You can listen to Steve’s segment “kids and math” on Paul Butler’s blog.

Despite years of federally funded education initiatives, a recent study by the NAEP reports that our children are still performing poorly in basic mathematics.

Steve Demme is the Founder, President and Author of Math U See. He helps us understand why our kids are struggling and what we can do about it.

In this feature, Mr. Demme mentions the first step in helping our children improve in math is to ascertain what they already know. The Math U See website has a number of competency exams available. Information is available here.

Dear Steve, one of your students - Matthew Notaro - won the 2009 Google SketchUp Kid’s Digital Design Contest and was honored by the Howe brothers - Popular Science’s 2009 Inventors/Invention of the year.

Your Math program was a direct result to his success.

In 7th grade he got so bogged down by Saxon Math’s overkill review and drill he spent over 2 hours a day per lesson and slid farther and farther behind. We finally listened to some friends and ordered your intro DVD. Math U See’s program fit our family perfectly. We happily “re-taught” Fractions and PreAlgebra.

Because your program teaches math skills in a logical, natural progression without the fluff and overkill drill - he finished Algebra Honors in one semester freeing up valuable time. With that time he toured Howe and Howe Technologies, interviewed with the Howe brothers, spent 160 hours using a CAD program - building the skills needed to win the Google SketchUp competition.

Math U See is directly assisting Matthew in pursuing his dream of becoming a mechanical engineer. God is using Math U See as a ministry for His Kingdom purposes. Thank you for being here.

The Notaro Family Homeschool

links:

• Open Architecture Network Contest
• Matthew’s Winning SketchUp
• Matthew with the Howe Brothers

Congratulations Matthew!

This is Cole. He is my 11 year old (6th grade) son. For 4 years we have stressed, cried, and begged the school to help figure out what was going on with him. They kept saying ADHD (surprise!) But after being tested twice he still wasn’t diagnosed ADHA. I started pushing for him to be tested for dyslexia. But, Ky doesn’t do that. I finally had him tested myself and guess what? Momma was right! But KY doesn’t recognize dyslexia as a LD so rather than fight the system I pulled Cole out and began homeschooling. He is a totally different child! He is not angry all the time and I enjoy our time together! When the MUS block came in the mail Cole wanted to play with them but I didn’t have time to work with him (sick baby) After a few minuets he called me into the kitchen and this is what he had made. I nearly cried!

Since he has started with the MUS program. We started with Beta and he is doing 2-3 lessons a day. I hope to have him back on grade level before long.

Thanks for making math so easy!
Jini and Cole

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Home schooling most definitely affects a student’s chances of getting into a good university. In most cases, it improves their chances.

Most home school materials and curricula are designed for use by the parent who is not an expert in every subject. I’m taking Pre Calculus this year, and my mom barely got through high school algebra. We use a home school math curriculum called Math U See. It is a manipulative based program that is intended to make abstract math concepts feel concrete and only introduce one new concept at a time, meaning you don’t go on to arc functions if you still don’t understand how to read a trigonometric table or find the sine, cosine, and tangent of a triangle. One step at a time. It comes with DVD lessons that are being conducted by an excellent teacher who is actually teaching a class but is focused on the purpose of teaching the home schooled viewer. It comes with a very clear student work book and test book with a parent/teacher guide that provides an answer key and walks the parents step by step through helping their child understand the lesson. Ever since we started using this program I’ve been doing GREAT in math, and my mom has been learning along with me. She’s doing great too.

It’s fun to run across such great testimonies.

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photo from lillarkie/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

Homeschool books and magazines often suggest that you choose curriculum to fit the teaching methods and philosophy you prefer. Did you ever wonder how Math-U-See fits with different methods of homeschooling? Here is an interesting list.

How does Math-U-See fit with the Charlotte Mason approach?

The lessons are short and free of “twaddle.” There are lots of opportunities for hands-on experience, and students are encouraged to “teach back” the concepts to the parent (narration).

How does Math-U-See fit with Classical Homeschooling?

Memorization of facts is encouraged in the early grades, and mastery of concepts required at every level.

How does Math-U-See fit with Traditional  teaching methods?

Concepts are taught on dvd, and workbooks are used for practice and review.

How does Math-U-See fit with a Relaxed or Unschooling approach?

The books are not assigned grade levels, so it is easy for students to work at their own pace or interest level.

How does Math-U-See fit with Unit Studies?

Topics are grouped together by concept, helping students to see how math ideas are related to each other and the whole structure of mathematics.

How does Math-U-See fit with your approach to homeschooling?

During Math today, my 9 year old made an Orange Two-lip, and Pink Three-lip we had to share! She calculated the number they represent too!

Here is a picture of my 5 year old son making his castle. He has taught himself some addition facts and recognition of two digit numbers just playing with the blocks and watching the DVDs with his sisters!

We are all excited about learning math with Math-U-See and tell everyone we know about it! Thanks so much!

Sincerely,

A very happy Math-U-See fan!

A Two Lip

A Three Lip

Forest at the Math-U-See booth before the convention.

Some students meeting their math teacher/movie star

Steve, always teaching

A few hours later if you look at your clock at the exact right time you will see 12:34:56 on 7/8/09

Pretty neat huh? 

• perfect opposites free

Here is a portion of the post…

So last week after Sweetheart finished her math review, what did she make?

Why Math Man of course!

Oh come on. That’s funny.

Read the full post to see “Math Man” compared with “Mat Man”