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Strayor Upton & Less is More on Manipulatives
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My oldest who is finishing up 2nd grade has been struggling a bit with the concept of regrouping/carrying in addition! We are doing RightStart Level B & he has been doing great, but multiple digit addition with carrying/regrouping has been a bit of a bump in the road for us! I have always used manipulatives and we do RightStart games & manipulatives, Math U See blocks & even manipulative suggestion from Mathematics An Instrument for Living Teaching at SCM. Here’s the thing, he can work problems with 4 digits and add and carry correctly & he understands place value, but when you start working with manipulatives, he says it’s more confusing! He says he prefers word problems and working with pure numbers! He doesn’t like the blocks or most of the other manipulatives! I suspect he is a Right-Brainer where he needs to understand the whole to understand the parts! I think I am probably a right brainer too! But, I have always thought that manipulatives were helpful to see what is taking place, but to him when I get out the manipulatives, it just muddies the water, so to speak! So, I had just gotten in my Strayor Upton book a few weeks ago and decided to work through with him and he said that is so much better than all the blocks, tally sticks and other stuff! Has anyone else had this experience where the manipulatives seem to complicate things & the child prefers a more straight-forward, less is more process? Don’t get me wrong, I love Strayor Upton, at least so far! I just want to make sure he understands what is taking place! When I break out the manipulatives and it confuses him, it makes me wonder if he knows what is actually taking place!!! Anyone had this experience? I would absolutely love to use Stayor Upton next year! I have just always assumed that manipulative were necessary and I struggled with understanding math so I just want to make sure we are building on a strong foundation! I know Charlotte said to “Teach the Child”! I would love to hear from anyone who has had this experience or anyone who is doing Strayor Upton! I personally find it refreshing and straight to the point! 🙂
We love SU. Hated RS. I’ve pulled out manipulatives when necessary, especially for my youngest. SU has so many word problems that it has really clicked for my two younger boys, both 12yo. My youngest 12yo was adopted from China six years ago and has only really been making great strides in many things in the last couple of years so he’s just moving into long division.
My oldest, age 26 and an engineer, hated manipulatives. He would tell me, “Just let me do my work, then I’ll play with that stuff.” Math was intuitive for him and he could think abstractly at a very young age.
The most important thing I want to accomplish with math is for my boys to see its application in real life. That’s why I love all the word problems in SU. If they can work pages of problems but get stuck on the application, I remind them that pages of problems is not real math. It’s only the tools necessary to work real math. The word problems are real and they must choose the tool necessary to solve the problem…and know how to use it correctly. If not, manipulatives become necessary so they can see it.
Here’s the thing about manipulatives – they’re pretty, they’re fun, and they are 100000% unnecessary. Math was taught for hundreds of years, very successfully I might add, without them. At most, they used a few beans, or marbles, or a few pictures drawn on a slate or blackboard.
So no, your son most definitely does not need them. And if he’s telling you that he prefers SU, without the manips, then go for it. And pat yourself on the back for all the money you’ve just saved 😉
And my son is the same way. My son is extremely visual, but does not like the hands on element. Manips just confuse him. He far prefers CLE (or something like SU) where he can read the information, see the pictures and just work through it himself with pencil and paper.
I am so relieved to here from you wonderful ladies on this. I struggled to understand Math when I was younger! I was raised most of my life in private schools where my mom taught! They all used Abeka! I also had a late birthday and was the youngest in my class until I was finally held back in 5th grade because I was just struggling so much in Math! When I began homeschooling, it was so important that my kids actually understood what they were doing. I think in some ways I have assumed that they needed to see it to get it! I was so baffled when he understood it until I tried to show him with manipulatives! I had already ordered and received the Strayor Upton book that I had planned to look at and consider for next year? I grabbed it and as we began to work through it, it was so refreshing! My son got the word problems and the straight forward approach! He is a bit of a get to the point kind of child, which he gets honestly from me :). Lol. Thank y’all for sharing you experience with me! It makes me feel better! Less is definitely more, I suppose :).
So…what did you all do or plan to do after strayor upton? Are the students ready for algebra? Also any of you hear about the old math books by George Wentworth et al…Jr high school mathematics and school arithmetic. Any comparisons?
Hi Roslyn,
We use/d Strayer-Upton with our children using Charlotte Mason’s methods. My oldest went from Book 2 straight into Algebra I. I assessed his readiness using an Algebra I pretest (informally). S-U covered everything in S-U except exponents but he had absorbed that knowledge somewhere himself. The Algebra text we use begins with a week review.
I will tell you what we are using with the caveat that we may change if something better comes into my view that fits CM’s methods and principles: Jacobs’ Algebra, Geometry, as well as Strayer-Upton Book III once a week for some business math. I’m looking into Calculus/Algebra II and Trig. but am waiting to see where my son’s interests head as well.
And, per the above conversation, manipulatives were done away with in a CM education just as soon as they weren’t needed. The child’s personhood was always respected and CM never wanted her methods to become formulaic.
Best,
Richele
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