Singapore My Pals are Here 3/4

[ztagrl]

I've done a search for this and found info here and there, but I'd like to get a review of this curriculum all in one spot.

 

I'm looking at using this next year for my son who will be 8yo/3rd grade (and maybe bring my daughter in - 6yo) and have a few questions:

 

1. Does each level last for two years? Will this take me through 4th grade, or is it more like Saxon where 3/4 means average 3rd/advanced 4th? Does the TG have a daily schedule?

 

2. What materials are necessary? If I buy everything (All 5 text/activity, Homework, Higher Order Thinking, teacher's guide, tests, and more notes) I'm looking at $221 on the SM website. I can swallow that if it means I get two years out of it. But, I've found with Singapore Math that there are certain books I could do without.

 

3. Where's the cheapest place to buy? I think it's fairly new, and a lot of it looks consumable, so I'm not holding out much hope of finding it used. (Anyone??)

 

4. I saw someone review this curriculum as boring. Do others feel that way? Do they give hands-on experiments to do in the book, or is it mostly a textbook approach? We haven't really done science up to this point. I'm not sure at what age I really NEED a formal science curriculum. If I don't use something like MPH, I may just get a book of experiments and do an experiment once a week or so. I'm just not sure if that's enough.

 

6. We are Christians, but we want to find secular sources for science and history. Any other suggestions?

[Five More Minutes]

:bigear: I've looked into this program as well and have many of the same questions. I purchased the Singapore Earlybird Science, and was very underwhelmed; however, I understand it's not nearly as robust as MPH.

[almondbutterandjelly]

1. Yes, 3/4 means for third and fourth grade. If you get all the books, they will take you through both grades.

 

I never got the TG. I only bought the textbooks and one or two activity books (or workbooks?). They aren't new. They have been re-designed, so you are seeing the newer, more colorful design.

 

MPH books are a nice start for science when you don't know what else to do for science. We enjoyed reading through the books (we had the older edition, although recently I have bought a couple of the 5/6 books for us to read through this year). They are very colorful and interesting. I am not an experiment person, so we skipped any experiments. I think those were in the activity books.

 

Hopefully someone with more experience can add to this. Certainly, you won't regret buying the colorful textbooks. Beyond that, I'm not sure what books you would or would not need to get.

 

It's a really nice secular science for that age range.

[Dmmetler]

I didn't use 3/4, but did use the older 5A-6B (my DD is accelerated and science is an area of high interest for her). The HOTS is essential. The teacher's guide is one place where you could, if you wished, do the MCT thing and buy the teacher's edition instead of the student books, because the teacher's guide includes the full text of the student book and has additional material in red text in the side bars. The text of MPH is deceptively simple-the workbook is MUCH harder and lends itself to trying out a great deal of the activities, and the tests are extremely challenging. I would get the workbook and test books, even if you don't plan to necessarily use them as written. The Activity book is where the experiments are, although you could get by with the workbook if you're able to work backwards-the workbook often presents data a student got from an experiment, correct or incorrect, and asks the student doing the page to interpret it.

 

I was able to find bundles of the older materials used on EBAY-I bought a teacher's desk copy, so the workbooks and the like were unused, although a bit battered. I did buy the new HOTS and then had to correlate it with the older textbooks. I would think you could find the teacher's editions used fairly easily because they're non-consumable, and the same with the student books if you chose to use them. The Activity book, HOTS, Workbook, and Test Books are consumable, so I would guess they're harder to find used.

 

My DD enjoyed MPH because it was cute in the same way SM is cute, and most elementary grade science materials aren't, and I do believe she learned a lot from the materials. There's a lot of depth there that isn't usually seen in elementary materials, without jumping headfirst into high school level content or making science a total set of memory work.

 

I think for most kids, it would be 2 years worth of work quite easily, especially if you add more projects or really dive into it. My DD did both years in one, but she's read heavily enough into science on her own that it was more a case of jumping to the next new, interesting topic while skimming through the material that was review.