Math Mammoth offers quality math worktexts and workbooks for elementary and middle school students, grades 1-7.
Math Mammoth offers two series of curriculum – the Blue Series and the Light Blue Series. Both consist of worktexts that include the instruction (the “text”) and the exercises (the “work”). These worktexts are self-teaching or nearly so for most children. No teacher’s manual is needed because all the explanations are in the student’s book. In other words, the book does the teaching. This is a great option for homeschooling parents that question their math abilities.
Math Mammoth is basically a mastery-based curriculum. Some topics are studied till mastery within one and the same chapter. However, often the topic is present in two (or even three) neighboring grades. Some topics are “developed” to mastery over several grades, going from simple to more complex. So, you can call Math Mammoth a mastery-oriented program with some spiraling over the grades. It does NOT employ a “tight” or “short” spiral where the same topic is present, every 10 lessons, or dozens of times within the same school year. Mental math and number sense are emphasized.
The curriculum does not emphasize the use of manipulatives per se, but it does use visual models and the exercises with visual models CAN be done with manipulatives (beans/counters, base ten blocks, etc). Kids in grades 1-3 do use an abacus.
There are no Math Mammoth books for kindergarten, but Maria, the author of Math Mammoth, has written a fairly comprehensive article about kindergarten math to use as a guideline. You can start 1st grade once the child can write and recognize numbers, count to 20 (preferably to 30 or beyond), has mastered basic concepts of equivalence, more, and less; and has a basic idea of addition.
Math Mammoth Grade 7 is designed to be a pre-algebra curriculum. It covers integers, linear equations, slope, ratios, proportions, percent, the Pythagorean Theorem, geometry, statistics, and probability. After completing Math Mammoth grade 7, your child can continue to algebra 1. You can read Maria’s advice for high school math here.
Math Mammoth Review – So, what is the difference between the Blue Series and the Light Blue Series?
These two series have nearly the same lesson material. There are only a few lessons here and there that are in one series but not in the other. The main difference is in how the material is organized. The Light Blue Series goes by grades and being a complete curriculum also includes tests & cumulative reviews. The Blue Series consists of topical worktexts, and the material in each book usually spans 2-3 grade levels.
Which series you choose depends on your goals: Do you want to have a complete curriculum for a given grade level? If so, choose Light Blue. Do you want to review or reteach only certain topics? Then choose the Blue. Series. Do you want to cover all topics as in a full curriculum but without mentions of grade level? Then again, choose the Blue Series.
For this review, we received the Math Mammoth Light Blue Series.
Complete Curriculum – Light Blue Series
The Math Mammoth Light Blue Series constitutes a full elementary mathematics curriculum for grades 1-7.
- It is mastery-oriented and organized into chapters by topics. Each chapter concentrates on one theme and its connecting topics (such as place value, multiplication, or geometry).
- Each grade level typically contains 8-10 chapters.
- The curriculum focuses strongly on conceptual understanding.
- Visual models and exercises are used a lot.
- Mental math and number sense are emphasized.
- Review is important and the program provides review via a variety of methods.
- The curriculum is nearly self-teaching for many children, since the full explanations of concepts are included in the student books. It requires little preparation time from the parent/teacher.
- The curriculum meets and exceeds the Common Core Standards.
That’s Maria! 🙂
What’s provided in the Light Blue series?
You can follow the links below to read a full description of each grade level, download samples, and find specific purchasing information:
Grade 1 (US version)
Grade 2 (US version)
Grade 3 (US version)
Grade 4 (US version)
Grade 5 (US version)
Grade 6 (US version)
Grade 7 (US version)
International version (all metric) is available for grades 1-7
South African version is available for grades 1-7
Here are some pages from Grade 1
Here are some pages from Grade 5
FYI – you can download a catalog of the Light Blue Series here
Placement Tests
It’s important to have your student take a placement test prior to starting Math Mammoth. The placement test will help you know where to place your child. The test can also be used as a generic assessment to find out what—if any—math gaps your child might have. If you have questions regarding the results, you can send the placement results to Maria and she’ll personally review them and suggest a course of action. Wow – that’s pretty incredible!
Math Mammoth Review – What do I like about Math Mammoth?
- I like Maria! I trust her ability. She’s a math teacher and homeschooler. She has a master’s degree in mathematics and minors in physics and statistics. She loves teaching in general, and she really loves teaching math – plus, she’s been a tutor, and she’s taught in a vocational school and a university. Maria brings a lot of experience to the table.
- She explains math in very simple terms, while helping students understand the actual concepts of math.
- Maria uses visual models and exercises which help children understand how math works. This helps then move from visual models to more abstract exercises.
- The worktext is great. It’s very self-explanatory. My daughter is able to read and study through the lessons pretty much on her own. BTW – a number of homeschoolers I know use Math Mammoth, and they like this too – that they’re kids can work on it without too much help from them.
- To be honest, I’m brushing up on math too. One day I want to be a word problem afficianado.
- ln the introduction of each chapter Maria includes some general notes and helps for the teacher/parent.
- Math teaching tips are also available on the Math Mammoth site – https://www.mathmammoth.com/lessons/
- As are helpful videos – https://www.mathmammoth.com/videos/
- The Math Mammoth schedule is certainly doable. Assuming you homeschool 5 days a week, about 40 weeks a year, kids should study between 1 and 2 pages of Math Mammoth each day. If you homeschool for less than 200 days a year, you will probably need to study 2 or more pages a day.
- There’s a Mathy mammoth mascot! Why not try to make math as fun as possible!?! You can get Mathy at Amazon.com.
- There are also mammoth coloring and dot-to-dot pages here! Again, math should be as fun as possible, don’t you think?
- I like discounts and freebies. Discounted bundles are available here at-https://www.mathmammoth.com/packages.php and freebies can be found at this link.
- In addition to discounts and freebies, I appreciate options. You can purchase physical books, downloads or CDs.
FYI, here is info about purchasing
You can buy the digital version (download or CD). You will get PDF file(s) to store on your computer. You can then print the pages unlimited times (gotta like that). 🙂
1. The download versions are available at:
- Math Mammoth
- Educents
- Currclick
- Homeschool Buyers Co-op
- Rainbow Resource (CDs only)
- K5Learning Store (Blue series only)
*BONUS*: If you buy the download version, you also get Soft-Pak elementary math & language arts programs completely free!
2. CD – you can purchase each grade level on a CD, or a bundle of some or all grade levels on a CD. The CDs are available at Rainbow Resource Center.
3. Printed versions are available at Rainbow Resource Center and at Lulu.
The PDF files in the download or CD are enabled for annotating. This means that your student can actually complete the PDF file on the computer, using the keyboard and drawing tools available in Acrobat Reader version 9 or higher; or on a tablet device such as an iPad, using a PDF app that has annotating tools.
Did you like this review? We really enjoyed writing it for you. You can check out our other reviews here: https://www.howtohomeschool.net/curriculum-reviews
- Math Mammoth
