Math curricula

I’ve mentioned this math program in this forum before and I hope it’s OK to do so again. It is quite honestly, one of the most stellar math programs I’ve seen. And it’s available online free! It’s a spiral approach program if that’s what you are interested in. Those of us that use it call it MEP and it can be found here: http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm

It’s not for the faint of heart though, it promotes an entirely new way of thinking about Math. Not only are my children excelling, but I finally understand Math myself. It is my kids favorite subject! It took me about a month to understand where they were going and now you couldn’t convince me to go back to traditional math (the way I was taught) for anything.

They have a wonderful yahoo group that can answer all your questions or concerns: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mep-homeschoolers/

This was a comment made yesterday on the yahoo group that really says it all “The different ways of tying math to everyday life in an intentional fashion with writing math problems for addition, subtraction, less than, more than and even noting how many less or more a number was from another. Weaving in the mental math and the word problems from the beginning instead of making those things be *their own discipline* and showing the relationship between these things.”

I included that only to show the value of considering the program. Sometimes the word “free” denotes inferiority, but this program is worth taking time to review. We are blessed because of it.

There are costs involved, but only in printing out your workbooks & lesson plans. I had mine done by Kinko’s (submitted the files online and I had the books in my mailbox the next day) and it was about $18 a book, printed, bound with vinyl covers!

Hopefully, someone will find it as beneficial as we have.

Tonni

Hi Tonni,

Thanks for the link for MEP. It looks really interesting. I was trying to look at the Year 7 program though, and I got a bit lost with what you actually use. Are the practice books all that the student use? Do you have to buy them separately? How does it work? Sorry about all the questions.

Linda

I have finishing K and 1st graders, so we don’t have testing until the end of 3rd in Ga. However, I have been pleased so far with Developmental Mathematics and Ray’s. DM is mastery which is why I veered towards it. Financially I needed something I could use w/both. DM workbooks are inexpensive and doesn’t require you to purchse mas amounts of extras.

With my dd, we can do every problem (about half orally) b/c she needs the repetition and my son I skip about half the problems! It’s very incremental and thorough; though no measurement and weight problems. Also, it begins the concept of word problem thinking from the get go. It also lends itself well to manipulatives if you want-we just use an abacus. I read alot about it before choosing due to the fact that I needed something slow and promotes independance in math. Math’s not my strong suit. I would definitely suggest researching into how, by whom and why it was developed.

I picked Ray’s for a few reasons; to fill in where DM is weak & to stress more oral work to balance the writing of DM, and economically you can’t beat it. I bought the first one used for $5.00 and they both use it (new is $7), and it is used for 3 yrs. (if my memory serves). In additon, Ray’s continue’s to strenthen mental math as well and you can go as fast or slow as you please. Also, it has quite the record of success in our country’s past, without a doubt! One of the first ways those strong basics shine through are in teaching how to actually SPELL the numbers. To be honest I would have never considered teaching that! But it is important, because they’re written all over our society. If you look back over the past in our country at what children used to be able to accomplish (and w/o a calculator!).

I alternate my days using them. Mon. and Wed. is DM and Tues. and Thurs. is Ray’s. They’re very compatible w/each other.

Hope this helps,

Rachel