each year has two workbooks (i.e. 5.1 & 5.2) and like a previous poster said the teachers manuals are free online.  I really like how they break down each concept into many steps and go from previous knowledge without expecting the student to make any intuitive leaps.  My son has gained so much confidence in his math this year.  He is even able to teach himself some of the new concepts by simply following along with the examples in the workbook.  We will definitely be continuing on with Jump Math for 6th grade.

    psreitmom
    Participant

    Melissa, Thanks for this information. It is very encouraging. After trying several different things over the past few years, I started using Jump Math with my almost 11 yo daughter a couple of months ago. She has dyscalculia and is way behind what is considered grade level. I do like the Jump Math approach, but I have been using it alongside MCP Math. I am now thinking I should use just the Jump Math. I am anxious to see what results this will bring. Math has been a major concern.

     

    HSMAMA
    Participant

    We used this for two years and it wasn’t a fit for us. (Mainly for me. I didn’t like the TG & answers being online). We do still have the workbooks, as they are inexpensive and we will pull sections here and there and do them. There are tons of Jump Math seminars that run and they are very helpful. It is possible to use the workbooks without the TG, but the meat of the program is in the TG materials. Jump Math advises that the TG activities are far more important to success than the workbooks.

    My other main issue with the program was that the TG activies are strongly designed around classroom use, so A LOT of the activities will require multiple students and we often ran into problems trying to make the examples work.

    Jump Math is also light on memorizing the facts, so you will want to supplement with something for that.

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