Math U See Question

I’ve had to transition into MUS at a later grade/age, too. 

My dd (6th gr) is doing 4th gr work and struggling w/ some concepts so I decided to give it a try.  Of course, she’s mastered her facts for all the basic functions so she doesn’t transition smoothly.  She needs the end of Gamma and Delta.  We did go through Alpha for a few of the concepts she needed, but didn’t really do it. 

My youngest son (4th gr) will be transitioning in another week or so.  He’s finishing up w/ his addition/subtration facts (gr 2 book).  I decided to stick it out w/ what we’re using regardless on the attitude because he IS learning w/ it, just heart issues to work on.  Then, he can start right in w/ Gamma from the beginning.

I had my dd test through the program.  IOW, I had her watch what she wanted or what I knew she would need to see, and then she took the test.  This was easy for her at that point because she does know her facts well and it’s just getting used to how MUS addresses it.  But, there were also concepts in there that she didn’t quite grasp and needed to see it – place value being one.  

I also did this w/ my oldest son.  He had taken Alg at the HS and done very well – only to fail the PreAlgebra placement test for MUS.  So, we tested through Pre and 1.  (STill working on that one, too.)  

Each dc will need to do different things.  I’m wondering if you could work on those add/sub facts and at least start w/ Beta.  Another plus, MUS is easily resold.  You could probably find it used fairly easily, too.  This would save some.

K

You can join the MUS Yahoo Group: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MUSSwap/info. Items are posted all the time ‘for sale’ and ‘wanted to buy.’

Also, you don’t have to do the whole book. We’ve used MUS from Primer-Algebra and it’s not always necessary to do all the lesson pages. If I were trying to go through quickly and just cover problem areas w/an older student, I would watch the video and take the test in one day. If the child can get at least 95% on the test, I would move on to the next lesson. If they struggle w/certain problems, I’d go back and cover some of those in the lesson pages. And I’d work daily on facts. Just what I’d do:) Blessings, Gina

Hi Super,

If it were me I’d work on math facts without buying Alpha or Beta IF he understand the concepts and just doesn’t have the math facts learned.  I just started reading a book called Number Sense Routine: Building Numberical Literacy Every Day in Grades K-3 bc my youngest (almost 8) has a very fragile sense of numbers.  The book is Fantastic.  It breaks down what ‘number sense’ means and give activities to shore up a child’s sense of numbers.  The book is written for a classroom teacher but is easily applicable for the homeschool.  She considers this number sense work as something to do for 5-10 minutes before the ‘real’ math lesson but I’m going to work on just this for a while for my struggling son.  The work is all done in games and with visuals and if you have other children, different levels of understanding can work together.  I’m really excited to be reading this and think it will be exactly what we need for my little one. 

My impression is that your son knows HOW to do addition and subtraction but just doesn’t have a solid sense of numbers to be able to take them apart, move them around to combine in different ways and understand quickly how they interact together.  If that is the issue, I strongly recommend this book.  MUS does give some examples of ways of thinking about numbers that are helpful (like 9+5 is really like 10+4 (9 goes up by one, 5 goes down by 1 bc of the communitive property – I’m not telling you that, that’s what they tell the student. I’m sure you were following me. ) so it is easy to see the answer.  But really that’s all number sense is, being able to see exactly HOW 9+5 is 14 and why you don’t need fingers to solve it. 

(Another series I have looked into but haven’t bought yet is the Young Mathematician at Work series.  They have one called Constructing Number Sense, Addition and Subtraction (and others for children who are past that).  )

My bottom line is I imagine such simple worksheets would be boring to your 4th grader.  I think working with you on games that solidify number sense is what he needs and that also allows you to not have to buy Alpha and Beta at least.  The MUS website does have a worksheet generator so you could print out things if you wanted but I bet with just working on weekends through the rest of the year on number sense he’ll be ready for a much higher level of MUS at the beginning of school next year. This book (Number Sense Routines) is an approachable way to know how to assess what you child already knows and then how to lead them through the next steps.  It is very well written!   Good luck!

I would just work on Math Drills and re-test.  My kids use Xtra Math quite a bit.

(For what it’s worth, my son was 7 when he did MUS Beta and he still sometimes counts on his fingers now, and he is 8.)  We switched to Teaching Textbooks this year, but we really did like MUS Beta.