A few years ago, I was able to review a math program called
Math Mammoth. At the time, I chose the full 3rd grade curriculum from their Light Blue Series. In a nutshell, my son did not like the way it was laid out. He is my little math kid, and was fighting me to do math. So, when I was asked to review Math Mammoth again, I was not thrilled at the prospect. This time, though, I reviewed the
Blue Series. The Blue Series is topic specific rather than a full grade curriculum. I am surprised to say that I love it.
My youngest son is now in 5th grade. We have found a math curriculum that we adore, but doesn't give a ton of practice problems. I chose the topics of division, fractions, and decimals for him. Those are really the last topics that he needs to master before we move into pre-algebra. We started with division. The e-book is about 80 pages long. The book is broken up really well. There are not a ton of problems in each lesson, which is fantastic. Yes, they do need practice, but too much practice just drives them to hate it, in my experience. I feel this is the happy medium. It is great the way it takes each step and builds on it. I also like the e-book format. I could choose to start in the middle and print off just the pages that I needed. I guess you could start in the middle of a regular workbook too, but you couldn't reprint pages that got messed up or need extra practice. They actually call their book a "worktext." It is like a workbook where you can write on the pages, but it is also like a textbook because it contains the explanations.
I'm really not sure what else I can say about it. The program is very self-explanatory. The topic specific books are a very affordable addition to any program. The prices range between $2.20 and $7.50 per book. If you want, you can order the whole set for $105. If you have a child just starting in math, I would maybe consider that. Otherwise, I would just order as needed. I may order another one for the more difficult multiplication, just to make sure he's got that down. If you're not sure where to start, they have placement tests on their website. I kind of wish they had these topic specific books for the upper levels, like algebra or geometry. My older one could definitely use some more practice in factoring.
I received these e-books in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation. You can read more reviews
here.
