Math Advice – Ray's Arithmetic & SCM Mathematics

We have the Mathematics Book & DVD.  Richele, the author of the book, uses the first Ray’s book, then switches to Strayer-Upton’s Practial Arithmetic after that.  The Strayer Upton series goes into high school.  I’m not totally through the DVD & book, but it has great advice for teaching math in a CM way.   I’ve been using the methods with my 6yo this year along with Ray’s and she’s doing well, while still enjoying math.

We have been using MUS for several years, and I plan to stick with it, but the Mathematics materials have given me lots of ideas of how to teach math in a more CM-friendly way.  We’ll be incorporating the Rays & Strayer-Upton books for some mental math problems as shown in the DVDs.  I don’t see us switching completely from MUS, since I rely heavily on the DVDs to save on my teaching time.  However, I plan to fill in with and incorporate the SCM Mathematic’s ideas as much as I can.  I’ve applied what I watched in the DVDs to my DC’s MUS lessons, which has made a huge difference.  I even have done many of my 9yo’s MUS problems orally, which she enjoys more than filling out the worksheets!

Pros: math is covered in a conversational and practical way, uses household objects for manipulatives, they will be more prepared for math in their daily lives, no worksheets or workbook pages to destroy their love of math, you go at their pace

Cons:  There isn’t a daily math plan written out, so you must do more planning (although the math texts help a bit), more time consuming than workbooks since you work one-on-one with your DC

Overall, I highly recommend the math set!  The DVD is very helpful and well done.  Being math phobic, I wouldn’t have made it through the book without the visual help from the DVD.

Holly, thanks from me as well!

R