Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: math, Math U See, MUS, Singapore

This topic has 14 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 3 months ago by Carmen.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 15 total)

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January 11, 2013 at 2:47 am
Carmen
Participant
Hi moms, I am thinking to switch from Singapore Math to Math U See, but make my final decision yet. Be honest, I didn’t do quite good with my 2nd grader with Singapore Math, right now, he is still doing addition and start subtraction, but his Math foundation is not good.
I have heard that Math U See has DVD to explain the methods to moms first, is it helpful? Should I teach him all over again from addition skills or choose 2nd grade level to him? Advice please!
January 11, 2013 at 3:08 am
cedargirl
Participant
MUS is not grade level based but skill level based. so you could start in where you need to by using their assessments and just keep moving forward. They are set up to build on skills. I have heard many moms say that if you do go with MUS to stick with it because of this skill mastery method. we did not stick with it and I made a bit of a mess of things doing the math curriculum flip-flop-hokey-pokey. we are straightening all that out now using the Mathmatics book SCM put out this school year. Richele’s work and guidance on CM math is SO helpful. If I was on a desert island and could only use Singapore or MUS…I would definitely choose MUS. Don’t know if that was helpful at all, but there it is 😉
January 11, 2013 at 3:48 am
Tristan
Participant
We use MUS and it’s great. My oldest tried Saxon for 3 years and when we switched to MUS in 3rd grade we went all the way to the beginning and put her in Alpha. It was a good decision for her and gave her a strong foundation. (She is in 6th grade now and has almost finished 5 “years” of MUS, we do math during the summers too).
My younger children have only used MUS and it is working well for them, even with different learning styles and math aptitudes. For my younger children I watch the dvd and then go teach them the lesson. For my 6th grader we watch the dvd together, then go work some problems together. My sister uses MUS for her children and her oldest son (5th grade) watches the DVDs on his own and does his math. Math is something that makes sense for him, so this works well. It would not work for my oldest. She needs me to work through some problems with her.
Love it! I suggest you check local homeschool groups to see if anyone has the teachers manuals and dvds used to buy. That is how I have gotten all my teacher’s manuals and dvds for MUS, then I only have to buy each child’s workbook new. Saves on money a bit.
January 11, 2013 at 12:03 pm
jeaninpa
Participant
A different perspective here. MUS was not a huge success for us. We are only using it right now for the pre-algebra level and the younger kids have switched to CLE. I think that MUS would have worked well for my oldest children who were more math-inclined and did better at working independently. For the younger children, the mastery approach doesn’t seem like a good fit. If they didn’t see a type of problem for awhile, they would forget how to do it and we’d have to relearn it. Ummm, wait, I thought we had “mastered” this!
CLE is more of a traditional program and is less time consuming for me to teach multiple levels (currently five). I like that all the explanations are right there in the student book, so they can read it for themselves, then if they understand it they can just keep going instead of having to wait for me to explain. Until the sixth level, there are built-in review drills every day and I don’t even have to think about it because it’s right there in their book. For example, it will say, “Count by 2’s from 20 to 100” or “Do speed drill #4”. Also, my kids like it that the curriculum comes in 10 smaller books and they have a great sense of accomplishment when they finish a book.
Ok, I know you were only asking about MUS and I’ve given you an advertisement for CLE. MUS is a strong program and many people like it. It just didn’t work that well for us.
January 11, 2013 at 1:46 pm
Carmen
Participant
Thank you all your input. Does DVD come with the manual?
January 11, 2013 at 1:50 pm
Bookworm
Participant
I have used MUS for fourteen years with great success. My sons have all responded very well to it. More importantly, *I* understood it. Yes, the DVD comes in a packet with the teacher’s manual. You can buy the student books separately. This can be useful if you buy the teachers set used–I often did that. Then you only have to buy the student books new. MUS is one of the little handful of purchases I’ve never regretted, and it’s the one curriculum I’ve never changed.
January 11, 2013 at 1:51 pm
houseofchaos
Participant
The DVD comes with the teacher’s manual. We also use MathUSee and have great success with it.
January 11, 2013 at 5:01 pm
Carmen
Participant
My 8 yro ds and 6 yro ds do not have good foundation event tough they are doing addition and subtraction. Do you think I should start the very basic level of MUS?
January 11, 2013 at 5:20 pm
Tristan
Participant
Yes! Start in Alpha. It will be worth it to get a good foundation.
January 11, 2013 at 5:21 pm
Rachel White
Participant
I started my dd on it this year. It’s the only way she has figured out place value and all that comes after that. She had been stuck for over a year on adding and subtracting more than one digit because she got the place value concept confused. Finally MUS got her over that hill.
I am also switching my son to it come Epsilon so he has someone teaching him in the high school math and they are also using teh same things, which is helpful.
I’ve been pleased with her pregress. She struggles with sequential and repeatedly ordered thinking so MUS has been able to work with that way in that her brain does’t order things easily.
I buy the DVD’s and TM used from either welltrainedmind for sale forum or homeschool classifieds and purchase the test bk and workbook new. I was alos abel to get all of the blocks used.
January 11, 2013 at 5:59 pm
HollyS
Participant
We switched from Singapore to MUS this year and I haven’t had a single regret! We watch the DVD together and they do the worbook pages on their own. It’s very easy to move quickly through the books because you assign as few (or as many) of the workbook pages as they need. Some lessons only take a couple days, others have taken us a full week. I love not having to teach and they are motivated to do well (so they have fewer workbook pages). I have one child who struggles with math, and one who picks it up easily. Both are doing really well with it.
January 11, 2013 at 6:45 pm
momto2blessings
Participant
Love MUS. Pretty much the only program we’ve never changed! Kids watch the dvd w/me, I help w/a few of the problems in first lesson, then they pretty much complete the rest of the week on their own. Mr. Demme is a good teacher…interesting and simplifies things:)
January 11, 2013 at 7:43 pm
melindab72
Member
We’ve only been using MUS for 6 months but we really like it. My 10 yr old seems to really be getting the concepts and my 8 yr old doesn’t, but counts on her fingers still. That’s okay, I’m hoping that over time things will click. The DVD is good but I wish the lessons were a bit longer. We are only in Alpha and the lessons are something like 3 minutes long.
January 11, 2013 at 8:23 pm
Bookworm
Participant
The DVD isn’t really lessons for the children, but for you. You should be using the principles and examples in the teacher manual and DVD to teach the lesson to your children, and it can take as many or as few days as necessary and as many or as few minutes per day as necessary. If the DVD lesson does not last long enough or give sufficient instruction for a child, then Mom demonstrates and guides work through examples until the child is ready to do work on paper–for as long as it takes.
And when you get to high school math levels, trust me, the DVD’s last PLENTY long.
January 11, 2013 at 10:17 pm
Carmen
Participant
After reading all your suggestions, I think it is worth to try mus. We are in the middle if term 2, should I let them finish Singapore math workbook first or drop it right now and order mus?