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Dear All,

 

I am glad to stumble upon this forum. My DD6  started 1st grade this year and i need some advice regarding which math program to follow after school.

 

I got her enrolled in a JEI Learning center during summer and thinking of continuing her during school year. I see that a lot of you followed Singapore math and was wondering if i should introduce Singapore math in parallel as well ?

 

JEI sessions are 1 hr a week and they basically send a work book as homework for the week. I am not sure if that's enough. 

 

Pls let me know if you have any suggestions/inputs regarding the same.

 

Thanks!

 

 

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Does your daughter struggle with math and so needs extra help? Is the school's math program weak and needs shoring up? Is your daughter accelerated and you want to make sure she continues to advance? 

 

As for us, my Kindergartner is very strong in math and looking for some mental exercise when she gets home from school. We haven't been at this long, but I've been giving her pages from Math Mammoth that address areas she needs more practice in and letting her play Prodigy Math, which tends to stretch her a little conceptually but doesn't give her lots of practice with those basic math facts. We just got Beast Academy 2A, and so we'll be putting that in the mix as well. (Last year she did MEP 1 and a little bit of 2)

 

We also do a little bit of writing practice and some English pages. I'm basically tossing out the assignments the teacher sends home and filling in ones that address the same subject areas but in a way that fits my child. Thankfully, her teachers are fine with this.

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It does depend on:

- How good your school's math program is

- If you daughter needs support in her math problem

- If you want your daughter to learn things outside of/different from her math program

- If your daughter is strong and math and needs to learn things beyond her math program

 

Is she continuing the tutoring during the school year on top of her school work? 

 

For a school with a strong math program where she needs additional support, I would start with the school and ask about extra resources that you can do at home. This would be my first approach if my child was struggling at our current school, but I know that not all schools are as prepared to support home learning and offer as good a math program as ours.

 

For additional support at a school that can't provide a quality math education or can't support home learning, I'd look at doing Math Mammoth. They have books that are specifically on skill sets, rather than a full curriculum, so if she's struggling with place value in addition and subtraction for example, you can get a book on that topic.

 

For something very different to a school math program, Beast Academy best fits the bill. You learn different things and learn in a different way. Good for a strong math student looking to work on different things from school.

 

For math education beyond your current math program (for example that your first grader needs third grade math to be challenged), Singapore, Math Mammoth or Beast Academy would all be fine to meet those needs.

 

In our case, our first grader is strong in math at a school that offers good quality math instruction at school. His schedule is quite full during the school year, so I only give him extra math work on school holidays. I find Math Mammoth to be a good choice for extra math during holidays.

 

 

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Thanks all for your suggestions. My DD goes to a public school and she is accelerated compared to school standards. Want to encourage her using accelerated programs at home. Information that's available online is overwhelming(Beast Academy, Singapore Math...etc) and wanted suggestions from experts. Looking to tutor here on math & Spelling after school. Please suggest.

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For math, you won't be going wrong with Beast Academy, Math Mammoth, Singapore Math, or MEP.

 

MEP: free, just needs to be printed. You could start here and see how it feels. Year 2 is first grade, but the MEP work runs behind my first grader's school math work (he's also in "Year 2" at a British school), so you might start looking at whether year 3 is a better fit. I've never used it but have flipped through it. It's rather dry on the whole and doesn't seem to be the right fit for mine. But again, it's free, so you can always give it a go.

 

Beast Academy: it's still being developed, so only one part of Grade 2 is available. You'll need placement tests to determine if Grade 3 is appropriate. I keep going back and forth about it, but it doesn't ship to my country and my oldest seems too advanced for their initial Grade 2 level but not confident enough to enjoy Grade 3. Seems like a poor fit for us at the moment.

 

Singapore Math: Very well respected. I've used a bit of level 1 with my little one, but I've never had a higher level. The downside for me is the number of required books (teacher's manual, practice books, extra practice, word problems, etc.), and that seems overkill for afterschooling. There are placement tests for determining an appropriate level. Generally meant to be used as a full curriculum, so IMO slightly less amenable for afterschooling unless you're doing it regularly, which I'm not.

 

Math Mammoth: What I use on holidays. It works for us. The level is good, the amount of work is right for my kid, I can skip around without any problem. It's easy to use and fairly independent.

 

There's a great thread about Math Mammoth versus Singapore Math here: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/164345-math-mammoth-vs-singapore/

 

You're better off starting somewhere and seeing what works best for your child.

 

I don't afterschool spelling because our school gives differentiated spelling lists.

Edited by Have kids -- will travel
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Thanks all for your suggestions. My DD goes to a public school and she is accelerated compared to school standards. Want to encourage her using accelerated programs at home. Information that's available online is overwhelming(Beast Academy, Singapore Math...etc) and wanted suggestions from experts. Looking to tutor here on math & Spelling after school. Please suggest.

Then on the top of Mep you could supplement with all maths related.

We do all kind: Murderous maths, Zaccaro's, Mental maths, Soroban, Chess, Robotics, Programming, etc. 

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Dear All,

 

I am glad to stumble upon this forum. My DD6 started 1st grade this year and i need some advice regarding which math program to follow after school.

 

I got her enrolled in a JEI Learning center during summer and thinking of continuing her during school year. I see that a lot of you followed Singapore math and was wondering if i should introduce Singapore math in parallel as well ?

 

JEI sessions are 1 hr a week and they basically send a work book as homework for the week. I am not sure if that's enough.

 

Pls let me know if you have any suggestions/inputs regarding the same.

 

Thanks!

Your daughter is in 6th grade and accelerated in math. I am assuming that she finds school math easy and basically it acts as review. However, I presume she will still need to complete her school math homework, correct? You mentioned that you were keeping your daughter in a JEI class outside of school during the school year. So that means, in addition to school math homework, she has 1 hour math weekly at the JEI site plus JEI homework for the week. How much time is she having to spend on the JEI homework? I am not familiar with JEI centers or their offerings. How do you and your daughter like the program? Does it fit your desire for an accelerated program? Is your daughter willing to add a second math program after school? I would take this into account before proceeding with yet another math program. Unless your daughter really loves math, you might want to consider even replacing JEI for a better alternative if JEI does not fit the bill that well, rather than adding onto it. I might worry about burn out. Good luck! Edited by Mabelen
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Your daughter is in 6th grade and accelerated in math. I am assuming that she finds school math easy and basically it acts as review. However, I presume she will still need to complete her school math homework, correct? You mentioned that you were keeping your daughter in a JEI class outside of school during the school year. So that means, in addition to school math homework, she has 1 hour math weekly at the JEI site plus JEI homework for the week. How much time is she having to spend on the JEI homework? I am not familiar with JEI centers or their offerings. How do you and your daughter like the program? Does it fit your desire for an accelerated program? Is your daughter willing to add a second math program after school? I would take this into account before proceeding with yet another math program. Unless your daughter really loves math, you might want to consider even replacing JEI for a better alternative if JEI does not fit the bill that well, rather than adding onto it. I might worry about burn out. Good luck!

 

Thanks for your reply. My daughter is currently in 1st grade. 

 

JEI has 1 hr a week class where they typically group 6-8 kids of different grades. And then they follow it up with a weekly homework.

 

So far from what i am seeing, worksheets that my daughter bring home for homework are decent. She wraps up the homework in 2 sessions, each 20-25 mins.

 

My issue here is with the "1 hr class". I don't see any value add for the money ($120 per month) that we are spending. 

 

Either i continue with JEI and add supplements from Murderous maths, Zaccaro's, Mental maths, Soroban, Chess, Robotics, Programming, etc. for additional 2 sessions a week making it 3 hrs of after school math in a week 

 

or Switch to Self tutoring model completely and tutor her myself for 3 hrs in a week following one of Singapore Math,Beast Academy...etc

 
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Thanks for your reply. My daughter is currently in 1st grade.

 

JEI has 1 hr a week class where they typically group 6-8 kids of different grades. And then they follow it up with a weekly homework.

 

So far from what i am seeing, worksheets that my daughter bring home for homework are decent. She wraps up the homework in 2 sessions, each 20-25 mins.

 

My issue here is with the "1 hr class". I don't see any value add for the money ($120 per month) that we are spending.

 

Either i continue with JEI and add supplements from Murderous maths, Zaccaro's, Mental maths, Soroban, Chess, Robotics, Programming, etc. for additional 2 sessions a week making it 3 hrs of after school math in a week

 

or Switch to Self tutoring model completely and tutor her myself for 3 hrs in a week following one of Singapore Math,Beast Academy...etc

 

 

It looks like you might want to decide whether you have more time or money. If you have more time than money, save the monthly $120.00 for JEI and diy with any of the other posters ' suggestions. Otherwise, keep JEI and add any of the activities you mentioned.

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Indeed, money and time are the first issues to sort out. Homeschool curricula can also be expensive depending on which program you use.

 

If those factors don't help you decide, have you talked to your daughter? Does she enjoy the class? Some kids learn better in social situations (maybe she's extra challenged by older children in the class) or can focus better for teachers than for a parent. 

 

We both work full time, so our balance was that we had more money than time. Both our kids did a fun math class in preK, and our oldest kept going in K. He really enjoyed the class and the games they did. When it conflicted with his sport and he had to quit, he was genuinely sad. My youngest has gone for about a year (after begging to go because older brother does it), and he is less enthusiastic. We asked, and he said he'd rather stay home. So when this course is finished, he won't go back. Neither learned a significant amount of math in the class, honestly.

 

FWIW, music lessons are an excellent way to add math into a child's life. 

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