By Karen Nelson
(Missouri, USA)
Visitor Review:
As a public school teacher, and now education materials writer, I’ve never been happy with a Math curriculum to date. When we made the decision to homeschool our children I was determined to find a program that would take them to adulthood with real-world skills.
We have used Math-U-See for more than five years (Pre-K to 5th/age 5-12). Starting out, it was lots of fun for both the kids and me, and really expanded our way of thinking about numbers. The curriculum has practical application while allowing children to explore the concepts in a proven, hands-on method.
At times it can be repetitive (which is the parent/teacher’s signal to get creative), but the foundations learned with this curriculum really stick with the student (as opposed to rote memorization and blind copying of operations).
The greatest difficulty of the series is for the adult – we have to set aside our own learned behaviors where mathematics is concerned, and accept that there are many ways to reach a solution. We also have to take the long view, keeping in mind that solid understanding is of more importance than short-term “mimic” abilities.
Math-U-See is ideal for the learner who wants to get to the “why” of computation, see math all around us, and enjoy it as an intriguing puzzle to be solved.