A Lifelong Learner
I was born at a young age and from the moment I entered the world my parents have been involved every step of the way. They raised and educated my three brothers and me at home with a philosophy of building lifelong learners. With four boys who each had a very different learning style, they were able to adapt and creatively develop an approach that produced a good outcome for all of us.

More importantly than just having me memorize and repeat facts, my parents taught me how to learn and how to apply that learning. I believe this is what every home educating parent wishes for their children. If we can’t apply the skills we are learning, then why are we learning them? Education needs real-life application, and in teaching children how to learn, we are equipping them with the skills they need to succeed in college, at the workplace and most importantly, in life. An old Chinese proverb states, “If you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he can eat for a lifetime.” We want students to learn to “learn for a lifetime.”

Here at Math-U-See we are in the business of building lifelong learners, not simply math students. Our complete K-12 math curriculum is skill based, parent engaged, and multi sensory. Steve Demme was a homeschool dad (mine) whose desire was to teach his kids to grow up and become lifelong learners. Math-U-See is a tool to help parents reach that goal.

To that end, we believe that education should be skill-based, applicable, and build on itself. The parent should be involved, and, because of the variety of learning styles of our students, education should be multi-sensory. We are proud to say that our beliefs about education are borne out in our curriculum.

National Summit on Education Reform
I recently attended the National Summit on Education Reform hosted by the Foundation for Excellence in Education and was excited to learn about the ideas for reforming America’s education system. Many of those ideas will seem quite familiar to our Math-U-See family. During one of the sessions, I commented to legislators and education directors at my table that Math-U-See has been training parents to teach this way for the last 21 years.

The main themes discussed during the conference had a strong correlation to the methods of teaching that I recognized from my experience as a homeschool graduate. For example, research indicates that it is important to assess the student’s level and move at his or her pace, focusing on key concepts and mastering those items before advancing. Progress should be monitored with continual assessment, and students benefit from a digital component to curriculum that allows the teacher to be a tutor rather than a lecturer. Not surprisingly, teachers that  teach the same child for multiple grades are better equipped to meet the needs of the child.

The difference between the 20th and 21st century education models is in a focus on application and preparation for life. Students learn better when teachers focus on application and make the learning relevant to the students’ lives. The focus should be on mastery rather than on grade levels. Teachers need continual training to ensure these best practices are being implemented, and in order to achieve the best results for the student, parental engagement is necessary.

It is encouraging to see the Math-U-See model and my own personal experience echoed in these proposed reforms in educational methods presented at the Educational Reform Summit. The philosophy of home education and Math-U-See are on the right track, and I believe that the larger world of education can benefit from the innovations that have come from parents getting involved and taking responsibility for their kids’ education from home.

Growing up, our family had a tradition. Every year at Thanksgiving each of us would write a list of what we were thankful for in the past year. This year at Math-U-See we are thankful for many things and we wanted to share them with you.

Peter, who teaches our online co-op classes, is thankful for the students that he has the privilege of teaching.

Susan from customer service is thankful for many things:

1. Customers with faithful hearts that are dedicated to their family core values and upbringing of their children.
2. A country where we have the freedom to homeschool.
3. Mentors and friends who helped her through years of homeschooling.

Kevin in accounting is thankful for his wife, his job and moving to Lancaster.

Joseph (our video guy) is thankful for the Math-U-See team and looking forward to decorating for Christmas.

Amanda from customer service is thankful for too many things to list, but most of all for her Savior Jesus Christ, family, friends and co-workers. She is also thankful for her country and the freedoms that allow us to worship and school our children at home!!

Jamie in IT is thankful for

1. The Lord who provides for us.
2. His awesome wife and kids .
3. Having a great job after looking for a full time job for 18 months.

Andy in shipping is thankful for God’s grace and healing!

Miriam, our Sr. Editor, is thankful for a job that she loves, and for the great young people that she gets to work with.

Christina from customer service is thankful for:

1. The moms and dads who do their research and choose Math-U-See for their children.
2. A job where she gets to encourage home educating moms.
3. Being in her 18th year of teaching Math-U-See to her children.

We are all thankful for old and new employees, and most of all, for our wonderful customers.

What are you thankful for?

Please tell us on our Math-U-See Facebook Page.

Ethan Demme

Prose on changing seasons:

In the springtime, Math-U-See employees are busy with fairs in every state. Our reps fly to and fro across the country, while the warehouse crew works overtime to ship fair orders. Trucks roll up to our doors with pallets of books, and other trucks roll out with packages for customers.

Finally, the fair schedule lightens as we move into the summer, while parents breathe a sigh of relief and go into vacation mode.

Math-U-See HQ

In beautiful Lancaster County, the sun shines, the showers fall, and the corn grows. In the Math-U-See warehouse, the shipping of books continues at a gentle pace. At the same time, our printer works to fill gaps in inventory, getting us ready for the back-to-school season. Outside the office windows, the corn keeps growing, and all is peaceful.

Suddenly, all across America, a startling phenomenon occurs. I call it the “turning of the calendar.” One by one, on the morning of August first, gentle hands turn up the calendar for the new month. There is a collective gasp that ruffles the leaves in the corn fields, and voices cry, “School will be here before we know it. I must order books!”

Our trusty sales staff and shipping crew spring into action as the orders pour in. The corn just keeps growing, but inside the warehouse, the pressure increases as each week goes by. We happily ship 2nd day and overnight, so school can start on time. As the tempo builds, we realize that all of you did an exceptional job this year of telling your friends about Math-U-See.

Thank You from Math-U-See.

Does your child have number sense? Success in mathematics seems to be linked to a few basic skills that are collectively known as “number sense.” Lack of these skills makes it very difficult to progress to more advanced math. Here are some ways to help your young child become aware of numbers and begin to use them.

The first step is to count everyday objects with your child. Count the toys as you pick them up, count the buttons on a coat, and count the spoons as you set the table. Once your child begins to count objects, ask for three blocks or four crayons. When he or she is comfortable with that, say, “I have three raisins. How many more do I need to make five?” Notice that children often can recite numbers before they are ready to match them one-to-one with objects.

Begin to teach number recognition by pointing out numbers on signs, package labels, and other places in your everyday surroundings. Check the library for picture books that feature numbers. Keep this light-hearted and fun for young children. The goal is to make the child aware of numbers and familiar with them, not to put pressure on him or her for mastery.

Another important skill that can be taught in the context of everyday life is comparison of amount. This involves ideas such as more and less, bigger and smaller, longer and shorter, and lighter and heavier. Get in the habit of using these words and others like them whenever appropriate, and you will have started your child thinking mathematically.

Other skills mentioned as part of number sense are skip counting, understanding place value, understanding the ideas of addition and subtraction, and fact fluency. The first three of these skills are introduced in Math-U-See Primer and again in Alpha, which goes on to teach all the addition and subtraction facts with the goal of fluency. Gamma introduces all of the multiplication facts using skip counting, and then works towards fluency with these facts as well.

The time you spend working with your young children on their basic skills is immensely valuable. Help them to be comfortable with numbers and aware of how our number system works on the most basic level, and you will have given your children a solid foundation for their future success in math.

Tip 1

In a class on early education I recalled the story of how Rabbis used to make school enjoyable. After a little research I found this article, from which I have chosen a few excerpts.

Around the twelfth century a custom developed in Germany of bringing a child to school for the first time. … The rabbi reads every letter of the alef-bet and the child repeats after him.

Then the rabbi puts a little honey on the slate and the child licks the honey from the letters with his tongue. A child who licks honey from a slate … will immediately understand that the Torah is “as sweet as honey”.

Since attitude is a big part of education, let’s do what we can to make learning enjoyable. I don’t have a long list of suggestions, but here are a few that may help to prime the pump.

Perhaps you could begin every day with what some schools call “free exploration.” This is where the classroom teacher encourages each of the students to play with their blocks for 10 minutes to begin each class.

Or, take the number of the date, and express it in different ways. For example, if it is September 5^th, use the 5 and express that number as 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 5, or 4 + 1 = 5, or 6 – 1 = 5, or 2 x 2 + 1 = 5, or 10 ÷ 2 = 5. You could do this with all of your scholars around the breakfast table and see the older and younger students each use their skill set to contribute a suggestion.

Perhaps the last one to get up in the morning would have to sing a skip count song when he or she appears at the breakfast table. Well, maybe this wouldn’t be fun for the person who is late; it sounds too much like boot camp.

Tip 2

Part of making learning enjoyable is experiencing success. As school begins for the year, take it slow at first, do some review, and let the brain have time to recall what has already been learned. Maybe you could review the last three lessons from last spring by watching the DVD and working the example problems in the instruction manual.

Or perhaps you, as the teacher, could walk through a lesson step-by-step: building, writing, and saying. Work several problems while the student just observes, with no pressure to do any by himself for a few days. When the student does begin to solve problems, make sure they are doable and within the grasp of his or her math abilities. Nothing succeeds like success!

May you and your student each have fun and experience success this school year,

Steve

Enjoy the testimony of the month from a home school mum in Canada. Aye?

Hi Steve,

Just wanted to let you know that after 12 years of Math-U-See, our son is on a 120K scholarship to the Royal Military College of Canada to become an engineer. His feedback, ”Mum, I’m over-prepared!” What a blessing to see the fruit of our labour. Math-U-See was definitely a highlight. The program was so easy to use and obviously the lessons were learned.

Thank you!
Stephanie

This is what my son of 8 did the min he saw these blocks. He is super excited to do math this year!

My other son age 5 helped me unpack our boxes and arrange out two sets in the wooden box, and while we were putting themaway I was telling him how they all had families and such, he fell in love with the units immediately and liked the tens, was impressed with the hundreds but….when we came to the end, he saw we had two tens that didn’t fit….he was all dad and cradled them in his arms and told me that these two tens would be sad without their family….then while holding them, he said in his sorrowful voice, “mom, can I take care of them? I won’t let them be lonely.” awe!!! So sweet, right…he loves to talk about family and loves to point out how many people are in our family, so I think this was the best choice of curriculum for my two boys! Thank you for coming up with such a great idea!!!!!
-Jessica

We are very new to MUS. We have enjoyed the switch to this math curriculum and both my children and I are much happier when we sit down to work on this subject. It seems that all of my children appreciate Mr. Demme’s method of teaching, because even my five-month-old loves to sit an watch him!

The following picture is of my youngest. I had turned on the Beta DVD to watch a lesson with my oldest daughter, and found my five-month-old captivated by Mr. Demme’s teaching style.

Emmy Watching Mr Demme

Thanks for such a great mathematics curriculum!

Kelly Rl

It’s About Time

In 1990 I wrote Foundations, the first book in Math-U-See. About that time I received an excited phone call, “Come quickly, I have something to show you!” I drove to the Anthony homestead in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, where Marcy and her daughter Crystal showed me how to build a clock using blocks!

In April, Marci stopped by our booth, and we took this picture commemorating the development of our Block Clock. Thank you, Anthonys, for helping us ”See Time”.

Gifted Students and Math-U-See

I will keep my comments to a minimum so you can hear from some happy parents. As you read these interesting accounts, keep in mind that I began my professional teaching career as a high school teacher. When I began creating Math-U-See, it was with an eye of helping students succeed at the secondary level.

I chose to employ hands-on manipulatives so students could “see” and understand the concepts of math. I knew algebra and geometry were not difficult if students had a good foundation in the basics.

Over the past 20+ years I have been blessed and surprised by the number of emails and letters I have received attesting to how well this build-write-say approach has helped students with learning challenges. I rejoice with these parents and children. Having a son with Down Syndrome I know how challenging it can be to try and teach abstract concepts to him. This email just came in today:

Our two girls just got up on a Saturday morning and did their math , without asking : ) They want to do math everyday, now that says something! We love this program and our dyslexic 10 year old is getting it, that makes us so happy!
-  Lisa T.

We also get emails and comments posted on our web site about kids who are on the other end of the learning spectrum. These students may be classified as gifted. Because we use manipulatives to illustrate abstract concepts, students are able to grasp math concepts more readily and move quickly through all of our levels. Read on!

This isn’t a question, it’s a thank you! When we started homeschooling my son 3 years ago(3rd grade), math was a struggle. He has now completed Gamma through Epsilon, and math is his favorite subject. We were helping relatives the other week, and my son and his 17 year old public schooled cousin were out in the yard goofing off and talking about school. My 10 year old son started writing out problems in chalk on the porch from the solving for the unknown lessons in Epsilon, and asking his cousin if he knew how to do them. When I came outside later, my teenage nephew said to me ”He’s learning how to do Algebra way earlier than I did!” He couldn’t believe the problems ds was making up and solving on the concrete. Thank you Math U see! We are starting Zeta next week, and plan to use Math U See through high school.
- Stacie B.

Steve, I sent your company a blurb about my son, educated mainly via MUS (starting with the old “Advanced Math”). Though he loved math, he was slow in all other subjects. He went as far as pre-calc, and I was told that your math was too light for college. HAHAHA.

He majored in math, did a summer internship at Harvard, then a fall internship at NASA, and then was accepted for TEN doctoral programs at places such as Minnesota, Illinois, Colorado, Penn State, Wisconsin, Purdue and others. He ended up taking the full-ride to MIT’s Dept. of Aerospace & Astronautics, where he’ll start in the fall–one of the only math majors (with no engineering experience) in the program.

He really thrived with MUS! I chuckle when people say that they want something more in depth or harder. Guess it was in depth enough for him to major in math and be accepted into MIT’s doctoral program.
- Vicki S.