Little Bits of Life: Demme Learning's Math-U-See Review

$Demme Learning Math U See Review$

It's that time of year where we all start looking for great math programs. This time we are trying out Demme Learning AKA Math-U-See. We will be using the Gamma level books as well as the Digital Packs. Since we are using the Gamma level books we are also using the Digital Pack for the Gamma level. The goal of the Math-U-See programs is to help produce students that are confident problem solvers that enjoy doing math.

This was our first try at a Math-U-See program. We went with the Gamma level because my oldest struggles with memorizing her multiplication tables. I gave her the online assessment and it suggest starting with Gamma. We used Math-U-See Gamma as a supplement 3 days a week. Demme Learning really blessed out family with the box they sent us. We received the student work book, the test book and instructional manual and instructional DVD as well as the digital pack for 12 months. We also received the Integer Block Kit which has 133-pieces.
The student work book has work pages that helps to reinforce the lessons, that are taught on the instructional DVD or the Digital pack. Each lesson has multiple pages. How ever we found that for some lessons she didn't need to use all of them. Like when she practiced her 1's and 0's she got those memorized quickly and didn't need the extra practice. But when she got to the 3's she used all the work pages and got in extra practice. Great workbook its easy to follow and she doesn't have trouble finding the work pages for the lesson she is working on. I am loving that the workbook had review areas where it refreshes what was learned in earlier levels.

The test book is, well self explanatory its a book with all the test for the Gamma level in it. I like the separate test book because I can toss it in the portfolio box and its all together. Then I can easily select random workbook pages to be put in the portfolio box.

The Instruction Manual is handy it helps you teach the program as well as giving you the solutions to the test and work pages. I like having the solutions because lets face it math is not my strong point. I found teaching from the instruction manual to be simple enough. It makes the lessons easy to explain everything is in order and it provides examples and explanations to help you teach it.

The best part is if your having trouble explaining the lessons you can always defer to the Video Lessons. I am told the videos are more for the teacher to watch to see how to teach the lesson. But for my daughter the Video lessons make the program. She much prefers to hear the lesson and see a demonstration from the Videos. We love how he explains each lesson, he covers everything thoroughly. He is quick and to the point and that is important to my non math loving daughter. She can watch the lesson over and over if she needs to. We can watch the DVD or we can use the Digital Pack.

The digital pack is something new from Demme Learning. The digital packs include 12-month access to the level you choose in our case Gamma. It has streaming instructional videos and a PDF instruction manual which has lesson and test solutions, skip counting songs on MP3,a PDF songbook. The digital pack also includes Digital Manipulatives but you need to use Chrome or Safari. It does not include the student work book or test book. The digital manipulatives are basically the Integer Blocks but on the computer screen. You can move them around and manipulate them like you would the physical blocks. We use these when we have to do math on the go. Another bonus to the digital pack is the work sheet generator and online drill. The work sheet generator is great for making extra practice pages. You can make more work sheets for any of the lessons covered in the level you purchased. Online drill is exactly that, a way to drill facts with out having to have physical flash cards. You can drill for addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. Then there are some selections you can make under each one.

We finished our main math curriculum several weeks a go. So we have been using Math-U-See Gamma 3-4 days a week, to go back and try to master Multiplication tables. Along with the student workbook and video lessons, my daughter is using the online drill at least one day a week now. Its not her favorite thing to do but she likes it better than standard flash cards. We have used lots of pages from the work sheet generator. We have been using them to review addition and subtraction and simple division as well as multiplication. It great to be able to brush up on the things we covered earlier in the year.

Other crew members have reviewed different levels of Math-U-See and I would love for you to click the banner and see what they have to say.