R&S or CLE for Math

[home4good]

My daughter was using Math Mammoth last year and part of this year, but I am beginning to realize although it explains the concepts well, she isn't retaining a lot of the material. The way the material was presented was just too outside the box for her, so much of the concepts were lost. She is a much more straight forward learner, conceptual explanations just confuse her. I have picked up a few CLE booklets and R&S 4. She loves both! HELP! Which ones do you prefer? I know that MP chooses R&S and it looks like a very thorough, excellent program. I think all the black and white pages full of a lot problems, overwhelms my DD9 very much. She does enjoy solidifying the concepts though. I want to make sure she understands numbers inside and out and how to manipulate them well before algebra. Will both programs teach this? I honestly love that CLE is a little more independent, and the pages are a little less cluttered and have a little color too! AND that they can write in the book! But the valuable skill of transposing problems from book to paper isn't lost on me either TIA for all your help and advice! I would love to hear your thoughts!

Beth
DD11 5M/6M Blend
DD9 3A
First year with MP!

[KF2000]

Re: R&S or CLE for Math

Well, you are going to get a very similar outcome with either series, so i don't think you can go wrong here. We have never used CLE, but we love our R&S books. A couple things to keep in mind is that our kids do write in the books even though they are hardback. Fourth may be a bit trickier because of space issues, but it can be done. The book price is the same as if it were a consumable workbook, so I would not hesitate to allow them to write in it. On days where there are a lot of very simple things to answer we even do them orally and it goes much more quickly that way. Or specific sections can be done orally to cut down on the number of problems they are responsible for themselves. Lastly, I usually cut down the number of problems in some sections. So if there are 20 to do, I will say, "do 10, but if you miss any, you will need to do that many more to replace the ones you missed."

And as far as independence goes, the books from 4th grade up are written to the student. We have found them to be very good at fostering independent work in math. There are times I need to step in and help with a concept here or there, but most days they do the work themselves, either they or I check it, I review it and do the oral drills with them. Very hands off most of the time. (For 4th up)

AMDG,
Sarah

[Colomama]

Re: R&S or CLE for Math

Agreed. These two are both very good.

My son switched to CLE this year and he loves it. It is mastery based just like R&S, but has more continuous review. It's like, spiral mastery. Math facts are taught, but they continue to review previous concepts for much longer than R&S does. My son needed this extended review.

For example, he's doing grade 2 this year, but everyday continues to review grade 1 facts. This was missing with R&S. It reviewed math facts 11 and higher throughout second grade, but never reviewed 4+2, for example, from first grade.

[home4good]

Re: R&S or CLE for Math

Well, you are going to get a very similar outcome with either series, so i don't think you can go wrong here. We have never used CLE, but we love our R&S books. A couple things to keep in mind is that our kids do write in the books even though they are hardback. Fourth may be a bit trickier because of space issues, but it can be done. The book price is the same as if it were a consumable workbook, so I would not hesitate to allow them to write in it. On days where there are a lot of very simple things to answer we even do them orally and it goes much more quickly that way. Or specific sections can be done orally to cut down on the number of problems they are responsible for themselves. Lastly, I usually cut down the number of problems in some sections. So if there are 20 to do, I will say, "do 10, but if you miss any, you will need to do that many more to replace the ones you missed."

And as far as independence goes, the books from 4th grade up are written to the student. We have found them to be very good at fostering independent work in math. There are times I need to step in and help with a concept here or there, but most days they do the work themselves, either they or I check it, I review it and do the oral drills with them. Very hands off most of the time. (For 4th up)

AMDG,
Sarah

Thank you so much Sarah! Those are some great tips! I'll be giving them a try

Beth

[home4good]

Re: R&S or CLE for Math

Agreed. These two are both very good.

My son switched to CLE this year and he loves it. It is mastery based just like R&S, but has more continuous review. It's like, spiral mastery. Math facts are taught, but they continue to review previous concepts for much longer than R&S does. My son needed this extended review.

For example, he's doing grade 2 this year, but everyday continues to review grade 1 facts. This was missing with R&S. It reviewed math facts 11 and higher throughout second grade, but never reviewed 4+2, for example, from first grade.

Thank you so much! I appreciate your input so much!

Beth