It’s About Time
In 1990 I wrote Foundations, the first book in Math-U-See. About that time I received an excited phone call, “Come quickly, I have something to show you!” I drove to the Anthony homestead in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, where Marcy and her daughter Crystal showed me how to build a clock using blocks!
In April, Marci stopped by our booth, and we took this picture commemorating the development of our Block Clock. Thank you, Anthonys, for helping us ”See Time”.
Gifted Students and Math-U-See
I will keep my comments to a minimum so you can hear from some happy parents. As you read these interesting accounts, keep in mind that I began my professional teaching career as a high school teacher. When I began creating Math-U-See, it was with an eye of helping students succeed at the secondary level.
I chose to employ hands-on manipulatives so students could “see” and understand the concepts of math. I knew algebra and geometry were not difficult if students had a good foundation in the basics.
Over the past 20+ years I have been blessed and surprised by the number of emails and letters I have received attesting to how well this build-write-say approach has helped students with learning challenges. I rejoice with these parents and children. Having a son with Down Syndrome I know how challenging it can be to try and teach abstract concepts to him. This email just came in today:
Our two girls just got up on a Saturday morning and did their math , without asking : ) They want to do math everyday, now that says something! We love this program and our dyslexic 10 year old is getting it, that makes us so happy!
- Lisa T.
We also get emails and comments posted on our web site about kids who are on the other end of the learning spectrum. These students may be classified as gifted. Because we use manipulatives to illustrate abstract concepts, students are able to grasp math concepts more readily and move quickly through all of our levels. Read on!
This isn’t a question, it’s a thank you! When we started homeschooling my son 3 years ago(3rd grade), math was a struggle. He has now completed Gamma through Epsilon, and math is his favorite subject. We were helping relatives the other week, and my son and his 17 year old public schooled cousin were out in the yard goofing off and talking about school. My 10 year old son started writing out problems in chalk on the porch from the solving for the unknown lessons in Epsilon, and asking his cousin if he knew how to do them. When I came outside later, my teenage nephew said to me ”He’s learning how to do Algebra way earlier than I did!” He couldn’t believe the problems ds was making up and solving on the concrete. Thank you Math U see! We are starting Zeta next week, and plan to use Math U See through high school.
- Stacie B.Steve, I sent your company a blurb about my son, educated mainly via MUS (starting with the old “Advanced Math”). Though he loved math, he was slow in all other subjects. He went as far as pre-calc, and I was told that your math was too light for college. HAHAHA.
He majored in math, did a summer internship at Harvard, then a fall internship at NASA, and then was accepted for TEN doctoral programs at places such as Minnesota, Illinois, Colorado, Penn State, Wisconsin, Purdue and others. He ended up taking the full-ride to MIT’s Dept. of Aerospace & Astronautics, where he’ll start in the fall–one of the only math majors (with no engineering experience) in the program.
He really thrived with MUS! I chuckle when people say that they want something more in depth or harder. Guess it was in depth enough for him to major in math and be accepted into MIT’s doctoral program.
- Vicki S.
