I have been asked this question several times by a parent who has several children and is interested in maximizing her time. As an example, let’s say she has a seven year old student and another who is eight and a half. Perhaps the seven year old, who I will call Seth, is more adept in math than the eight year old, who I will name Jake. She thinks it will be a good idea to move them along together to save teaching time and energy, and she writes and asks my opinion.
There are several factors to consider, but generally my experience is that this is not a good idea for the following reasons. There is one exception addressed in point 3 below.
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Generally one of the students will emerge as the brighter student and answer most of your questions when you are teaching. In my example, this would most likely be Seth. While Seth is actively engaged with the lesson, Jake will shut down. Classroom teachers have this same dynamic where the brighter students raise their hand and ask questions, while those who are not as quick to comprehend, sit back and observe.
The advantage of tutoring (versus classroom teaching) is that you the teacher, have the ability to teach one at a time, adapt the lesson to his learning style, and move at his pace. When presenting new material one-on-one, you are able to discern more readily if they comprehend what you are teaching. And you will know when they are ready to move to the next lesson.
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Rarely do two students, even if they are identical twins, learn the same way and at the same pace. Since math is a sequential subject, a good teacher will make sure each concept is mastered as you are building their math foundation line upon line and precept upon precept. A student should have 100% understanding before progressing to the next level. My observations have been that one student will score high and the other significantly lower.
When we were teaching our three sons from 12 years old to 7 years old, we taught them reading and math separately. But then we studied other subjects together, such as science or history, using a unit study approach.
If I were in a room full of moms with years of wisdom and experience in teaching Math-U-See, I would ask them this question. I am sure that many have tried to teach two (or more) at the same time and it would be edifying to hear their combined wisdom. I am pretty sure, that while it may work for a short period of time, it will not be beneficial for the long haul.
- One place where a mini-classroom approach may work is reviewing what you have learned already. Over the summer, skills will diminish, since what we aren’t using we are in danger of losing. Instead of jumping in where you left off in the spring, print out some worksheets from the worksheet generator and review addition, subtraction, or multiplication together as a family. Depending on where your students are in their math progression, go back to the previous level(s) and watch key lessons on the DVD and review key concepts. Maybe the young scholars could take turns being the teacher, and teach previously studied concepts to their siblings.
If you have any ideas that have worked for you, feel free to write and share and I will pass them along to your fellow laborers.
I trust you each have had a good month,
Steve Demme
Testimonial of the Month from Nikki-Lynn in Sarasota, FL
We are using the Alpha & Primer in our homeschooling curriculum with our girls and when ordering took your recommendation and started a level back – to make sure they had ’no gaps’ in concepts and I have to say I’m SO happy we did this.
I am seeing lightbulb moments each and every day with the girls as we watch your instruction videos together then work on the practice pages / sheets.
I have always had a difficult time with math myself, so teaching it to them was a bit overwhelming. With your program however its been nothing but amazing!
It literally IS MATH YOU SEE !
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU !
You are amazing and your program IS fantastic!
One of our twin daughters said “Math used to hate on me but now its starting to like me more every single day and I’m not so scared of it anymore”.
JOY JOY JOY !!
Sincerely,
Nikki-Lynn
Sarasota, FL
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
My daughter 18 is having a hard time in college math1 very basic but barelypassing. help! my sons not doing good either they are 12y/o. thank you.
nancy
Hi Nancy,
Often students have trouble moving on in math because there are certain concepts that they don’t understand. Often this is fractions, but it may be other things as well.
Math skills are best built step-by-step on a solid foundation. This is why Math-U-See does not have grade levels on its books. Instead, it asks students to start at the point where they experience frustration or confusion, and work from there. (Sometimes starting before the frustration point can build confidence and understanding.)
The program is flexible, so each student can move on as quickly as they are able to.
You can find more information on our website at mathusee.com. There are placement tests at that can help you get an idea of where your children might need to start.
After they take the placement test, you can call us at 888-854-6284, and someone can help you decide what best fits your situation.
Miriam for Math-U-See
I have a time period that is Math time. With 8 kids learning from 6 different Math books and 2 in preschool, I have to know that it is Math time for my brain (not theirs). I try to work with different kids on different days, and then watch for weak areas.
It is not easy and yes sometimes the ones who are not having time with mom wander off mentally if not physically. Still, I have found that if I have different times for Math for each child, then Math does not get done for some because Mommy cannot gear up for a different lesson throughout the day.
I think that Math just requires a lot of mental effort on everyone’s part. I have also found that slowing down in the early years and allowing my children a chance to master the concepts was my biggest weakness. I am really focusing on that with my younger crew of kiddos.
I wanted so badly to just be able to say my 6 year old has completed 1st grade math. I realized that was exactly opposite of why I was homeschooling. Now I just use the titles of the books (ie: Gamma), and I do not even tell them what grade Math it is.
We have used Math U See since our first child she was old enough to do Math. This is her Senior year, and we have been pleased with MUS from day one!
Nancy, thank you so much for sharing your experience. I am only formally schooling my oldest, and two younger ones, but I love hearing from parents with large families. I glean so much wisdom, especially organization ideas!
I love math you see very much 1. because it is really clear and also it comes with blocks so you can SEE the math i mean how cool is that.I’m am a homeschooler student and so I wrote a blog post about math you see my blog is called http://birdysnest.wordpress.com/.
I homeschool both my kids and find it is ok some of the time, but not all of the time. My kids are three years apart and we will sometimes work together when one of them (usually my youngest) is struggling to learn a concept. When the youngest is feeling negatively about a lesson, my oldest will step in and build her up, and help her understand it. She now actually prefers her older brother to help her in these situations. It builds both her, and his confidence. Her’s because he is patient, and takes the time to help her, and is her peer. For him it builds his self esteem to be able to effectively “teach” her the lesson. Not to mention when someone is able to teach someone else, it is a sure sign that they “get it”.
We just found your program, so we have not used it yet, can’t wait to get started with it.
I think what Mr. Demme is talking about here is artificially trying to keep two students together. It is great to work together when it fits, and having older students help younger ones is a fantastic idea. I agree that teaching is one of the best ways to learn.
If you have more questions as you start Math-U-See, check out our FaceBook page. It is a great source of information and assistance from us and from other users.
- Jason for Math-U-See
I have 8 children, 5 of whom are homeschooled. My 1st and 2nd grade boys are using Math-U-See for the first time this year, and we have been very pleased with it. It was a good choice to switch from the curriculum we were previously using. I majored in Math in college, so I have some experience and authority to say that Mr. Demme’s teaching approach is excellent. He teaches math exactly the way I have “seen” it in all my years of loving math. My boys are using Alpha and Beta. I considered putting them both at the same level for teaching ease, but in the end decided against it and I’m so glad I did. Here’s why: My 1st grader reads much better than my 2nd grader. I have been teaching them both at the same level for their phonics class, and I have observed all the negative results that Mr. Demme outlined above. The better reader is quicker to shout out answers, and his older brother is discouraged and quiet. We are barely 2 months into the school year, so I am now separating the two. If I had put them both at the same level for math, I’m sure I would have seen exactly the same results. Beta seems to be a little difficult at times for my 2nd grader, and alpha sometimes seems too easy for my 1st grader, but I’m getting the hang of it and adjusting to meet their individual needs. I wish we had been using Math-U-See from the beginning, and I look forward to starting my next child with Primer next year!
I am a mom of 4 ages, 11, 8, 6 and 4. I am so happy we with MUS, my older son had trouble in math when he attended Montessorri school, after homeschooling for 2 years using MUS, math is easy for him and I find that they retain the material a lot easier and master it, which is the most important. Thank you!
our pastors wife had learned about mathusee while home educating their youngest child. she has had some higher educations experience and had a lot of knowledge about formulas ect. she knew how, but not why. she and i have talked about math u see and she said that she loved it because she could finally understand the “why” of the formulas that her professors had never explained. this encourages me because i am only high school graduate. i stopped my math at pre algebra and never cared to learn any more than that because, as my grades indicated, i wasn’t very good at it. it encourages me that as “uneducated” as i am, i can hear an “educated” person tell me that they learned while they were teaching with math u see. it gives me hope that as i teach my children, i will understand what i couldn’t before, and i’ll be expanding my education. sadly but gladly my own addition skills have improved. i clearly never mastered it while in school before they moved us on to bigger and better things that just gradually got worse until i gave up all together. thank you for developing this program and making it easy to use from a parent/teacher perspective and fun for kids.
We have only used MathUSee as our cirriculum for homeschooling. My daughter, Julianne, has taken 1.5 years to finish the Alpha book. She starts “3rd grade” in February. We wouldn’t move forward until she appeared to have mastered the concepts. We just received the Beta book and are planning on starting it tomorrow, but I am discovering that although she still struggles with the addition and subtractions tables, I think the bigger issue is that she conceptually doesn’t understand addition and subtraction. She will apply a +8 rule for a -2 rule, etc. I think because even in some of the subtraction problems, she is doing addition to get to the answer, it’s been confusing for her. I know that the kids aren’t supposed to count (I’ve never let her do that), but when she’s consistently tripped up on +2 and -2 problems, wouldn’t it help her conceptualize better?
*Jen, education isn’t always from a building (thank goodness).. you are becoming more and more educated as you teach your children both from text, God’s word and also coming from your children back to you. Some of my greatest lessons have come from my children in our daily life.
Btw.. you don’t know me but I am very proud of you.
Blessings,
Jill, M.Ed
*Jen, education isn’t always from a building (thank goodness).. you are becoming more and more educated as you teach your children both from text, God’s word and also coming from your children back to you. Some of my greatest lessons have come from my children in our daily life.
Btw.. you don’t know me but I am very proud of you.
Blessings,
Jill, M.Ed (mom to 4, home school for 8 yrs)