workingmom Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 We're doing Singapore Math 6a. DS has used the previous ones in the series the past few years. We used to teach one unit then do the one WB exercise each day. Its really not taking too long. I'd say easily 15 minutes a day. However I'm thinking we need to make sure DS can concentrate for longer periods and bump math up to 45 minutes a day even if that means doing multiple units? Necessary or not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Yes, I would definitely want my students working for 30-60 minutes per day by 6th grade. The occasional shorter lesson, fine. But not on a regular basis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathwonk Posted September 12, 2014 Share Posted September 12, 2014 A propos of nothing: in 1954 when I skipped 6th grade, the only skill taught there was multiplying and dividing fractions as I recall. So to prepare for skipping 6th grade I spent a few minutes one afternoon practicing multiplying fractions, the tops and the bottoms separately, and then turning fractions upside down before multiplying them. Afterwards I was a top student again in 7th grade math that fall and apparently hadn't missed anything. Oh, you meant how long per day - I thought you meant how long total. So I meant that in the ancient past, I spent about 30 minutes total for the whole year's worth of material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted September 12, 2014 Share Posted September 12, 2014 A propos of nothing A propos of nothing: from your experience with Jacobs algebra, do you think it would work for a bright 6th grader to read the lessons in Jacobs algebra to himself in class (followed by doing the exercises of course), with the ability to ask questions of other teachers at any time, but only meeting with his math teacher once per week? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted September 12, 2014 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Are you using the Challenging word problems and intensive practice? I'd add those in if you haven't already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted September 12, 2014 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Isn't SM 6 a bunch of review for the year-end tests? A lot of people have skipped it and gone to pre-algebra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathwonk Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 yes. my experience with jacobs was having my 11 or 12 year old son read it for a half hour or an hour each sunday afternoon. and do some problems. he finished half the book and won something like the state math counts (?) competition with a perfect paper afterwards. jacobs is so clear and fun almost any age math gifted kid might do it, especially if you monitor it at first to see if it is appropriate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald Stoker Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 (OT, but brief!) mathwonk--welcome back! Missed you the last month or so...I hope you had a great summer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 Question for Mathwonk-- do you prefer Jacobs to AoPS? If so, why? And I am surprised about the "fun" comment. What is fun about it? I hope I didn't get Jacobs and am wondering if I made a mistake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 Yay! Mathwonk is back to make me feel ok about doing Jacobs instead of Aops!! :hurray: Poor workingmom. I made my 6th grader work for an hour a day. She finished MM6 in about half the year - lots of review - and went on to use Zaccaro RWA and Jousting Armadillos. We're still trying to figure out 7th grade. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 My older did SM 6A and 6B in one summer. He does an average of an hour a day. My younger skip SM 6A & 6B and went straight to AoPS prealgebra. And I am surprised about the "fun" comment. What is fun about it?My kids read all the comic strips in Jacob's geometry 2nd edition in one evening. That was the fun part for my boys. Not sure what Mathwonk meant by fun but nice to have him back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 Yay! Mathwonk is back to make me feel ok about doing Jacobs instead of Aops!! :hurray: Ok, small little detour..... Rose, are you dropping AoPS?!?!?! I just cant' keep track. Why???? That is all. Back to the regularly scheduled program..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 Ok, small little detour..... Rose, are you dropping AoPS?!?!?! I just cant' keep track. Why???? That is all. Back to the regularly scheduled program..... :lol: That makes two of us! Shannon decided that she really loves the challenging problems in Alcumus, but learning new topics from the AoPS PreA book is frustrating for her, and not very efficient. As I have the same reaction to the PreA book, I can't say I'm surprised. Right now we're doing a little detour to try and master Rate problems (Alcumus uncovered a weak spot there) and then we are going to jump into Algebra. I haven't ruled out AoPS for Algebra entirely, I think that book is more readable, but what we might do is a kind of fusion - learn new topics in Jacobs, then use the Review/challenge sections of corresponding AoPS chapters for extra challenge problems. So yeah, we're dropping the PreA book, but not the whole package. We're still looking for the goldilocks spot - I don't think it's fair to say she doesn't like discovery method, because the gentler version of it in JA she really enjoyed. But the PreA book didn't work well for her. Jury's still out on the rest, but if we end up using Jacobs supplemented with Alcumus and a bit of the Intro book, I'm going to be fine with that. We're going to intersperse "pre-geometry" with Alg 1 for the rest of the year - kind of our own spiral, we both think she'll learn & retain better this way - but we've decided to use the CTC Understanding Geometry book instead of the AoPS PreA chapters. I'm still figuring out probability & statistics, but again, we'll intersperse that alongside Algebra topics. I feel like we have two full years to complete Alg 1, so we have no time pressure. I'm feeling pretty good about this plan. So glad I typed out that whole plan, so that I have something else to feel sheepish about when it changes!! ;) :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathwonk Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 For me the cartoons in Jacobs are fun. I found AOPS rather dry and unappealing. I remember more about the jacobs geometry than the algebra, but i love stuff like the caveman professor from BC where he asks the students if anyone knows the Pythagorean theorem and the girl answers yes, and states it perfectly. His response is "you may go clap the erasers." (Makes me remember the way I felt sometimes when starting out, I am embarrassed to say, when I had students much better than me, and I was hoping to appear important and knowledgable. I even once stammered in shock to such a brilliant student "what are you doing in the class?", since she knew apparently more than I did. She was from Spain, but later when she gave a lecture to the Italian students she spoke Italian. At first I prided myself on my good Italian comprehension since I was understanding the lecture perfectly, until I realized she was also writing it out on the board in English, apparently just for me!) I also like in the section of jacobs on the volume of a sphere where he shows a picture of the world's biggest ball of string that someone has collected. It's just so light hearted. The downside is the price nowadays that it is out of print. A used copy for my son, who is now tutoring, cost over $75 last week! I only paid about $17.50 for the copy I gave away a few years ago. For my son's use, I made him a present of Jacobs' Elementary Algebra, Jacobs' Geometry (1st edition), Euclid's Elements (the Green Lion edition paperback), Euler's Elements of Algebra, and Hartshorne's Geometry: Euclid and Beyond. This seemed to me like a compendium of outstanding materials on those two high school subjects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 The downside is the price nowadays that it is out of print. A used copy for my son, who is now tutoring, cost over $75 last week! I only paid about $17.50 for the copy I gave away a few years ago. FWIW, I too needed one more copy of the algebra and I have been eyeing the prices. I almost sent you a message to contact Mr. Jacobs to get on his case about finding a new publisher :). As luck would have it, the price dropped back down into the low 50s over the weekend and I finally ordered at 52. This morning there was one for 49 and change. It hasn't been much below 50 for a long while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1053 Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathwonk Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 well i found this statement there; that's all i know: "The application season for new students begins in the latter part of November by which time the important details of the camp including location, dates, admission criteria, and fees will have been posted." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1053 Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathwonk Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 yes, they are probably negotiating the location and terms of use. i thought they were pretty happy at seattle pacific this past summer and had just assumed they would likely return there, but i have no information from the organizers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted October 25, 2014 Share Posted October 25, 2014 Back to the OP... Is this an 11 year old or a younger child? (I'm on my phone and can't see it if it's in your sig). I'd be ok with a 7 year old spending 15 minutes on 6th grade math, but an 11 year old I think should be spending longer. If it's that quick, he probably needs to go ahead and bump up to Prealgebra. My 5th grader spends 30-45 minutes on math right now. He's using AoPS, where each section has a problem set and then exercises. Usually he does problems one day and exercises the next. Sometimes he finishes the problems in 15 minutes because it's a topic he was already familiar with, so I'll have him go ahead and do the exercises as well. We went straight from Singapore 5B to Prealgebra, btw. It's pretty common on the accelerated board to do that. I think we would have had the same 15 minute lesson experience if we'd stuck with Singapore 6. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnegurochkaL Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 Hi, my 6 grader was doing at least 2 hours of math daily. We did SM6 textbook + IP6(A/B B) + Mathletics + Russian math + SM 6 Challenging problems. I found IP6 problems(especially more challenging ones) were more challenging than those I could find in AOPS pre-Algebra(challengers). Sometime my daughter spent more than 20 min solving 1 problem. My moto is "Dig dipper to understand it". I usually broke the whole chapter of IP in a half, so my child could work on it for 2 days and the third day she would be correcting mistakes or getting some help with problems she could not solve. We skipped some of AOPS pre-algebra avoiding redundance and busy work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.