Christie, the title of your post was bang-on for me just about 1 year ago, with DS10 and DS9. Then I read your details and started nodding even more! I will share my experience….we are an enthusiastic TT family now and life has NEVER been better!
What you are saying about your MUS experience is exactly what I was going through. In theory I LOVED (still love) the idea of a mastery based program; I had heard such wonderful things about MUS and yet just couldn’t get over the fact that we had several instances of stuff not “sticking”, particularly for my DS9. I don’t know if it was due to lack of review or just the lack of ability to connect with the way the concept was being taught, but it was frustrating to depart for a little while from something we’d “mastered” only to come back a month or two later with a deer-in-the-headlights look. I also loathed the fact that I was having to watch the DVD several times myself in order to “get” the way Mr. Demme was teaching in order to offer support. I often had an “ah ha” moment once I got it, but it was an extra step that really began to weigh on my time and patience.
We moved to TT almost a year ago and we could not be happier with the change. The tutor approach is fantastic. Math concepts are explained to make things VERY clear and simple. We have gone through TT3 through TT5 and I have not heard “but I don’t get it” even ONCE. Even if your child happens to have a moment of blanking out during the 5 minute lecture, it’s as simple as pulling back the scroll button to hear/see it again on the computer screen. And of course, the most brilliant part of all is the fact that the student gets the “see how it’s done” mini-tutorial right at the very moment he’s made the mistake; when the child makes an error they don’t get to just throw it aside…the issue or the gap they have on that concept is dealt with immediately. I think this feature has made all the difference for my kids. The gaps have completely disappeared.
Okay, now to address your question above on new concepts….that there may not be enough practise on new concepts once they are introduced. I worried about this at first, too. If you are watching the produce demo’s I can see where you may have this concern as it would be appear that when a new concept is introduced the child gets only 5 practise questions (A through E) before the main lesson begins. You can’t really look at the practise of the new concept as being limited to this first set of practise questions though. This program REALLY spirals. The child continues the practise of the new concept again the next day and the next, though it might be appearing in the “main lesson” (numbered) section of the lesson. So, while a new concept is introduced, let’s say, in lesson 10 lecture, and is practised in lesson 10 questions A through E, that same skill/concept is put to the student again in lesson 11 questions 1-5, lesson 12 questions 1-5, lesson 13 questions 1-4, lesson 14 question 1-4, lesson 15 question 1-3… you get the idea. The amount of practise depends on the complexity of the concept … it varies, but I can assure you the student IS getting a lot of practise, sometimes for weeks of even months at a time. My testimony on this is pretty enthusiastic because while my DS10 is naturally stronger in math, DS9 is less so, and this program is working brilliantly for both of them. Even DS9 is retaining, has no gaps, and has been scoring in the 90s almost daily for the past year! This tells me that despite what I might worry about in terms of practise, or amount of drill – clearly the program has been designed well, and has the bases covered for long term retention and true understanding of concepts.
All this said, I am kind of a cover-all-bases TWICE sort of person. (leftover trauma from my own childhood math struggles!!) We have used a few resources for extra practise, but in truth this is more for my own piece of mind versus any evidence of a gap or serious need. We have used xtramath for math facts drill, along with cardboard flashcards and most recently the Flashmaster handheld gizmo which covers addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We also use a series called Focus on Problem Solving (a Cathy Duffy recommendation). I went ahead with this series (short booklets, 1 page 2-3x per week) because I liked the fact that although it’s just a workbook, every page has a little teaching section/commentary explaining HOW to break down word problems into a set-by-set process. I do own another short booklet series called Key to Fractions, Key to Decimals, Key to Percentages which I’ve not yet had to use but have in my back pocket so to speak in case we run into “but-I-don’t-get-it” for any of these areas, or if I really feel we need the extra practise. (I stumbled onto the books through a strong recommendation and had a chance to get them easily with no shipping, so jumped on it…but haven’t needed this yet)
Placement coming out of MUS – I’ve had some learning on this as well. I tend to be cautious on placement whenever we try something new as I don’t want my boys to feel overwhelmed, or hit a gap early on. I can tell you that with TT there is no need to be overly cautious. I started with TT3 thinking that because we’d done MUS and hadn’t had any exposure to certain concepts it would be best to take a step back. Now that I have seen all the lessons and lectures for TT3, TT4 and most of TT5, I know for certain there is no need for a new TT student to take a step back, because in each year there is review of the core concept teaching for most skills. For example, multiplication is introduced in TT3 – conceptual teaching so that the child understands the concept that 3 x 4 is the same as 3 groups of 4 within each. When TT4 comes to multiplication the core concept teaching is presented again before they begin practise. I suppose some kids might be put off that that they’re being “re-taught” but my DC were not offended in the least…and the lecture format for TT4 varies somewhat from TT3, so even when a concept is “re-taught” it definitely looks fresh and different in the new level. Again, my DC are NEVER tired of this program, so I’ve not heard a complaint about anything, and certainly not about re-visits on lectures. All this said I certainly think you would be fine to put your DS9 into TT5. I’m probably not qualified to make a guess on whether your DS12 should be TT7 or TT pre-algebra, but if it were me…for that level, I might be tempted to begin at TT7 (again, I am cautious by nature) and hopefully she sails through, nails down this “new” way of doing her math and gets herself into TT Pre-Algebra in no time anyway. When I started my DS10 a level “lower” that he probably should have been he enjoyed it thoroughly anyway, and often just took it upon himself often to do two lectures a day sometimes. He did an entire year in six months. I plan to start DS6.5 in TT3 when he’s in second grade and I know he’ll do fine.
Last point on the logistics of how we do it. You’ll see comments on the internet and even in the workbook about how to implement computer versus workbook or whether to combine them together. Here’s what we do: Child sits at computer with headphones on. Child watches lecture (5-6 minutes), and works through all problems in the lesson – at the computer – typing in the correct answers. Child has scratch paper to do rough work before typing in correct answer. When child gets an answer wrong he MUST say yes to the offer to make the second attempt. If answer is still wrong, he MUST watch the “see how to do it” (on my teacher account I am able to view whether he actually watched it). An entire lesson on the computer is usually completed within 15 minutes, occasionally 20 minutes and we usually do it first thing in the morning. From there, we move to spelling, or a reading/narration, or some other completely non-mathy subjects for the rest of the morning. Then, first thing after break (or lunch) child does the lesson in the workbook. I know that many parents have their kids fill in the workbook answers at the same time as they are doing the computer portion, but I liked the idea of two sit-downs per day with math, particularly as it forces them to use different senses, work their brain on math at different times of day, etc. I mark the workbook using the answer key at the end of the day, or each evening, and so I get to see what they’re doing and how well they’re doing. If, while I’m marking the workbook, I see more than 3 errors, I make them re-watch the lecture the next day before they begin the new lesson (and I will sit and watch it with them at that point and we’ll do the practise problems together on a whiteboard and do the corrections from the day prior). Most often this step doesn’t even happen because I think my DC have only scored below 90% once or twice in the whole time we’ve been doing TT!
All the all, I can’t say enough (can you tell?) about this program. My entire teaching day has changed thanks to our switch to TT: my own stress level on teaching math has pretty much completely disappeared, my kids are thrilled with the independence and the variation, and because it’s just so EASY (for me) to assign math (I don’t have to prep anyway) we never have those missed days that we used to deal with if we had too much going on to do our MUS lessons. Even when life is insane (holidays, co-op, company coming over, whatever) they’ll get up in the morning and just do their math – and I know it’s sounds too good to be true, but 99% of the time they do it happily and without even a raised eyebrow. It is hands-down the best change I have ever made (no, I don’t work for the company!)
Good luck with thinking it through, Christie and hope I’ve helped!
Blessings, Angie
