What is Math Mammoth?
Math Mammoth is a digital math curriculum that offers supplemental worktexts and workbooks for elementary and middle school aged kids. They are common core aligned and hence may suit as complete curriculum, supplemental work to challenge kids. So this has the potential to serve a diverse population like homeschoolers, teachers, tutors and anyone who is looking up for adhoc topics to fill gaps. There are also worksheets by grade (the Golden series) and worksheets by topic (the Green series). This is now a legacy only item and not updated anymore.
So, what are the Blue Series and the Light Blue Series? How are they different?
The Math Mammoth Light Blue Series is a complete math curriculum for grades 1-7. It focuses on mastering and is divided into chapters based on subjects. As a result, each chapter of the curriculum focuses on a single subject and its related topics (such as place value, multiplication, or geometry). Typically, each grade level has 8-10 chapters. The books are available both in downloadable and printed form. Since detailed explanations of topics are given in the student books, the curriculum is almost self-teaching for many youngsters. As a result, the instructor just needs to devote a little amount of time to preparation. However, personally I would recommend some teaching before having your child work independently.
While the Math Mammoth Blue Series books are worktexts or units on specific math topics. So think of this as topic-wise practice and paperwork to review. A worktext is a book that combines both explanations of ideas and a variety of challenges, check sample pictures below. As a result, these volumes serve as both a textbook and a workbook. A worktext is a book that combines both explanations of ideas(text) and a variety of challenges. As a result, these volumes serve as both a textbook and a workbook. So as you can see now that the Light Blue series is a complete curriculum vs the Blue Series that is a skill based review for the Grade.
Some excerpts from the curriculum.
My son enjoyed picking chapters he wanted to work on and we went through quite a few to check his understanding and fluency.
See below some samples of his work from Math Mammoth Skills Review Workbooks.
Who should use Math Mammoth?
This curriculum emphasizes mental math and visual work. It does not lean into use of manipulatives. You may have to consider incorporating them separately in your instruction.
Math Mammoth generally concentrates on one topic at a time for a number of lessons. Please bear in mind that some of the Blue Series books contain content
appropriate for multiple grade levels in one volume. It isn’t really grouped by grade levels. If you wish to get extra practice and review on any of the topics,
the download includes links to several worksheets organized by topic.
As the problems are created at random, you can make many worksheets on the same subject if necessary. So, if you have a child who is a self starter, needs to fill gaps or you plan to use mastery based curriculum aligned to Common Core Standards then this is for you to consider. Also note that annotating is possible making it tech savvy, using the downloaded versions (PDFs). This implies that the learner can finish the PDF file on a computer using
Acrobat Reader version 9 or higher’s typing and drawing capabilities,
or on a tablet device like an iPad using a PDF app with annotating tools. In addition, Author Maria Miller has also created a number of helpful YouTube teaching videos on specific topics that are available online for free.
What could be better?
I would have loved for some differentiation of math instruction considering kids with learning disabilities. Increased font size, step by step break down of problems, more visuals and use of manipulatives. The curriculum could benefit from anchor charts, and visual callouts to help recall.
Conclusion:
My neurotypical second grader liked these books and they helped him in building his confidence. We got to isolate some areas to work upon which may not have been possible without Math Mammoth – chapter based assignments.
I think the curriculum is very reasonably priced. The Blue Series books are even cost effective as downloads- prices vary from $2 to $7.00. To test the waters, Math Mammoth website offers free placement tests, free worksheets too, checkout here. I hope this review has offered you some insights if you were considering this curriculum. Several other Homeschool Review families have also tried Math Mammoth, and I invite you here to see what they have to say about it!
