McRuffy math?

So by now I am absolutely convinced I want Moving Beyond the page level 4-5 for Peanut’s  2017-2018 school year. That’s a given! I honestly am very excited and anxious to order it, and can’t wait till it arrives so we can jump right into all the wonderful stories, activities, and leaning some amazing things along the journey through this coming school year!

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But math. Oh boy, why are you so hard to choose! What I really wanted was RightStart Math 2nd edition, but WOWZERS!!!! the price!!!! I would need to sell a kidney and take out a second mortgage! $294 for one year’s worth of math!!!!! Ouch! Don’t forget the cost to ship it here – probably another $150! That’s $450 for one year of math!!! No way! not in this lifetime!

Moving Beyond the page offers RightStart Math 1st edition, and it’s a more reasonable $157.50, but it’s 16 years old, it’s format is much more confusing, and it has a lot less hands on games than the 2nd edition. I mean, they updated it for a reason, right? I was set to just suck it up and order it along with our main curriculum, but it just felt like I was settling for second best somehow. I was not happy. So I thought maybe there may be a way to ‘tweak’ it, or find something very similar but more affordable.

So with a heavy sigh, I did some online research. With my trusted coffee steaming away in my hand, and soothing my frazzled soul, I read tons of reviews. Then I stumbled onto a website with a math curriculum selector and that was a total game changer! It has a fairly in depth quiz about your child’s learning style, your teaching style, and then spits out your scores for various math curricula.

The secular grade K-6 rates your compatibility for Beast Academy, Math Mammoth, Mathematical Reasoning, McRuffy, Miquon, RightStart, Saxon, Shiller, Singapore, and  Teaching Textbooks. The Christian math k-6 rates your compatibility for Abeka, Bob Jones, Christian Light Education, Horizons, Life of Fred, Lifepac, Math U See, Rod and Staff, and Switched on Schoolhouse.

Yes, I was surprised to learn that even math can have religion thrown in! I’m speechless! Not that I’m not spiritual, but for me, I’m not integrating our faith and beliefs with our school curriculum, it’s a very personal choice.

So I did the quiz, and was surprised (sort of) by our results! Our scores:

• Score for Math Mammoth: 3 I own this, and was thinking of using it in a couple of years. Seems it may not be a good fit, at least not right now. Maybe down the road…
• Score for Mathematical Reasoning: 8 We are using this now! It’s not awful, but not great either. It gets the job done, but with no explanations.
• Score for McRuffy: 13 Wow! look at that! Tied with my first choice, and costs significantly less too! This just became my first choice!
• Score for RightStart: 13 Reinforcing what I thought, RightStart would be the best option for us!
• Score for Saxon: 6 this was my backup, and was seriously considering this since on paper it’s almost a RightStart clone! But look at that score! Less than what we use now!!!
• Score for Math U See: 2 Ironic! This is what we started with at the beginning of our 2016-2017 year! We were not even half way through Primer when we decided enough was enough, and put it on the shelf. We may try to use it in a year or two, but it just wasn’t working for us on so many levels!

I had heard of McRuffy once before, but never thought anything about it. Maybe the name turned me off? I don’t know. But now, here I am looking at their website, checking out reviews, and falling more and more under McRuffy’s spell! I like it. I really like it.

Check out this Video, It lists the “cons” of this program as only going to grade 5! Wow!!! This says a lot. This program is so good that it’s a “con” that it doesn’t continue on into higher grades!

I am usually totally against getting curriculum from two or more places, but this year, I think I’ll make an exception. Two places. Two boxes to ship. And I’ll still come in just at my budget, maybe a few dollars more.

The best place I’ve found to get McRuffy’s is at Rainbow Resources, and they also sell the manipulatives kit too!

So now I’m feeling pretty good about this year’s choices. I hope it’s a fun, eventful, learning filled year filled with tons of those light bulb turning on “aha” moments for Peanut! And lots of hands on art and crafts. And sparklies. We need sparklies! Now to reward myself with a warm cup of coffee, with a sprinkle of cocoa and a dash of vanilla! Way to go Mama!!!