Math-U-See.
It's our newest discovery in the world of numbers, and I wish I'd started it a long time ago. I switched to it just last spring, so we don't have a lot of experience with it under our belts, but I've seen some light bulbs going on, I'm making sure foundational knowledge is there (and growing), and the kids love Steve Demme.
I think I love him, too.
Understand, please, that we've never really found math to be wunth-erful here. We're more interested in words about math than in the math itself. I love to listen to mathematicians wax poetic on how sublime is the math they revere. Really, I can appreciate that, and I never meant to create such enmity in my children toward this whole, beautiful system that God dreamed up. But, alas, it seems to be the natural order of things, given the Karen/Atticus combination of genes. Atticus, though I know him to be one of the most brilliant people I've ever met, says he was a dolt in math. (I still think he's exaggerating, describing interest-level as ability.) I did fine -- even managed A's -- for as long as math was required. But, as soon as High School Requirements said, "No more math is required of you," I dropped it instantly. I simply did. Not. Care. Anne and Betsy seem to have picked up on that.
Note my categories, over there to your right ... I have four posts labeled "Math" and one of them is a complete rerun. (Now I have five posts on math, and two of them include reruns. So, really, I have only three original posts on math. Wait, did I do that math correctly?)
We could (and may) go on forever reading great, fun little books like Math Curse
and The Grapes of Math or the Sir Cumference books, but, for us, those are all about the clever wordplay and the fun with language.It's usually not about the numbers.
Which is probably one of the things we love about Steve Demme -- he likes wordplay, too. To the groan-th degree, at times, but kids love that. And I love that they love that.
I can thank Melissa Wiley and her enthusiastic endorsements for the nudge I needed to look into this program. (Oops -- I missed one ... here's another. I do believe Steve Demme is a demi-god in the Lilting Bonny Glen House. But, u-can-see why.)
Enough. All good things -- except numbers -- come to an end and so must this post. This turned into a lot more than just one hypenated word, eh?
Oh, just one more thing ... Ramona's math? Well, we'll measure and bake, count hugs and kisses, play games, read books and just live. That's what Kindergarten math should be, I think.
And, it'll be wunth-er-ful.
2 comments:
We found Math-U-See mid-year last year and just love it.
Wish I could count kisses with Little Boo... (sigh, we'd more likely be counting how many times she called someone "stinky"...) but she really wants to do Primer, so here we go!
:)
Lissa turned us on to Math-U-See, too. I don't think Ellie (9) is ever going to sail through math, but MUS has certainly helped her navigate the waters with more confidence. We started last year, and I made her begin with Alpha and Delta to secure her ability to perform addition and subtraction. She is still not fast, but definitely has an understanding now that she didn't before, and her accuracy is quite good. We are moving through Gamma now. Good luck.
Post a Comment