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Determining progress in MUS
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For those using Math-U-See, how do you judge your student’s progress and decide when they should move to the next lesson or book? My 1st grader recently finished Alpha. I had him complete all the pages in the book as he worked through both Primer and Alpha because I wanted him to have a good foundational base with lots of practice. I didn’t use many of the tests for Alpha. He is able to complete all the single digit addition and subtraction problems and get the correct answers most of the time, but he has to think harder to solve some of them and does not have all the math facts memorized with quick recall. He doesn’t always like to use the blocks, but I encourage him to do so when he is struggling. So, I am trying to decide if I should work more on math facts and review with him before moving on to Beta. I am considering buying the SCM Living Math bundle and working with that for a while. Any input or suggestions will be greatly appreciated!
With my kids, I moved on to Beta even though they did not have their addition facts down cold. As long as they understood the concept of addition and could add well, we moved on. I figured they would memorize addition facts through constant use and that has pretty much been the case with both of them. We did take a break in the middle of Gamma to memorize the times tables. Times tables really do have to be memorized. We used games until my kids had them down and then we came back to Gamma and continued working through the curriculum.
I kept my kids on each lesson until they demonstrated understanding, sometimes printing out additional work sheets for them to do. You could always have your son play some addition games over the summer to help cement his skills.
I do keep moving into Beta because it is also addition and subtraction. Also, consider finding alternate ways to practice the facts that are ‘fun’. Meaning card games of some sort. For example, use a deck of cards for adding and subtracting, draw 2 cards and add, or draw 2 and subtract. You may want to make your own deck of cards instead. Dominoes (add both sides of the domino, subtract both sides), dice (get different numbers of sided dice) add and subtract. You get the idea!
I moved my children on as well-I felt that since they grasped concepts well, the quick recall would come with time as they were continually exposed-and it did.
I’ve had similar experiences with my boys in MUS. Moving on to Beta just added in more practice, as long as they were understanding the concept of adding/subtracting. 🙂
I had this exact issue last year! I went ahead and moved to Beta and now he has his math facts down. All the practice just seemed to wean him off using the blocks for simple math facts. He’s now starting to do mental math with 3 digits without me drilling him. If at any point I felt like he needed a refresher, we just played an add/subtract game with Uno cards.
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