10 Reasons Why We Love Math-U-See

Maths-U-See is a world-famous and much-loved homeschool maths curriculum. Discover 10 reasons why we love Math-U-See and you will too! It offers mathematical instruction from the primary years, all the way to the end of high school.

It’s a programme that equips students to pass school-exit exams like the GED, and overseas university entrance exams, like the SAT. Thousands of homeschool graduates who used Math-U-See have achieved a range of different kinds of high school credentials (GED, SA matric, Cambridge, American High School Diploma and others) and then progressed to studying at colleges and university, including some of my own children.

All six of my children have thrived using Math-U-See and become both confident and competent at Maths. One of my sons achieved 198/200 on the GED maths exam. The 10 reasons why we love Math-U-See which follow are why I always recommend this product to other homeschoolers.

I earn no commission for this recommendation. I wish I did! My motivation is to help you make an informed choice and save myself having to write out all these reasons in future, when asked about Math-U-See on social media groups! We’ve tried three other Maths programmes too, which I’ll mention by way of comparison.

Skip down to The Benefits of Math-U-See or read on.

The Back Story

In 1997 we started out with Mastering Mathematics, which followed a similar immersion approach to teaching maths as Math-U-See. It worked. Actually, any maths curriculum works. The trick is to find one that you like, that suits your children and that offers features that benefit you all.

The problem with that one, was that it didn’t offer sufficient review of skills already mastered, so months after learning how to multiply fractions, for example, my child couldn’t remember how to do that anymore.

Then we tried Singapore Maths. It comes highly recommended. For us, the problem with Singapore Maths was that the children had to switch between learning from a textbook to doing work in a workbook. The child who used this programme in our home either mislaid the one or the other. I found it very frustrating. It took a spiral approach to developing maths skills and included pictures in the textbooks. For me, nothing about it was, “Wow!”

Then I was sent a sample lesson of Math-U-See by the local supplier. Back in those days, it was still on a video cassette. The demo lesson was about the concept of the algebraic unknown, X and factoring trinomials. I was good at maths at high school, but this lesson blew me away. I had never understood the concept of X and what factoring trinomials represented, until I saw Steve Demme explain it using the manipulative blocks. I was sold.
That same demo lesson is included below. It’s now on YouTube!

From then on, year by year, I invested in the teaching materials for each level, and for each child I only had to purchase a replacement student workbook and test book. It’s not the cheapest Maths programme, but I decided that with a subject as important as this, it was worth it to invest in quality materials, which could be re-used with each younger child.

There you have another benefit, not listed in our ten – the instructional materials are non-consumable, which means you buy them once and re-use them with all your children.

Not long after starting out with Math-U-See, I was given a free trial of Mammoth Math. This is also an excellent maths curriculum, it included many pictures at the beginner level to help young children understand their maths, but by this stage, my older children were doing so well with Math-U-See that I decided to stick to using it with all of them.

The Benefits of Math-U-See

Here are the many reasons that we love Math-U-See:

2. You don’t have to be a maths expert

The author and teacher is an experienced high school maths teacher who is also a homeschool dad. He understands maths and he understands how home education works. So he teaches the new concepts to your children via short video lessons, which they can watch. In effect, you bring a maths expert into your home to educate your children. You can watch the videos too if you like. Using the manipulative blocks, he explains and demonstrates how mathematical concepts work. Hence the name, Math-U-See! The video presentations are only needed about once a week – at the start of a new lesson, so you kids won’t be on screens everyday. I see that as a big plus!

Watch a short demo lesson at high school level with Steve Demme here:

We used the teaching DVD’s and printed instructor guides, but thesedays you can also purchase access to the instructional materials in an online digital format. This is great for families who want to travel light!

An instructional guide, aimed at the parent or teacher, also gives you lesson explanations and examples to help you understand the lessons and teach your children, if you want to. Generally, we seldom used this as the video tutorial was adequate. However, two of my children chose to skip watching the videos and just used the instructional guide, as they prefer to read to learn. So you see, you have options. There isn’t just one way to use the product!

3. Math-U-See promotes independent learning

I love the fact that my children can learn maths independently, most of the time. The programme’s structure and clear instructions make it well-suited for independent study, allowing students to progress at their own pace. At times, when they struggle, I only need to refer to the instructor guide and go through it with them. Usually before I have grasped the problem, they have figured out the solution themselves! Research shows that when children wrestle with difficult problems and find the solutions themselves, they learn better than when we teach them and show them the answers. Instead of developing maths anxiety, Math-U-See empowers your children develop self-confidence in their ability to learn anything to which they apply their minds.

4. Honours lessons make maths meaningful

Math-U-See offers “Honors” supplemental pages for its upper-level courses, including Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and PreCalculus. These lessons provide additional practice and challenge for students who are seeking a more rigorous understanding of the concepts they have just learned. They often demonstrate clearly why we need these advanced mathematical skills in real-life scenarios. Knowing why and how to practically use their maths skills makes the subject more engaging and meaningful for students. My children are sometimes unmotivated to pursue lessons if they don’t see the point of the abstract concepts, so this is important.

5. Sequential, mastery-based immersion for deeper learning

Math-U-See doesn’t introduce a concept, develop it a little and then skip to a new concept, only to take the original concept further at a later stage, in a spiral approach. Instead, each book, each level, focuses on one main skill and then develops it in-depth, while revising previously learned skills. So for example, in the primary grades, it first focuses on addition and place value. Once a child has mastered that to the extent of being able to add large numbers, they move onto learning the converse, subtraction. Similarly, children master multiplication, even long-multiplication first, before learning division and long-division. After that they learn about fractions and decimals and then progress to high school level algebra, geometry and calculus. This gives children the opportunity to build their skills, layer-by-layer, and develop a thorough understanding of the maths skills and concepts they have mastered.

6. Math-U-See offers regular revision and tests

Each lesson includes practice activities in the student workbook. The first few are to develop skills in the new concept. The next few include revision and review of previously learned maths skills. At the end of each lesson, the students must take a test. This gives you an effective way to measure their progress. It ensures that a student has mastered each lesson before they move on to the next one and that they retain the skills and concepts that they have already learned. There are also quarterly tests and a final exam at the end of the book, to make record-keeping easy.

7. Explicit answer keys

The instructor guide provides explicit answer keys that demonstrate the calculations required to arrive at the correct answer. This means that you never have to struggle to find out how to solve a mathematical problem. This is very handy when you quickly need to see where a student went wrong. There are also solutions to the tests, so that you can easily mark your student’s work and assign test scores. You can also allow trustworthy students to use the answer keys to mark their own work, which can be convenient and free up more of your time.

8. No distractions

The layout of the student workbooks and test books offer no distractions. The books are printed in black and white only, with plenty of white space on each page. There is enough space for writing calculations in the student book itself. Students don’t have to waste time copying out the maths problems before tackling the task of solving them.

The only pictures are diagrams of the manipulatives, and these are only when absolutely necessary to make the maths easier. There are no decorative or distracting pictures. The focus is on maths.

9. Metric versions for non-American students

In South Africa, you can purchase the metric versions of Math-U-See. While all students should learn both imperial and metric systems, its convenient to have local versions that use rands as well as dollars, for example.
The local supplier is the online Good Neighbours Bookshop. Use the search box to find the level you need.

10. Convenient placement tests

Math-U-See offers easy-to-use downloadable placement tests, so that you can quickly establish which level you need for each child, based on what they already know. You can find the placement test on the American suppliers webpage: Math-U-See placement tests

11. Math-U-See promotes academic success and self-confidence

Oops – that’s more than ten. I mentioned this in the intro, but it deserves being listed again as a benefit, perhaps the most important one of all. Whatever school exit exams you intend your children to pursue, be it the GED (as an hassle-free alternative to matric or Grade 12) or other exams, Math-U-See will set them up for success. As I also said before, it will build your child’s competence at independent learning and increase his or her self-confidence. These two character traits are essential for success in the adult world.

Math-U-See may not be free, like some other maths courses. It’s not cheap, but it’s an investment in your child’s education. What we are willing to sacrifice to spend on our children’s education sends them a message. It tells them that you value education and that you value them.

For more tips on curricula to use before preparing for the GED refer to What to Do Before the GED and Primary Grades is for younger children in the primary years.