Posted in Reviews of homeschooling products
Math Mammoth is a company that produces fully reproducible math books and worksheets. The author, Maria Miller, had a master degree in mathematics with the Teacher educational studies as well as minors in physics and statistics. The Math Mammoth books became a product based on her experience in tutoring homeschooled children. Her objective with the books is to help parents and children to understand mathematics. The math is explained using simple terminology and even the mom who is not strong in math can use it!
Math Mammoth is divided in 4 series. The Blue Series explains a specific topic for example multiplication, clock or fractions. They are perfect for remedial or supplemental work. The LightBlue Series is organized by grades; the books contain a complete mathematics curriculum for a specific grade. Each book covers the topics for that grade and also contains tests and a worksheet maker. The Golden Series presents workbooks for a grade-level. These are great for homework, for general review, reinforcement, or practice material. Finally, the Green Series is similar to the Golden Series bu organized by topics.
Because we already had our math curriculum for the year, I decided to pick specific books from the Blue Series that I thought the MathUSee curriculum was lacking. I had sent some ideas to Maria and she sent me a bunch of them. I received via e-mail the Early Geometry (grades 1-3), Introduction to Fractions (grades 2-4), Canadian Money (grades 1-3), Clock, and Measuring (grades 1-3).
I must honestly say that I am quite impressed with the quality of the books. They are easy to use and very colorful! The images are bright and clear and the instructions are very simple to follow. You will find a variety of exercises going from drawing shapes in Early Geometry to more complicated problems in Introduction to Fractions or Canadian Money. As for the Clock book, our math curriculum does introduce time lessons but I felt that more practice wouldn’t hurt.
This vendor really made the effort to reach out to Canadians because they created books specifically for us like Canadian Money and incorporated the metric systems which we use in Canada. The Canadian Money book has clear images of our money and even made sure that the Loonie and Toonie were there and not the old 1$ and 2$ paper bills!
In each book, you will also find free online resources related to the subject as well as a revision section and an answer key for the exercises found in the book.
I love the fact that you can purchase the books and receive them on e-mail. You can then save them on your hard drive and print them when you need it. PDF documents help you save on multiple purchases since you buy it once and can use them for as many children you have in your family. In our case, we have four kids which means I will be able to use these books four times during our homeschool journey! Each book in the Blue Series is quite affordable going from 2$ US to about 5$ US. The best part is that the author is always adding some new books as she writes them.
I discovered a vendor that I want to keep contact with because it is a nice supplement to have in hand for our math curriculum. I strongly suggest that you give them a try so that you can see how easy these books can be used.
