About Our Method
Our one-on-one sessions are based on the teachings of The Orton-Gillingham Approach, which means we believe every student learns differently and should be given the opportunity to thrive. This approach is direct, systematic, multisensory, and structured in a way to teach math to individuals who have never understood it before.
We teach students from the bottom up using the CRA method, or Concrete-Representational-Abstract, to build a strong foundation for future learning.
Our instructors are trained using Marilyn Zecher’s Multisensory Math and with Dr. Joyce Steeves math lesson plans. These two ladies are trailblazers and they forged a path to guide us through this mathematical forest!
Multisensory Math is the use of sight, touch, smell, hearing, and movement to make it easier to understand quantities and what math symbols represent.
Multisensory math instruction is appropriate for ALL learners, but can be essential for neurodivergent learners.
At Made For Math, all of our math intervention is done online. You might be asking yourself, how can you provide multisensory math instruction if you aren’t in person?
The answer lies in our giant box of math manipulatives that we mail to you!
Our manipulatives help keep students engaged by providing a concrete tool for them to control and the opportunity to interact with math in a way that works for their brain. Fractions suddenly make much more sense when you have clay in front of you and you can clearly see ½ of something.
Most learning taught in schools is Abstract and the only Concrete learning you’ll typically see is found with Elementary aged children. The truth is that children of all ages would benefit from using manipulatives and the CRA Method to explain math.
Like Marilyn Zecher says, “When the hands are engaged, so is the attention.”
What are we offering?
-Customized learning for your child
-One-on-one sessions
-25 or 55 minute sessions
-Recording of each session so you can see your child interacting with the method
-All multisensory math materials mailed to your home
-No contract, cancel anytime
-Rescheduling with a 24 hour notice
-A FUN environment where your child can thrive
Who do we Serve?
At MFM, we serve students who feel defeated in their math journey and parents who want something different than the average tutoring company. We are math intervention, which means we aren’t looking for parents who simply want “homework help” or to change a B to an A. We work with students and parents who have been faced with repeated failure in their current math instruction. We don’t do “quick fixes”, we care too much!
Our intervention takes time because we work with students who are often diagnosed with dyslexia, math anxiety, dyscalculia, ADHD, and MLD. These students need systematic explanation and hands-on demonstration to master their math skills–and our method works!
Just ask one of our parents:
What’s our Story?
In 2015 our CEO and founder, Adrianne Meldrum, was tutoring math and discovering more about dyslexia. This lead her to wonder, “If this is prevalent with the reading side, what’s on the math side?”
At the time, there wasn’t a ton of knowledge about dyscalculia and very few people were offering training specifically for this math learning disability. With the help of Educational Therapist Kara Scanlon, Adrianne was able to connect with the great Marilyn Zecher, who offered her training classes using Multisensory Math.
And it just clicked… Adrianne knew that Multisensory Math is what the world needed, but she hadn’t yet become the person she needed to be to lead a team.
Flash forward to 2018, Adrianne was at a conference when she overheard Alex Charfen, the main speaker, talking to a reporter about what it takes to create a movement. Multisensory math had not become a movement, yet.
Adrianne knew in her heart that this was something she was meant to do. So, she literally ran back to her hotel room and reached out to Marilyn about training others. Two months later, Adrianne hired Amy.
And the rest is history?
Nope!
Behind every movement is a team of people who believe that anything is possible.
Company Values
Most of us fell in love with teaching because of the “Ah-ha” moments–when a student finally gets the big picture. With the politics, demands, and understaffing that is common within teaching culture, many of us were tired of not being allowed to help students in ways that would actually make a difference.
At Made For Math, our teachers have the opportunity to connect with students in a one-on-one environment and use the child’s special interests and strengths to help them finally “get” math. We get to feel the difference we make every single day and it is sweet!
We wanted something different, because more of the same wasn’t working for us. If you resonate with what we’ve said here or if you’re still reading, join our community!
Welcome to a movement of people who believe that every child is made for math and can accomplish great things.
Want to start doing different? Take our quiz to see if multisensory math is right for you and your family.
Want to dive deeper into the research?
- Using CRA to teach algebra to middle school students in inclusive settings
- Evidence-based results on using CRA to teach math
- Language factors in learning mathematics
- Universal Design for Learning Model
- Effectiveness of Multisensory methods in middle school with students with learning differences
- Using multisensory methods to teach math
- Orton Gillingham center specific to teaching mathematics using OG methods
- Using both hemispheres of the brain for math instruction
- The same difficulty students have with coding parts of words will be prevalent with coding numbers