Math Mammoth

I recommend this program without any hesitation. I love it. Maria manages to approach concepts from many different angels, in way that has a lot of depth. When you finish with it, you understand it. She doesn't skim over things and give a shallow overview.

Maria herself if very helpful.

I was so thankful to discover Math Mammoth early in my homeschooling career. My son adored the self-teaching worksheets. This is a mastery-based curriculum, and has made math learning easy and fun for us. My daughter didn't take to Math Mammoth quite so well (she needed a lot of stories and color and fun for her math lessons), but I still use many of the worksheets and concepts for practice with her.

Maria's newsletters are fantastic and I appreciate the incredible value she has added to the homeschool community.

I discovered Math Mammoth three years ago when I was asked to tutor two little girls twice a week. Not being available to answer questions during the week, I found other curriculums to be quite difficult for us to get through since they wouldn't do their homework if they had a question. Math Mammoth has all the explanations and examples of how the problem is to be done right there with the homework. We are able to get through a grade level in one school year with me seeing them only twice a week! The pages are colorful and there is enough practice, but if you need more, you can always print extra. Maria also has several websites listed at the beginning of each new topic so that you can try something different if needed to help a child understand a new concept. I love the fact that she also teaches them how to do mental math and challenges them to use what they've learned at the puzzle corner! I wish I had discovered Math Mammoth while I was homeschooling my five children! I will definitely be using it to help my grandchildren!

I purchased her entire collection of materials from Educents and love the curriculum, but if i use the light blue general book, I do not need the green and yellow books because the problems are exactly the same. I feel I wasted money on that. Otherwise, I feel the program is superior to most out there for homeschool and public. My other comments are listed in the pro and con area.

I love this curriculum. It's worked well so far. It can be a main source OR it can be a supplement. I use it as my main math textbook "guide". We do the worksheets and the tests but add our own lessons in, especially if my son needs extra practice in a particular area. I really love the master-based learning.

We switched to this after using a different math curriculum. My daughter lives this so much more. It's visually appealing to her. There is also enough repetition without overdoing it.

I like the fact that it can be done offline and the comprehensive presentations on any topic without alot of busy work

I switched to Math Mammoth with my oldest in 5th grade after using RightStart for 1st-4th. I loved RightStart, and was pleased to find that MM was an excellent curriculum to follow it with. The approach is very similar, but MM can be more independent. It's very straightforward, the explanations and examples are clear, and the layout is clean and easy to follow. Highly recommended.

My kids have used several of the Math Mammoth books and have done really well with them! We have used the Geometry, Measurements, Fractions and a few more. I love the way the material is laid out and the kids really understood the material when they were finished! Can't ask for any better!

I loved the value for the money, love the support Maria Miller offers online at her website (plus loads of freebies), and love the fact that she teaches each concept from many different angles and approaches, so that the student is not left with mere rote as the only foundation for arithmetic, for instance. She connects concepts to each other, and never wastes space: even the practice exercises call for the use of mental math skills that she has taught previously, to keep those skills fresh and avoid the tendency to rely exclusively on the calculation algorithms where mental figuring would suffice. I love the flexibility to purchase by single topics, or by entire grade levels aligned to current standards.

If you want to discover any weaknesses and address them, her free assessment tests will detect those, and her free samples of worktexts either by topic (Blue Series) or by nationally-normed grade level (Light Blue Series) will let you try before you buy. Even then, the price is so low, that the risk is minimal.

Whether your purpose is making sure that your child has a strong conceptual foundation from the beginning so as to avoid problems later on, or to prepare for doing well on nationally-normed standardized tests at a given grade level, or to make sure your child has no holes in his or her abilities before entering school, or to detect and remediate existing conceptual weaknesses before moving to the next level in math, Math Mammoth suits the purpose.

Although the size of the worktexts may look intimidating at first (two hefty books per grade level), there is no fluff or wasted space in Math Mammoth: they are large because they remove the need to keep up with or find a separate textbook, workbook or notebook, and teacher's manual, by incorporating ALL the conceptual explanations, graphics, and teaching, along with activities and practice, AND space to do the calculations, in the worktext. Therefore, the teacher/parent (or older, more independent student) can simply "open and go" and taking the lessons on the go is as simple as putting the worktext (or the printed sheets for that day) into a bag along with a pencil.

No lesson planning, preparation, or gathering of separate workbooks and textbooks, needed.

It should be noted, however, that this is not a spiral approach, but a mastery approach. However, additional practice worksheets can be downloaded and printed off, free of charge, from her website or as part of the downloaded bonus packet that comes with the purchase of Math Mammoth as a download, such that returning to a skill for review later, is easily accomplished.

My daughter finally TRULY understood long division with remainders, and what remainders actually are (as opposed to just memorizing rules about what to do with which number) thanks to Maria Miller's 3rd grade Multiplication review worksheet that I downloaded from her site. If I could have a do-over for my daughter's math education, I would have started with Math Mammoth from the beginning. However, we have had success at overcoming areas where my daughter lacked conceptual mastery, since using it.

Lastly, some find Math Mammoth to be too thorough, or slow to get through. Again, there is flexibility to suit the individual student: you can assign only a few problems for each topic, for the swift learner, or in the case of a child whose level of challenge is not met by grade-level materials, use the topical Blue series instead, and work at their individual level of challenge.

Best of all, for those who feel shaky on certain math topics, you not only do not have to become an expert in them first, for your child to learn very well using Math Mammoth, but you will probably find yourself understanding things now, that never made sense before, by learning alongside your student. I certainly wish I had been taught this way, as a child, but it's never too late!

We've used Math Mammoth now for 3 years with 3 of my kids. Overall it's a good curriculum, very thorough and it exceeds core standards. Very little teacher prep involved which is great to free up time elsewhere. My kids still need daily help getting started and sometimes help throughout the lesson. There's not a whole lot of extra explanations so we sometimes get stuck and then I need to intervene. So far I've been able to help them figure out how to do the problems. There are videos on the website that can help, but not for every topic. They use a mastery-based approach with review at the end of each chapter. My 6th grader who is the one who has the most problems, is adamant on getting the Math Mammoth for 7th grade, which is comparable to pre-algebra and will put him ahead of the game. We will continue with Math Mammoth!!

We started using Math Mammoth in grade 3. We had used a spiral approach curriculum for K-2 with disastrous results. Math Mammoth helped my son master basic m ath concepts.

i like the format

My son was using Saxon and finding it frustrating. I chose to change to Math Mammoth and it started out well until he got to the Geometry sections. They moved him too quickly and the work was way too tedious for his age. I searched again for another math program for him and found a great hit with Rod and Staff.

I needed a curriculum that taught the math more completely than I could. When I taught my DD, I would think I was explaining all the steps and whys/hows, but she would give me the blank stare. After I switched to Math Mammoth, she almost always understands the concepts from the written explanations, leaving me to merely reinforce what was taught. The curriculum includes student worksheets with with answer key, tests with answer key, reviews, and other teaching resources.

I have found the author to be very responsive to questions and comments.

I have just started using this year with my daughter who has learning delays and struggles with math. So far, she has been able to work through everything independently. The best part is that she no longer complains about math!

This is the best math that we have found for us. It is pretty advanced but very direct. It does teach a lot of mental math, which for some kids can be hard to grasp...just slow down until they get it! We used Singapore last year and while I loved the teaching method used, I felt it did not cover enough subjects. math Mammoth fixed that problem! It covered everything I wanted for second grade and more!

My daughter (2A) absolutely hated math. Every time she knew math was coming she had a complete and utter melt down. Every. Day. We were using Math In Focus: A Singapore Approach. Clearly this had to change. So I began my search. I ran across Math Mammoth in the Cathy Duffy Reviews: 101 Top Picks. I knew someone who was planning on using it, but hadn't begun yet. But since I wasn't able to ask anyone questions about it, I wasn't completely sold. I decided to send an email to Math Mammoth to ask a some questions. The support is amazing! It was affordable enough that I thought I'd take a chance. If it didn't work out, it couldn't be any worse than where we were. We switched over in February. By Memorial Day weekend my daughter had done such a complete turnaround! On that Monday - a holiday - she decided that there was nothing else fun to do so she would do her math for the week! And she did 2 days worth of lessons in 1 sitting! My child!! My child who had a meltdown every time math was mentioned! I cannot rave highly enough about this curriculum! It had made my life so much better as a homeschooling mom. Here are some specific things I noticed about the curriculum:
1. The text is directed at the student. So, I don't have to try and translate what the student needs to know. Math comes very naturally to me and I am not a trained teacher. I found that, before this curriculum, I was failing to explain very subtle things that when added up were very frustrating to my daughter.
2. You do still have to be available to answer questions. I doubt there is a math curriculum out there that every student can get through on their own without any assistance from anyone. It's not a magic pill, but it is a fabulous math curriculum!
3. It's in a downloadable PDF. So, if you're like me and you wait until the last minute to order your next book you won't have any lesson delays (sorry, kids!). And, you only incur the cost to print those pages that you need to print. This is helpful if you've switched curriculum and your child has already covered a topic.
4. For each chapter, there is a list of online resources that enforce the concepts you've been learning in that chapter. This is wonderful! I have been adding one of these to my daughter's weekly schedule. I pick a different one each week and she enjoys the variety and getting to do something new on the computer.
5. Did I mention the support is amazing? Amazing support! Quick turnaround on emails. Very helpful responses.

We used this as our whole math curriculum in middle school after not doing well with two other programs. I liked the ease of use, and that everything the student needs is in one teaching worktext. They don't have to switch back and forth to learn the material and then practice it. I like that I can buy it once and use it for all my children. It was recommended that my daughter work topic by topic to get back on track with math and catch up, and she was able to do that with Math Mammoth and it did help her, though sometimes the mental math was just overwhelming for her, so we didn't always do that part. For my younger children, I used it as a supplement to a program which includes video instruction. They had folders with the printed pages for each topic, like "Money" or "Time", that we wanted to focus on for extra practice. For students who need more than book work to keep them motivated, you will need to add hands-on activities, games, etc.

We bought the whole "kit & caboodle" package right when it was starting to become known a little here in the states. The program is a worktext program, meaning you do not need a teacher's guide, the student texts have the explanations/teaching built in right there. The author is from Finland, which from my research is a country who is much further advanced in their math instruction than we are. And it shows in this curriculum.
You can purchase the light blue series which is grade leveled series that goes through 6/7 grade. The math concepts taught in her series will easily take a student through 7th grade (comparable to most other U.S. programs).
The blue series is concept based. You can use them as your core curriculum, particularly if you want to be sure your child is mastering a concept before moving on to another. And, the author maps out a sequence you should follow if you want to handle it that way.
The most wonderful thing about the program is the author, Maria. She is extremely knowledgeable and very available for any help you would like. If you send an email asking about the curriculum, she personally sends a reply. She will even review your child's placement test to advise where you need to place your child. My two didn't clearly place anywhere in the grade-based curriculum but she was able to take the results of their placement tests, tell me which of the blue worktexts to use first to "fill in the gaps" and then what level to start with after that.
Maria also offers many youtube videos on strategies you can use to teach different concepts to your children and teaching strategies on how to teach them to learn their math facts cold.
We thought this program offered the teaching of more challenging math concepts - particularly mental math - in a way that was comprehendible with most excellent customer service