Math U See Alpha Review

 In my post about what had and hadn't worked last year, I talked about how Saxon was the one bit of curriculum that simply didn't work with Little Man. I made the decision to switch to Math U See, and I am so glad I did! I chose the Alpha to begin, and Little Man has been flying through it. Today I am sharing my thoughts, pros and cons with you. This isn't sponsored or gifted, I am just wanting to share with you my experience. And that is what it is...my experience. Just like with Saxon, you may have a different experience. Every child and situation is different, and so curriculum needs will be different as well!

Math U See is math...that you see! It comes with not only the Workbook, teacher book, test book, and DVD, but also with manipulative blocks to help the child see the different numbers units-tens-hundreds. Math U See uses the blocks to build numbers, and the workbooks to write, and the child also says the numbers as well. Each lesson concentrates on a certain topic and repeats the topic until the student fully understands what is being taught. This has helped my son so much! By the time the week is over, he has a full grasp on what is being taught. 

I actually have a 'hack' for that-when doing a lesson, if your child understands the material first try, you can skip to the review, and if your child is able to do that with no problems then you can go straight to the enrichment and then test. Going through the 'easy' lessons quickly allows extra time for a student to spend in the lessons that might be harder for them to grasp. 

Something that my son has really enjoyed about the curriculum are the Enrichment lessons. These are often dot-to-dots, 'coloring by number', drawing word problems, or doing silly word problems. My son refers to these as the 'fun' lessons. I love when fun is mixed with learning! 

One con I see with this curriculum is that it doesn't focus on things like days of the week, months of the year, etc. It does teach telling time at the end, but the other things I have to go over with him myself. This is a small thing though, and we go over dates and things often. 

Overall, I highly recommend Math U See Alpha! My son doesn't dread (actually he quite looks forward to it!) math any more, and it is something he can do almost independently. Having a couple of subjects that don't take all of my attention, really help as I navigate the whole 2 under 2 thing! Do you have any questions? Let me know!