Math-U-See Elementary

I wish I would've tried this FIRST! This was our first year with it and 4 kids doing it-- there's been a learning curve but I'm happy with the program.

I love being able to teach my kids how to build each problem with the manipulative blocks. It really takes the abstract concept of math and makes it concrete and understandable.

Mr. Demme is a great teacher. He teaches each concept in simple steps and is funny at times too. This has been a blessing to our family as my boys now enjoy math.

We have six children and have used Math-U-See since we started homeschooling. It is easy to use. The video teaching is fun and easy to understand. All of my kids have enjoyed math using this curriculum.

I loved using this with the math blocks to teach my kids. They picked up the addition easily.

This was my daughter's first math program. I researched various programs thoroughly and landed on this one. The videos seemed fun, and it looked great ... and both my daughter and I hated it. While the videos are engaging, the workbook itself, in our opinion, was very dull. It felt like an endless rotation of black and white questions that asked some variation of 1 + 2 =, 4 + 5 =, 8+ 7 =. I felt it completely lacked depth and that I could have written it myself. Disappointed, we moved on to another program that had the depth we were looking for.

The program uses terms like onety, twoty for the numbers eleven and twelve. Demme reasons that English-speaking kids have a harder time with numbers because numbers like eleven and twelve don't really make sense, whereas in some other languages, they use something comparable to onety and twoty. Now, we may indeed have a problem with the logic of the names for used for our teen numbers -- however, it is what it is. My daughter already knew how to count when we started the program and her response to his logical idea of renaming numbers was "what on earth is he talking about??" I kind of agreed. I think it is quite confusing.

Positives include the use of the base ten blocks, which help to visually illustrate concepts, and couple of tricks to easily calculate equations with +9 and +8.

The program also does a great job explaining place value -- the best I've seen. We still use his method for explaining place value.

we use Primer. and it is a nice overview of some different concepts for my young student. My daughter likes the videos with Mr. Demme... she likes having another teacher.

We have used MUS starter with the Primer for my now 9yo. Typically for each of the 30 lessons there are 3 practice sheets, 3 review sheets, an application/enrichment page, and a test. For each lesson we watch the video together and then work through the 1st practice sheet. Then depending on how much the "get it" in subsequent days we will move through the rest of the sheets typically skipping the other 2 practice sheets and 1 or 2 of the reviews before the test. Sometimes I feel that the application/enrichment pages are busywork so we just skip those. When my boys started primer they were still learning to form their numbers and since there is not much number writing practice I bought a set of dotted stamps, let them select the correct answer then practice writing. We plan on continuing on sticking with MUS through high school.

We've used MUS since the beginning with Primer. We're now on Gamma. My son likes the DVDs, the blocks and the overall approach. We watch the DVD together on Monday and do one page of work each day M-F. The lessons are clear and concise and in an order that makes sense to this past PS teacher/current HS mom AND to my 7-year-old son. Occasionally, Steve {the author} will go off topic a bit in the DVD lesson and talk about a way to use the particular skill in a more advanced way...and that can be a bit confusing. But, I just tell my son to delete that part of the lesson from his brain. ;) Another con {but it's really just a caution} is that, though it's designed to complete in one school year, you {the teacher} must hold yourself and your students accountable. If he/she is not ready to move on bc she has not mastered that particular skill that week, DON'T move on. Steve is assuming you have mastered it and that skill might not receive any more attention in the following weeks.

I think that Math U See can be great for certain learners. My older daughter who needed to see the concepts displayed really got lots from using Math U See. She was to the point that she could complete multi step math problems and get the right answers, but she couldn't tell you why. after she used Math U See, she had a much better concept of what she was doing.
My son, however, hated the methods and the video lessons. He didn't like focusing on one skill and not cycling through and covering other skills at the same time.
We ended up not staying with the curricula. It was a large investment to use with only one child.

The only con I've found is that at times, they can be behind the "norm" of public school and it might effect year end test results. For example, here in 3rd grade kids learn single digit multiplication and division and then in 4th grade go back around the learn double digit multiplication and division. With Math-U-See, you learn single and double digit multiplication in one book and then single and double digit division in the other. So a child may struggle with single digit division on the end of the 3rd grade year test (if your state requires it) but would already be able to do double digit multiplication. And then in 4th grade it all comes back together. Hopefully that makes sense - it's not a con of the curriculum, just something to be aware of!

Overall, we're very happy with Math U See. My son was struggling in public school so I pulled him out and started him with this, and we've never looked back. It's been very easy for him to understand and his retention has improved.