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Opinion Needed – MasterBooks Math
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I would love to hear your opinion + experience with Masterbooks Math. The lower levels (Living Lessons) + junior high (Primary Mathemtics).
It all seems very inspired by CM methods + living stories to apply the math to real life.The SimplyCM team does not recommend it in their curriculum guide, but I was wondering if any of you moms have experience using it with your families?
Below is a link to the author’s podcast about her math curriculum:
I turned my Relational Math workshop into a podcast episode. Enjoy! http://traffic.libsyn.com/angelaodellpodcasts/Relational_Math_workshop.mp3
I use Math Lessons for a Living Education and like it. From what I gathered SCM prefers that you make the math connections rather than read about them. It can become forced with a story.
Also CM treated math different than other subjects and didn’t use stories and copywork.
If you are ok with it not being true CM math, you may like it.
The stories model obedience and a love and excitement for math, as well as spiritual modeling.
Principles of Mathematics looks good, but I am not sure if all students would like their math presented this way. It is on my maybe list for later.
retrofam – Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I do understand that Miss Charlotte herself taught math in a completely different way. These resources just appealed to because I truly want to give my children a love for math and to be honest… That is just not something we have right now. It seems to be all about grading and getting the right answer instead of seeing how it applies to everyday life and why God wants us to learn these skills. I just thought the curriculum choices from Master Books would help with that.
We have switched to levels 2 and 4 this year, coming from CLE. I didn’t choose it because I thought it was CM, because I understand that it is not. And I don’t even care much for the stories and the copywork.
I picked it because CLE was taking FOREVER each day. I have a personality where crossing things off to make the lessons shorter stresses me out. I would rather have a short lesson that I can add to if needed.
So for me, the reasons we picked it are: the shorter lessons, the traditional scope and sequence (as opposed to MUS’s non-traditional scope and sequence), the variety, the color, and the real life application. I also read a lot of FAQ from the author in order to feel confident in her thoughts behind “drill and kill”. It made a lot of sense to me.
However, I have also become convinced of the importance of having math facts down cold by upper elementary. So we are going to spend time on that. I’ll be sure to mix it up with flashcards, XtraMath and maybe a few worksheets from MUS’s website etc.. Since the Master Books lessons are short, we’ll actually have time to get around to fact review! With CLE, just doing the lessons took so long that we let that go….or we got it all done accompanied by tears. 🙂
We’ve only done a few weeks so far, so I don’t have a solid opinion or review yet.
KeriJ – Thanks for the input. Yes, I am looking for a simpler math program with shorter lessons + practical, everyday application.
My 8th grader is currently using and loving Principles of Mathematics. He was public schooled until mid 6th grade, then we tried Teaching Textbooks which he did not like. Next was Life of Fred which he enjoyed but I was afraid it was not enough. We then tried Strayer Upton with the SCM guide and he hated it, mostly I think he didn’t like me teaching him. He asked to continue with Principles of Mathematics for next year as well. Book 2 is still pre-algebra and he will be in 9th grade, but he said the first book is really helping him understand things he didn’t previously so I think that is more important than being “on schedule”.
My update is that we are no longer using Math Lessons for a Living Education. For some reason every time I use it with one of my kids, they say it is hard. With the storyline, it is difficult to skip around or tweak.
We could stop and practice another way a lot, but we decided to switch to something else.
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