I have a question for Math-U-See users. Previewing the table of contents, I’m only seeing 30 lessons each for the alpha and beta books (which is what my children will be using). Are you finding that 30 lessons are lasting you for the entire homeschool year? That doesn’t seem like many lessons. If it doesn’t last you all year, what do you use to supplement this? Thanks!
It’s 30 lessons but each lesson has 5 worksheets and a test. Plus every few lessons there are unit tests. I made mine last 30 weeks.
I have used Math U See for three years now and the books have lasted us all year. Each lesson has pages A-G. Page G is an application and enrichment page. I have my kids do one page a day A-F, then on the last day I give the test page. (This makes each lesson 7 school days long, which is actually longer than the typical 180 school year!) But, you can choose to do as many or as little pages as your kiddo needs to learn the material, but I think it will certainly last a full school year.
This particular year my daughter did finished Zeta early from doing extra lessons here and there. In May I bought her a Life of Fred Math book and she used that to finish out the year, which for us ended on Monday, and she enjoyed that. The Life of Fred book was $15 dollars at Christian Book Distributors, so it wasn’t a big expense.
Oh!! I almost forgot. If you finding that you children need extra review, or you’d like to add in a day here and there, the Math U See website actually has additional pages that you can print out, so this could be an option if you find that you need it. You can also do some math facts drills on the website as well.
Here is the worksheet generator page: http://www.mathusee.com/e-learning/worksheets/
Here is the math facts drill page: http://www.mathusee.com/e-learning/drills/
Hope this helps!
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It depends on your child’s mastery of the lesson. For my kids, they typically complete 1 practice page and 1 review page each day until mastery which is often just 2 days. Then on the 3rd day I give them the test, or I give them 1 review page and the test. I treat the test like a review page. If they are struggling, they do more practice. If it’s so basic that they get it on day 1, then they move on the next day. When we started with MUS, we took a step back to ensure mastery. This meant that my oldest flew through Delta in 4 months. And my twins completed Beta in 5 months. It helped to rebuild their math confidence and ensure their mastery of these subjects before moving on. Now we are on a more traditional schedule of completion. When they finish/master one level, we start the next. No need to worry about whether or not it takes a full year. And no need to complete all practice, all review, and enrichment pages if mastery occurs sooner. You can pick and choose how much they need to complete based on how they are progressing.
If you are doing one page a day including unit tests and the final, that’s a total of 215 days…way past our school year. What I do is have my boys do Lessons A and B on the same day. If you notice, the first couple of problems are usually done for them sometimes leaving a handful of problems to do. Doing these two sheets on the same day are, for the most part, no big deal. Lesson C ensures that they have mastered the topic, sort of like a quiz, and I do this on the second day. Then the Lessons D-F are done on the next three days. On the sixth day, the test is given and the boys are expected to finish Lesson G on this same day. As a former math teacher, I never give a test on Mondays, so if this is expected to happen, I have the boys do Lesson G on that Friday, Lesson F on the following Monday to refresh them on the topic after the weekend, followed by the test that Tuesday. Doing it this way, only adds a few days past the typical 180 days but it is their only subject on those days and so they do not mind it.
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