MUS Stewardship

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 18 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • ErinD
    Participant

    I am looking into MUS Stewardship for my son’s senior year next year. Can this course be used without the DVD? Does the DVD add a lot to the lessons or is it basically the same as what’s written in the lesson in the instruction manual? Thanks.

    retrofam
    Participant

    It is designed to be used with the DVD.  I’m not sure how much is in the teacher’s manual.  A new edition is coming out soon, with important updates to reflect current life, such as cell phone plans.  I would check with MUS before you buy. I helped edit it, so I know that it is in the works.

    ErinD
    Participant

    Thanks for that info. That is good to know. I will wait for the updated version if I decide to go with this. Hopefully it’s available for next fall.

    Melanie32
    Participant

    Hi Erin! My daughter tried MUS Stewardship but it wasn’t her cup of tea. Teaching Textbooks explains things so much better and so much more in depth than MUS and she just couldn’t go back to MUS, even though the math itself was easier.

    That said, your son may love it! I have the whole set here. The teacher’s set is used and the old edition but I bought the student’s set new and my daughter only wrote on 1 page. If you’re interested in the set, I would sell it for $30, media mail shipping included.

     

    ErinD
    Participant

    Hi Melanie! Nice to “see” you again!

    We are having the exact same experience with TT and MUS. TT has much better explanations and my son is doing really well with Algebra 2 so far. I do like MUS Geometry and will probably continue to use it for my younger kids, and I thought the Stewardship would also be better because it isn’t so math intense.

    That said, I haven’t quite decided yet what he’ll do for next year. It will all depend on how the rest of Algebra 2 goes and if he has any definite plans for the future by then. Thanks so much for the offer of the Stewardship course! But at this point, I’m still undecided.

    Is your daughter still doing Algebra 2 with TT? How is that going for her?

    Melanie32
    Participant

    It’s good to “see” you too Erin! 🙂

    We are still loving TT! My daughter is 2/3 of the way through Algebra 2 and it is still going wonderfully. We couldn’t be happier with it.

    I so love the MUS company and the founder, Steve Demme, is such a wonderful, godly man whom I respect very much. I’m very thankful for MUS and really hate to leave the company but TT is such a better fit for my daughter at this stage of her education.

    She quickly grew frustrated with MUS stewardship and I decided not to push it. We are going to use Dave Ramsey for personal finance and continue with Teaching Textbooks pre calculus for math studies.

     

     

    ErinD
    Participant

    That’s interesting. Would you be able to elaborate on what frustrated your daughter about stewardship? I would appreciate it. Thanks!

    Melanie32
    Participant

    The videos are just so short and he never seems to explain enough. Even though the math is simpler math, it is combined in complex ways and the instructions weren’t very clear. My daughter was confused and frustrated. When she would rather do Algebra 2 than personal finance, that’s a pretty big deal, especially considering I only required 30 minutes of math on the one day of the week that she worked on the Stewardship course. TT takes her about an hour a day, usually a little more than an hour.

    One problem we always had with MUS once we progressed into higher levels of math, was that there was often a discrepancy with the level of difficulty of problems explained in the videos vs. the level of difficulty in the work assigned. Many of the problems assigned were much more difficult and complex than the example problems in the Teacher’s manual or on the DVD lessons. I suppose we were supposed to figure them out intuitively and we usually eventually got them, but it was always a very frustrating and time consuming experience.

    I’m so, so glad we made the switch to TT!

     

     

    ErinD
    Participant

    For some reason, I cannot see Melanie’s last reply. On the home page, it says there are 8 posts in this topic, but when I click on this thread and read it, there are only 7. Not sure what’s going on with that. Glitch?

    Karen Smith
    Moderator

    Sometimes posts get caught in the spam trap. I just freed Melanie’s last reply so you should see it now.

    ErinD
    Participant

    Thank you, Karen! I can see it now.

    Melanie, those are exactly the problems we had with MUS Algebra 2 last year: the discrepancy between the video problems and the worksheet problems. It’s like they expected the student to make logical leaps and neither of us were capable of it. We could work through the problems with the answer key in hand, but it was frustrating.

    I am disappointed to hear that the Stewardship is similar with unclear explanations. Oh well, there are other things we can do! Thanks so much for sharing those details.

    Melanie32
    Participant

    I think MUS is an awesome program! It just needs a bit of an over haul to keep up with newer curricula options. I’m really thankful for MUS. It was a life saver for my family in the elementary years and through the middle school years as well. It was one of the best programs available for its time and gave so many parents the ability to understand and teach their students math skills.

    However, newer programs offer so much more to the homeschooling family. It’s so nice for those of us that aren’t super strong in advanced mathematics to have programs available that will teach our students step by step, and explain how to solve a problem when we don’t understand. If MUS will restructure their program to offer these options, I think they will do very well. I love that their daily assignments are shorter than TT and that they focus on mastery. I love their customer service and I really admire Steve Demme.

    MUS is still my pick for elementary school up through pre algebra but for the high school years, Teaching Textbooks has been a much better fit for my daughter.

     

     

    sarah2106
    Participant

    I wonder what the updated version is going to be like?

    We are only into Pre Algebra and so far so good, I watch the video’s with my student which helps me a lot! but it is so true that it is not a “one size fits all” when it comes to curriculum. Glad we have a lot of options available.

    ErinD
    Participant

    Yes, absolutely! I don’t want to bash MUS either. We still use and like it for geometry and I know that lots of students have been through all the upper level courses and done well. TT works better for *us* for algebra.

    Melanie32
    Participant

    Erin-I didn’t want you to think I thought you were bashing MUS! I just wanted to make sure I shared all the positive things about MUS since I really do love the program and it has been such a blessing to my family. I know lots of people may read this thread at some point and I didn’t want to leave a bad impression of such a wonderful math program! I’ve also met Steve Demme in person several times and attended his workshops, as well as listening to his podcasts and so admire him and his company that I wanted to make sure and leave the topic of MUS on a positive note!

    On a separate note, I sure miss the Homeschool Review forum and so many of the posters there, including yourself. It’s good to see you over here. I don’t post much but I do read here regularly. I also see your post over at the WTM forums and enjoy reading them there. I don’t post there because it can get a little too heated for my taste.  😉

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 18 total)
  • The topic ‘MUS Stewardship’ is closed to new replies.