inthevalley Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 I switched from Singapore math to Math in Focus. I like Math in Focus so much better. The explanation and amount of practice is much better. I love the colorful books as well. Although I love the teaching methods, I have a hard time with the word problems that they assign in the book after they teach a concept. For example, they will teach a new concept and have guided practice problems. Then, the independent practice problems are based on those guided practice problems and also include many problems that take the concept to another level. I like higher level thinking word problems but I have to say even the word problems are quite a challenge for me. Does anyone have this problem? My son was getting so frustrated and started to get turned off on math. I have started skipping many of those complex word problems. Has anyone done this? What should I do? I love the books and hate to scrap this altogether but I don't know if my son will lose out too much if I take out some of those difficult word problems. What are people's thoughts on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 I used the 6th grade book with my dad last yr. She did not solve the problems with bar diagrams. She had been using Hands on Equations since 3rd or 4th and solved them that way . HOE is algebraic based operations vs bar diagrams. I personally am not a fan of bar diagrams. I think they can over complicate problem solving when simple algebra works. Know what? I have really strong math students and not using bar diagrams has never hurt any of them. :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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