MathUSee – length of daily lessons

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • JenniferM
    Participant

    Hello Everyone!

    I see lots of recommendations on here for MUS.  I’m thinking of starting Alpha with my 7 year old in the fall.  How long should I expect to spend on math each day with this curriculum?  Am I understanding correctly that you would work on one lesson/unit until the child masters it? 

    If my understanding is correct, then I suppose she should work 15-20 minutes each day on the current lesson/unit until it is mastered.  I just am trying to verify that I understand this correctly.  

    This is more expensive than anything I’ve purchased previously… until I add up all the various materials I purchased trying to find what works!  I really want something easy to use but effective. 

    Thanks!!

    Bookworm
    Participant

    It’s really not expensive, not for what you get.  If you have other children coming up, then all you need to do is get a student book for the youngers.  We really feel it’s been a very cost effective program for us, as we’ve had three kids use it all the way up.

    Yes, you work with your child’s attention span, 15-20 minutes per day until mastery is achieved, whether this is three days  or two months.  🙂  My typical process looks like this:  (of course mine are older now, but I do remember the younger years!)  First day, watch the video together and maybe do some practice problems with the blocks; day two to however many, continue doing practice problems with the blocks until the child can teach it back to me.  Then I decide how many worksheets are necessary, and we work on those for a few days.  (I often did one to two sheets on the new topic, then moved on to the systematic review–if they didn’t miss any on the first systematic review, then I let them just do the word problems on the next two pages.)  If they need some memory work on the basic facts, sometimes we’d spend a day or however many needed on the online practice on the MUS site.  After this, then the test would just be a simple “See, I can do it!” demonstration, and time to move on to another topic.  All children move at different paces, and sometimes the same child will do a lesson very quickly and then take much longer on a later one.  It just depends.  Follow your child’s cues about when to move on.

    my3boys
    Participant

    I agree with Bookworm…this is a cost effective curriculum. I have found many for sale (TG/DVD) at curriculum swaps for as low as $5/$6, all I had to do was purchase the workbooks. I have even seen the blocks for $5, as well…I wasn’t lucky enough to have picked them up, but they were there!

    I do find this to be less teacher intensive but effective. I appreciate that it doesn’t have too many different topics going at one time (ie: calendar, temperature, intro to fractions, etc., in one lesson), we cover these topics in other ways (and will get to fractions when it’s time, lol). I appreciate that it’s foundational, especially for a struggling math student, who has gained much confidence using this curriculum. He thoroughly enjoyed his other program, btw, but really needed to stick to the basics and fully comprehend the what and the why.

    HTH

    MamaSnow
    Participant

    I am using Alpha with my dd6 right now, and what Bookworm described pretty much describes how we do it. I don’t think we ever spend much more than 15-20 at a time. We watch the video the first day together and work through the first worksheet together, then in the succeeding days I gradually work with her less and less as I see that she understands and can do the problems on her own. I don’t give her the test until I am sure she can do all of the facts problems without using the blocks. I use the online drill program daily for practice too – both for the current fact family as well as reviewing all the others. We also sometimes play games if she needs some extra practice for facts mastery. We are moving through Alpha slowly, but I figure it is better to take the extra time for facts mastery now since it will make more advanced concepts easier later on (rather than a continual struggle). I was intially put off by the cost of Math U See in the beginning as well, and we started with another math curriculum that was cheaper but really wasn’t clicking for us. Math U See has been worth the investment for me – and as Bookworm pointed out, if you have other children who will use it later, the cost evens out since the only thing you have to replace is the workbook.

    HTH,

    Jen

    JenniferM
    Participant

    Thank you for sharing your experience.  I agree that it is not “that” expensive.  I also have to say that I tend to be very practical and try to use things we already have – not out of necessity but because I like to be resourceful.   I’ve decided to bite the bullet and go for it!  Thank you!!

    Corie
    Participant

    Y’all are making me want to try MUS again!  We started with my ds at one point, and he got really annoyed with the blocks.  He is highly distractable, and the blocks, colors, etc, were just too much for him.  Never tried it with my daughter.  I have another ds coming down the line, though.  Maybe it will work for him!  🙂

    amama5
    Participant

    We love it, we’ve used alpha through delta so far, and it’s not expensive for us at all because of the above reasons posted, as well as we use a dry erase marker and overhead sheet on the student books.  One poster mentioned to me that might be copyright infringement, but if you read the terms in the front they prohibit transmission of the material in the book, which we aren’t doing, we only write the answers.  So I only spend a small amount on a used teacher manual/dvd, then one time new student test/wkbk.  Sometimes if we are having a lesson that isn’t clicking and it’s taking 30 minutes or so a day, we just stop at a good point and try again the next day.  But 15-20 is a good amount. 

    Monica
    Participant

    I’m so glad to hear all of this. Thanks for everyone’s input. My 6YO (almost 7) is starting Delta next month and all of this info has been very helpful.

    amama5
    Participant

    jennifermason, another thing you could do, besides looking on ebay/craigslist/homeschool curriculum websites is post that you want to buy MUS on homeschoolclassifieds.com, or other forums and I’ve gotten great responses that way without having to search too much.  I just list the levels that I need or will need the next year. 

    momto2blessings
    Participant

    Pardon if I missed this being posted, but the MUS Yahoo Group has used materials come up pretty regularly.  I just bought Pre-Alg. and Alg. for a decent price, and I often see the younger years posted, too.  Student books don’t come up much, but the Teachers Manuals and Dvd’s do.  We love MUS:)  Gina

    abbynellie
    Participant

    Thanks for the MUS information.

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • The topic ‘MathUSee – length of daily lessons’ is closed to new replies.