MEP math

We are using it at the moment – Reception Level with dd5 – and it’s been a good fit for us so far.  I was looking for something to move beyond just playing around with numbers, but didn’t want to sit her down with a math workbook just yet either.  This has been good for that since it is so visually based and doesn’t require a lot of written work. I wanted something to challenge her thinking (math comes pretty naturally for her) without making math a boring chore at this level, and MEP is accomplishing this for us.  We are up to about Lesson 20.  I usually split up the activities so it may take us 2-3 days to cover one lesson, since each is made up of several activities.  We usually don’t spend more than 5-10 minutes at a time.  Sometimes I skip some of the activities depending on what it is – sometimes they just say to free play with different objects or do things for fine motor practice or have little games that involve only counting to 3 that are just way too simple for her and not worth the time.   We also continue with basic number practice using a calendar we fill in daily (we trace the number, find it on the 100 chart, count out that many beans, etc).   That all said, I’m not sure if we will continue into year 1 or try a different program when we are done with this.  We still have some time before I need to decide that.

I don’t know if that is helpful or not!  If there are any more specific questions, I am happy to try to tell you what we’re doing.  I also know there are other MEP users out there on this forum since this is where I heard about it in the first place!

Hi Alice,

We have used MEP Y2 for 1 year (recently finished) I think it is a wonderful curriculum and would have had no problem continuing but…I felt I needed easier to follow lesson plans/teachers guide, just to try and make it less teacher intensive and therefore I felt that would make for a smoother day. We have now started with Horizons 3 (& Times Tales  multiplication & division). Horizons seems very similar in style although created for homeschoolers so easier to follow teachers guide (for me). It is just like MEP, with a spiral design (penty of repetition) but in colour. We may go back to MEP if it doesn’t prove any easier for me but we are doing well with it so far. I would not hesitate to recommend MEP to anyone, knowing that there is a bit of tweaking involved. You can’t go wrong with it as long as you look at the lesson plan in advance of the lesson!

Jeanne at Peaceful Day, as linked above is where I started on my journey with MEP.

It seems to me it’s not so much the resources we use but our delivery as a teacher that is or isn’t effective. So our change was to suit me more than my child!!

Hope you find MEP helps you on your math journey.

Blessings, Renelle