Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Math Mammoth Moving into new Homeschool territory

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When we found out we would be reviewing Math Mammoth and I began the process of selecting the program for Cameron I wasn't sure what I was going to do. We have been happy with our current program but as we are working on 3rd grade and will be doing the state testing at the end of the year I decided we would work through the 3rd grade Complete program.


Cameron wasn't sure when we started as he is a little behind schedule on his math but he jumped in with both feet and gave it his all.  We started with the addition review and found out that the foundations we had been working on merged perfectly into the Math Mammoth program. We only had one minor difference and we worked through the terminology without too much issue.


I was so happy with the way ordinal numbers were explained and worked through, as a homeschooler it is sometimes hard to explain concepts where a classroom full of students comes in handy, Mrs. Miller did a wonderful job using images of people  (like stick figures)  to explain ordinal numbers and placement.


Cameron really enjoyed learning Roman numerals as well , he thinks it is some kind of secret code, which made it fun to teach.
Since we don't do math everyday in worksheet form , it  will take us the rest of the year to go through the whole program but as a supplement to our current program this is going to be a great combination.


I love the online worksheet generator that came with the ebook and all the little extras that made the program adaptable. There are print outs for various non U.S. currency was a added bonus as I want to include currency as we begin to study neighboring countries as well as world cultures. 


Math Mammoth is a supplemental or a complete Math curriculum that is adaptable for language and country. The website also has wonderful resources including links to Math Mammoth videos, their blog , as well as as series of placement tests.  I love how the website covers so many concerns about switching and placement of a student. 


The complete curriculum graded programs average $34 for the complete downloadable set. 
Some of the main features of the program (from the website)

  • mastery oriented: it concentrates fairly long on one topic, with fairly few topics per grade;
  • focuses on conceptual understanding;
  • uses lots of visual models and exercises based on those;
  • emphasizes mental math and developing number sense;
  • nearly self-teaching since the explanations of concepts are found in the student worktext. Thus this curriculum requires fairly little preparation time from the teacher


There is also a series of supplemental materials by topic as well as by grade level, this is great if you student is struggling in one particular area.  Within the supplementals there is also a program for each state using real life data about each state, this could be a fun activity to include in geography studies as a way to combine the two subjects. The other program that caught my eye in the supplementals,  Making it Real, teaching math using real life scenarios.


When we complete the program we are currently using and need to either purchase the next level or a new program, Math Mammoth is high on my list to consider.  I have happy with the format, like the ebook  format, and loved that Cameron enjoyed learning with the program. 


Don't just take my word for it, check out what other crew members thought of the program HERE






***we were given the Light Blue series, 3rd grade complete curriculum as a member of the Old SchoolHouse Homeschool Crew in exchange for our opinion, all experiences and opinions are our own and no other monetary compensation was received.****





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