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Math u see when to start? Where?
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I love the look of rightstart, but it’s expensive. I found mus at a used book sale last year and started my olders on it. I have 3 other children who will in the future begin math. For cost effectiveness all I would have to repurchase is student kits. If you started your children on mus did you begin with primer or alpha and at what age?
My oldest came to MUS as a 3rd grader and she started with Alpha. She’s starting Delta in Sept and she’ll be 5th.
Last year my 5.5 year old son and 4.5 year old daughter wanted math to do, so they did Primer. It was a great, relaxed fit. Now they are both in the early chapters of Alpha at ages 6.5 and 5.5 and we’re enjoying it. Primer could be skipped if you wish, but then Alpha will take longer as Primer lays a nice foundation with using the blocks, counting, etc. I would start a child in Alpha at 6 if they didn’t do Primer. Primer worked well for 4-5ish. My 4yo had good handwriting/small motor control, so she was able to do the worksheets in Primer, but her brother would not have been able to do them at 4.
I always start in Alpha and skip Primer. I’ve done this as soon as the child could count and write numbers (with my sons this is usually 5.5-6). All 3 of my boys have done only MUS–it’s the only thing I’ve never changed. I now have one in calculus, one in Algebra II, and one in Zeta.
That is helpful information. My 3rd son is 4 and ready to write numbers. We will be working on that this year and so he would be ready for primer after that if that’s the route we go. I like to keep my eyes open for the next book we need to catch them at a used price if I need it. We have alpha, beta and now gamma. Now, I will know what to look for.
I started mine on Primer in Kindergarten. My girls are anxious to start school work or else I’d skip the Primer and do Alpha starting in 1st grade.
I am starting homeschooling w/a 3rd and 5th grader and after talking w/the MUS costumer service and a friend of mine who has been doing MUS for a few years, I was suggested to start w/Alpha as it is a good fondation for everything else.
I’ll probably be going tru it a little faster than w/a younger child.
We, too, started with Primer for the same reasons as above; it gives a low stress intro to how Demme “does stuff”. We are now in Gamma, and have enjoyed each year. I was really afraid to teach math, not being a math person myself, but Steve Demme is a wonderful teacher, and his methods are very easy to grasp.
I’d also like to mention that there are placement tests available for free on the MUS web-site. That would be mighty helpful if you need to figure out where to start.
Just a side note: I love knowing that I could potentially take our whole crew through all 12 years using the same program since MUS offers math through Calculus and Stewardship Math (which we will require regardless of what math we use in HighSchool-which will probably be MUS anyway…), AND the fact that Mr.Demme writes his books with different learning styles in mind-in other words, it doesn’t just cater to “kinetic learners” or “visual learners”, it’s condusive to most children’s modes of learning.
Good luck, and enjoy-we have!
LillyLou
I love MUS. However, at least for a while, I recommend waiting on planning to use Calculus. Unless you are so good at calculus that you can work out all the bugs for yourself. MUS prepared my son well to this point, but we are jumping ship to the community college for calculus, since the combination of ds, dh and I were still insufficient to figure the Calc course out, including the errors in the answer book. Just a heads-up. I hope it’s corrected eventually.
I also wanted to add that you don’t have to buy the student books each year, we use transparency sheets and dry erase markers. It’s kind of an inconvenience sometimes, but MUS is so cheap for us that way, I only buy the set once(and used off ebay or homeschoolclassifieds.com, you can erase pencil marks in a used set, etc) and use it for all my children. It’s usually about 40.00 total for each level that way.
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