Math-U-See and Common Core

This year, Math-U-See (the math curriculum we use in my home) changed their curriculum to align with Common Core standards.  I've heard a lot of negativity about Common Core in general as it is being implemented in public schools across the nation, so I was a bit worried when I made my purchase for the next level of math for Missa and Liddy.  Missa is about 2/3 done with Gamma so I got her Delta, and Liddy was waiting for me to buy her a Gamma book for a while now.  Well, I sat down with my Gamma materials from Missa and with Liddy's new Gamma books (student workbook and test book both) to see what changes there were.

First, a little background.  The Gamma level that Missa is doing is an older, comb-bound one from 2004.  Yes, the books are from the year after she was born.  Math doesn't typically change much, so I didn't have an issue with an older math book since it was free.  Math-U-See teaches mastery, meaning that you work on ONE topic at a time until you have it instead of doing a little bit of a bunch of things.  Gamma level teaches multiplication, so the entire level starts with 1*1 kind of problems and by the end of it your child will do stuff like 4,569*845 or something like that.  A traditional spiral program will teach basic multiplication facts and then immediately go into basic division facts (division is the focus of the Delta level).

I ended up going through every single page and problem in the workbook and test book both to compare and this is what I found.  There are no extra lessons or changes to any of the problems either book.  The only change is an enrichment page for each lesson, marked lesson page G.  These pages are exactly the same as the extra practice pages in the test book for level Alpha, only included in the work text instead of separately.  For example, page 3G is two dot-to-dot using skip counting, and page 4G is a pictograph with questions and a crossword puzzle.  These pages certainly going to be useful for some of my children who refuse to learn a concept without doing some sort of "fun" activity with it.  But I don't think that they add too much the program it stands simply because of the fact that Math-U-See is in fact a mastery based curriculum with systematic review.

Personally, after using MUS from Primer on up through my oldest about to start Delta now, I really like the changes.  The enrichment pages are totally optional, and do reinforce the material being taught in the lesson.  But also they do sometimes introduce a concept that isn't in the curriculum at that point to create a little "oh I remember hearing about that before" moment when it is taught fully in a later level.  I have up through Algebra 1 sitting here waiting for my children to need them.  I know many parents use the student materials as non-consumable texts, but my family is not one of them so we buy each child a new workbook when they need it.  I think that we may do most of the enrichment pages, but I'm sure there will be some that we don't do just because they don't need the extra practice or I don't want to take the time to teach whatever concept they are introducing.  The program is still the same if you choose to delete those pages, or you can use them and add a little to it.  Either way, you can't go wrong with the curriculum as it is now.

If you want a review of the teacher materials, you'll have to wait for another post because I've not had a chance to get into the Delta set I purchased for Missa (I had to buy the teacher set with DVD since it is the only level I didn't already have those materials)