TOS REVIEW: Math Mammoth {MIRL}

No matter if a kid is homeschooled or public schooled, eventually you’re going to hear this:

Coincidentally, when Math Mammoth came up for review through the TOS Homeschool Reviewer Crew, the day it came up- my son for the second time in a week asked me, “When am I going to use this?” Well, now we know.

I was given the opportunity to choose an item to review from Math Mammoth, thanks to Maria Miller. You can find worksheets and workbooks at Math Mammoth for grades 1-6/7 and Algebra 1, but really they can be used up through high school depending on the math level of your students.

I looked at Math Mammoth and was lost. Thankfully Maria was helpful and sent me an email letting me know that I was welcome to have a ‘consultation’ with her to help me choose the best fit for my kiddos. Good thing! After hashing out what has been done mathwise and wondering where to go from there, I decided to try some of the Make It Real Learning products.

Enter Make It Real Learning. Math that is set in real life situations to help students grasp mathematical concepts. I like to call it “math in real life”. We used Fractions, Percents & Decimals II, Linear Functions I & II.

   

How did we use it?
Quite simply, I printed out a worksheet with a ‘real world’ problem that was of interest to us. The very first one we did was converting body temperatures. The next pertained to basketball players and working with a histogram. I’d never heard of a histogram before this. {Does that make me a bad teacher/mom?? lol} This was from the Fractions, Percents & Decimals II book so it was more review than a challenge. We also did one for sales tax (decimals) that was a bit more challenging and I loved that it was a real world scenario.

And all worksheets have an answer sheet directly following. These give detailed solutions to the problems. They came in quite handy when there was something that I didn’t quite understand. And it made it much easier to help the kids

As we moved onto the other books, the work became more of a challenge. Both of the kids could figure out the answers without setting up an equation but the purpose is to get them to understand how to do that as well as solve the problem. You can see sample pages from the books that we used. Click here for the Linear Functions I (choosing a cell phone plan), and here for Linear Functions II (travel options).

What did the kids think of this?
They are neat, cover a lot of different concepts, and they are good for showing how math can be applied in real life. (from Lee, dd 15- seconded by Fox, ds 12).
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In the Make It Real Learning series available workbooks include:
Arithmetic I - for grades 3-6
Fractions, Percents, and Decimals I - for grades 4-8. $4.99
Fractions, Percents, and Decimals II - for grades 6-11. $4.99
Sets, Probability, and Statistics I - for grades 6-10. $4.99
Linear Functions I - for algebra 1 and algebra 2. $4.99
Linear Functions II - for algebra 1 and algebra 2. $4.99
Quadratic Functions I - for algebra 1 and algebra 2/precalculus. $4.99
Exponential and Logarithmic Functions I - for algebra 2/precalculus. $4.99
Periodic and Piecewise Functions I - for algebra 2/precalculus. $4.99
Polynomial, Power, Logistic, and Rational Functions I - for algebra 2/precalculus. $4.99
Calculus I - for grade 12. $4.99
Or purchase all for $39.99

You can download a FREE activity sampler (a PDF file) that contains 10 sample activities from Make It Real Learning product line.

The bold workbooks are the ones that we reviewed.

**Note that Make It Real Learning workbooks do not contain the instruction or explanations of the concepts.**

Math Mammoth has placement tests to help decide which packets would be best for your student(s). Also, Maria is very helpful if you would like some guidance.  There are series that include instructions for the math and series that are supplements (do not contain the instructions- just worksheets for added practice). You can get a pack of over 300 sample worksheets from Math Mammoth.

Bottomline:
The Make It Real Learning workbooks are great for supplementing math. I like the way they are set up with only a few problems (I think 8 was the most on a scenario) for short ‘lessons’ and the answer key immediately following. The solutions are so well done- it is great. I intend to purchase other workbooks- at $4.99 a book, it’s a great deal (imho ).

Do check out the sample worksheets available to get a good idea of what this is like. It is affordable and very well done.

See what other Crew Members thought of Math Mammoth products.

***Disclaimer: I received the three workbooks as downloads from Math Mammoth via the TOS Homeschool Review Crew. I was required to give an honest review in exchange. No other compensation was given. All opinions in this post are my own or those of my children. I only recommend products that I feel were good for our family and/or may be useful to other families. See Disclosure/Policies.***