Singapore Math users

[Beyond Blessed]

I'm feeling like Singapore Math is pretty advance - I thought it was basically like ps levels (ie: 2A would be the first part of second grade and 2B would be the second part :shrug). But I just looked at my 2nd graders ps syllabus (remember, they were in public school for 6 weeks this year) and they won't even be doing 3 digit subtraction at *all* this year. And my first graders syllabus showed a similar thing - he's doing work that's not going to be introduced. Would you say the books teach about a grade level above? They're getting these concepts pretty well, but I'm just wondering.

[Mothering by Heart]

I fel they are ahead of grade level as well.

[This Busy Mom]

When I brought my oldest home from school... he was using Saxon in ps... and in third grade, I put him into Singapore 2B and 3A. He always did excellent in math. He doesn't like me to explain what he's doing to him, and usually he can work through it but sometimes he has to listen to me. He's in 4A now.

My dd's "ahead" of that right now. She's partway through 2A already, and in "2nd" grade. She'll probably finish 2B by the end of the year. I've never officially taught her her math facts, but supplemented the Singapore with Miquon and Activities for the Al Abacus (the precursor to RightStart math www.alabacus.com ) and let her go at her own pace. Oh, we also used 100 Sheep which is a very well put together skip counting cd and she's picking up multiplication very easily because she memorized the songs. It amazes me what she picked up the first part of this year. I was just using Singapore last year and she HATED it.... she loves it now :shrug so I'm assuming the other two programs really helped her "get" math. We've pretty much dropped the Activities for Alabacus because math was taking too much time (she doesn't really like using the abacus and it was eating up most the morning).

[MamaLovesDaddy]

Yes! Singapore math is heads above american math. I just went to an incredible math seminar and learned some things about math I never knew, using the very visual and conceptually asian based math. It's important to remember that America is actually very low on the list in math education according to the TIMSS Results (Trends in Math and Science Study). Every 4 years Boston College does a survey of most of the schooled countries (going back over 35 years). Every year singapore ranks first place in their student testing, and every year America comes in way down the list over 100 points behind. Even after countries like Russia, hugary, bulgaria, thailand, israel, malaysia, estonia, latvia, etc. We have one of the worst Math curriculums and our children come out with a very limited understanding of math with abstract ideas and procedures that don't leave them with a true understanding of the concepts. The basic difference between american math and asian math is that in asia "elementary math is FUNDAMENTAL math" whereas american "elementary math is EASY math." We begin by teaching a definition which is actually an abstract idea that is hard for young minds (or old ones for that matter!) to wrap around. With the asian math the students are encouraged to think to figure out a problem even before any procedures are applied. We want our children to understand the concept of math - to visualize why it works - make it concrete rather than abstract. I would say that with the Singapore math it definitely prepares our children for a life of truly understanding how math works, rather than memorizing procedures that are often too wordy and confusing and hard to remember later on. (for instance we learned in school to flip one of the fractions when dividing - do you remember which one - the first or second? do you know WHY you're supposed to do that? I had a hard time remembering and understanding that myself until I learned it over again using the Asian visual math style with the concept - the WHY - written into it - rather than just a memorized procedure).

So having said all that - I do think that it would take a child a little bit to swing from one way of thinking to the other - so don't kill yourself trying to keep up with the curriculum. (That is where I can swing away from the traditional schooling. I don't like how strapped we can be to the curriculum and how we have to keep up with it and finish the year in such a way as to cause ourselves great stress and our kids a spite towards learning. I feel curriculums should be tools for us to use according to our needs) Although I do think the kids will begin to amaze you with their understanding once they get going. So, even if your kids were "behind" in the Singapore math they would still be ahead of the american math testing models. Math U See is also a good curriculum that has a very easy style of SEEING your math and understanding the concepts without too much "wordiness" (but they often don't use the actual math terms that I feel are important to learn) so using it along with Singapore math would be a good thing (as singapore math does use the metric system and we need to supplement that with learning the standard system that we use here in US).

Anyway, I don't know if that helps or not, but I think you are on the right path in trying out the Singapore math style. I believe it will truly make math easier for your kids, even if it seems more "advanced" than what they were learning. :tu

[Beyond Blessed]

MamaLovesDaddy - that ROCKS! What awesome, useful information!!! Wow. My boys are doing okay - they are pretty much math brains. :grin But our older son gets very frustrated if it takes him a few sessions to grasp a concept - so I was looking to show him that he's doing more than his second grade friends in ps. :shifty I used Math U See last year and it helped them totally grasp place value! :tu But I too was not quite happy with the terms they used. (onety one, onety two, onety three :rolleyes). I'm going to pass on your info to my homeschool co-op! You're right - I totally cannot remember which fraction to flip - and I can't tell you why :shifty).

Thank you all for your responses. It's so hard to gauge how well they're doing in regards to the big picture. This helped me feel very comfortable with where they stand in math. :grouphug

[2TMama]

Rebecca~

We're doing Primary 1A right now w/ ds. Since he is technically doing kindergarten this year, I don't have the experience of pulling him out of school and trying to line up where he was at in school and where to start him at home, kwim?

BUT, I wanted to reiterate the idea of also using Miquon along w/ Singapore. I believe I got my chart from the Singapore Website that correlates which pages in Miquon go w/ the sequence used in Singapore. So far, so good. Miquon is another "different" way of understanding math. I'm happy to have been introduced it right from the beginning (because I'm obviously already familiar w/ the more traditional way of thinking about math via my public school experience!)

The only drawback from my LIMITED experience so far is the lack of repetition (a.k.a. "busy-work" if the student already had the concepts cemented!). We plan to use flash cards, games, etc. as far as addition & subtraction facts.

[Beyond Blessed]

2TMama -

Thanks for your input. Do I need to use Miqoun if their getting the concepts? What does it add to our program? I'm not being difficult - just really wondering. :grin Is it just for extra work? For that we use www.edhelper.com - I can personalize pretty much any kind of worksheet for the boys.

[2TMama]

I originally decided I *might* need something besides Singapore just for the fact that we zipped through the earlybird series. I thought something else might help "flesh out" his Math to make it last a year. Granted, Primary 1A & 1B would definitely do that; however, do I REALLY want to start him in Primary 2A for 1st grade??? Not that he'd be capable of it necessarily, but I had the feeling of "THEN WHAT??"
By supplementing w/ Miquon, we can revisit the same concepts and look at them in a different way-- to reinforce w/out always using "busy work".

This was certainly not the only option; however, I'd seen several hs moms mention using the two programs together and got it for a great deal on vegsource! :) We got a box of cuisenaire rods --- which aren't used for *every* lesson, but do provide a manipulative when needed. As I said, I think it gives him yet another way of looking at Math. It's not "new" either-- the first edition of lab sheet annotations was written in 1964.

I still wonder if there's enough repetition to memorize math facts-- and at a point (NOT Kindergarten!), we will have to spend some time focusing on them. Until then, I think this method will help him really *understand* the "why" and "how" behind the math facts, kwim?

HTH! :)

[Beyond Blessed]

Great response! Thanks, it really helps me flesh this out!