Hey Alicia
No, I have never tried MUS.
I did use the MEP free (UK based) program for a while with my 2 oldest… The oldest did Year 1 and 1/2 way through Year 2… and the next did Reception (Kindergarten) and most of Year 1 (or maybe even all of year 1?)
I switched because I was having problems helping him with adding/subtracting where you “cross 10’s” (Ie, when there was trading/borrowing…) and didn’t know how to proceed.
I chose RS because it was very highly recommended on Milestones Academy, and on here. At the time I was thinking of switching, there was a mom on here that was professionally involved with math (I forget what exactly) and also tutored math. She ended up doing a number of posts on why she personally felt that RS was her math program preference. I looked at the samples on the website, and was pleased to see the way that math is done – and that it actually works well with the way that I do math. The ways to use the abacus (the main manipulative) is just ingeneous. The main problem is the expense… but I was fortunate to have Book Samaritan supply me with what was needed.
RS is time consuming in that you teach each lesson with them, each day. There isn’t a lot of preperation – there is occasionally a bit for Level A and B (and that is greatly reduced if you buy the appendixes, where they did all the copying for you). Sometimes I just use a timer. (I go in and out of doing that…) – So I set the timer for the amount of time I want to do math with them – say 20 minutes. If the timer goes off before we are done (and there is more than say 5 minutes of work left) we just stop and start there the next day. Or if we are done the lesson and there is more than a few minutes left on the timer, we play a quick math game. Right now I’m doing Level B with my 5yo, and Level C with my 7 and 9yo’s – they are at the same point. I have occasionally had to do math seperately with all 3…. and it is doable.
Is your 3rd just starting in A or B? I think I’d do their new 2nd Edition if I was just starting. The 1st Edition (which I’m using) has a few places where there are “walls” that some people hit – where it seems you need to sit on a lesson for a while (playing games etc) because the student just isn’t getting it…. and then after a while they get it and are going along just fine. I suspect that the 2nd edition will have done what they can to get rid of those spots. (We are in one right now, and it is very frustrating.) I understand the lessons use the manipulatives a lot more. It also looks like there will be an additional level… it will be Levels A-F and then Geometry (nicknamed Level G) whereas right now it is Levels A-E, G. Some of the current levels tend to take a year and a half for most families – so the new level should break things up a bit more and cause less stress for the people that want to do a book a year. (I am one of those people…. I know that I need to teach the child, not the curriculum…. but I still wish to do a level a year… lol.)
One thing to be aware of is MUS is a mastery based program – but RS would be called a Spiral program. So far I’ve done kids in Level A, Level B, and 1/2 way through level C. There is a LOT of review at the start of a level. (which you can zoom through quickly if not really needed…)
