Math Mammoth offers a several products for teaching students in grades 1 through 12.  The Math Mammoth program you use is typically based on the needs of your student.

The Light Blue Series

Math Mammoth’s Light Blues Series is a complete, full math curriculum that is available for grades 1-7.  The Light Blue Series uses a mastery approach, and allows students to delve into all aspects of a particular math topic.  We are using grades 4 and 6 in our homeschool.  Since this is our first year using Math Mammoth, the girls did have to adjust to the way the program is written.  The Light Blue Series includes all of the directions for lessons within the student text.  There isn’t a teacher’s guide since the program can easily be used independently for students who can comprehend without help.  Since my daughters are new to using the program, I reiterate the directions to them to ensure that they understand what is expected. 

The work texts are divided into chapters by topic; there are about 30 to 50 pages per chapter. Within the chapters are the individual lessons.  Each lesson has about ten problems with each problem having at least three parts (in most cases it’s more than three).  Before each lesson there is an information box explaining the concept that is to be focused on; the information box also includes several examples to help students understand.  Due to the length of some lessons, the girls do not always complete a full lesson in one sitting.  They tend to work on two pages at a time.  Since the program isn’t broken down by lesson number and is instead divided by mathematical topic, I am not certain how many weeks it will take us to complete an entire grade level. 

For grades 4 and 6, the student work texts are divided into two books.  We are using the downloaded copies so this requires me to print them for the girls to use.  The download also includes an answer key, tests for each chapter, and cumulative reviews. 

Math Mammoth Review Workbooks

The Review Workbooks are available for grades 1 through 7.  The review worksheets take a spiral approach.  This provides the student with a mix review of previous learned skills.  There is very little explanation in the review books since students are reviewing skills that should have already been learned. We used the grades 3 and 5 review books during the summer to help keep the girls up to par with their math skills.  Although they hadn’t used Math Mammoth’s full curriculum before, they were still able to work through the review work without struggle.  I believe the review workbooks can be used in conjunction with any other math curriculum.  This will also provide students the ability to translate their knowledge by being challenged by a method that they do not typically use.

Make It Real Learning Workbooks

This particular set caught my eye because they are more of a challenge.  The workbooks go beyond basic comprehension of math. Instead, the problems within these books require the learner to dig deep to apply.  Application is an important step to becoming fully math literate.

The Make It Real Arithmetic II book includes ten lessons.  The lessons delve into unit costs, budgeting, combinations, and statistics.  The projects within Arithmetic II help answer the question most students have when it comes to math, “When will I use this?”

In our home school we have dedicated math problem solving time once a week, I am looking forward to incorporating these ten lessons. 

Math Mammoth has plenty of options to choose from to help make math enjoyable and help children understand. 

-Product review by Latonya Moore, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, October, 2016