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kateingr

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Everything posted by kateingr

  1. I don't think you can go wrong with any of them, but I used the U.S. version.
  2. My son's trajectory was to do half of RS C, then Singapore 2A and 2B, then Beast Academy. This worked well for him, but it's certainly not the only way. There are really only two things that kids need to be ready for Beast Academy. First, they need addition and subtraction completely mastered (basic facts, mental math, and pen-and-paper algorithms) so that they don't have to use their working memory for simple calculations. RS B does this well for addition. Doing RS C would cover subtraction, but if cost is a factor, I'd look at Math Mammoth's Blue Series topical texts and focus on mastering subtraction. Second, kids need to have the perseverance and patience for the difficult problems. So if you think your child is ready to handle the tough stuff, you can start Beast as soon as that addition and subtraction foundation is secure. But if you need to give him a little more time to mature before tackling Beast, either MM2 or Singapore 2A and 2B would be good options, and you'd get subtraction covered, too.
  3. Yes, the recommend AOPS Pre-algebra after 5D (although some families on the board have successfully gone to pre-algebra after 4D, since the wait for grade 5 will be so long).
  4. What aspect of place-value does she seem to be having trouble understanding?
  5. Thanks for sharing this! It has some great insights into the pitfalls of over-explaining in math.
  6. Kumon's 3rd grade multiplication is a good one. It's organized by fact, but then does mixed review. Math Mammoth's Blue Series Multiplication 1 goes through each fact as well, but it doesn't provide quite as much cumulative review as the Kumon. Neither is exciting, but both get the job done. :) For flash cards, my favorites are these. They're a little pricey, but they are good quality and include all facts, both ways, from 0 x 0 to 12 x 12.
  7. I can relate--my kindergartner is in a weird math place, too. (We've tried RS, Hands-on Thinking, and Singapore so far this year...now we're on to mom-created for the time being.) If MEP is going well, could you just do that? What do you feel the IP is adding for her?
  8. Absolutely! My two personal favorites are the "Vitruvian Alex" at the beginning of 4A (riffing on DaVinci's Vitruvian Man ) and the Star Wars joke in 3B (Alex: "Was it a fast ship?" Captain Kraken: "Fast? She made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs!") We haven't done 4B yet, though, so I'll be on the lookout. :)
  9. Wise advice, Farrar. For a while, a focus on the process and not the actual calculations would probably help a lot. Or, use extremely small numbers (like, 2 and 4) so that the focus is on the operations and not the numbers. You may also want to focus for a while on physically acting out the problems. Drawing and manipulatives are great, but if she's having trouble connecting the operations to the stories, she may need to actually see real objects for a while to make the operations less abstract and give them more meaning. Also, I've only looked at a few samples, but CLE's wording for word problems seems particularly stilted. This is a problem for word problems in general, but CLE seems especially difficult in this respect. You might want to reword them to sound more natural, or add a little more detail to make them more intelligible. For example, here's a sample from 303: "Lori Ladybug will eat 210 aphids a week. She still has 120 aphids to eat. How many has Lori already eaten?" For a child who's struggling, this is really, really hard! It's a very weird way to think about ladybugs (I mean, it's not like they have a weekly aphid quota!), plus it's one of the most difficult subtraction situations for children to visualize. For your daughter, I might revamp this problem to something like: "I had 5 shirts that I needed to fold. I've folded some, but I still have 2 more shirts to fold. How many have I already folded?" (And then I would act this out with five real shirts.) This is a completely different situation than the ladybug problem, with completely different numbers, but it actually has the same structure as the original problem. Once she understands the structure of the problem, then it should be much easier for her to work up to more difficult numbers or different situations. "What if there are 10 shirts, and I still have 1 left to fold? Or 2 to fold? Or 3 to fold?" "What if there are 20 shirts, and I still have 5 left to fold? Or 10 to fold? Or 15 to fold?" "What if my book has 20 pages and I still have 10 pages left to read? How many pages have I already read?" (Again, same problem structure, but now in a different context.)
  10. My top picks for conceptual elementary math programs are Singapore, Math Mammoth, and RightStart, but it depends so much on the child, and what your family's needs are. If you're enjoying using Singapore with your 2nd grader, that's probably your best bet. I have a page with reviews and buying guides if you'd like more of my take on different programs: Curriculum Reviews and Buying Guides
  11. Sounds like both of you need something different! I don't see much value in chugging along when you're both feeling so frustrated. If Singapore feels like a breath of fresh air, I'd say to go for it. One challenge to be prepared for is that Singapore's scope and sequence is very different from MUS's. Definitely have your son take the Singapore placement test and start as far back as he needs to--you can always move quickly through the chapters that he's already learned from MUS (or skip them entirely). I wrote a post with a few other thoughts on switching, too: Why It's Okay to Change Homeschool Math Curriculum Singapore uses both metric and US standard measurements.
  12. Our transition from the middle of RSC to Singapore 2A went really smoothly as well. I ended up using the textbook to teach the lessons, and then my son did only the Intensive Practice books, along with some of the Challenging Word Problems books. Using a more independent math book proved to be a nice change for both of us. Much as I love teaching math, I appreciated how it freed me up a little to not be there for every minute of the math lesson. I also felt that the transition was good for my son. Learning to work with mom not right at your elbow is an important skill, even if she's only across the room. :) He learned a lot about how to persevere through lessons and work more independently, which also helped prepare him to transition to Beast Academy after 2B.
  13. Do you mean the "Learning to Read" books? I've been using them with my year with my kindergartner, and I've loved them as well. I've reduced the amount of writing a bit, but other than that, they've been perfect for her. As far as hitting a wall goes, I think it's hard to know in advance, unfortunately. I've run into that, too, but it hasn't always been in subjects I expected. Thank goodness we have the flexibility as homeschoolers to slow down when that happens! :)
  14. I haven't taught all of Grade 4 yet (my son is just finishing 4A), so take this with a grain of salt! Looking over the rest of the grade, only two chapters in 4D jump out as requiring prerequisite chapters. -Addition and subtraction of fractions (chap. 8 in 4C) should come before tackling multiplication and division (chap. 10 in 4d). -Probability (chap. 12 in 4D) builds on the counting chapter (chap. 4 in 4B). I think you'd be fine working with the other chapters out of order, but someone feel free to correct me if I'm missing something. :)
  15. Agree that golf pencils (or the mini-crayons that HWOT sells) are a good idea. If those don't help, buying pencil grips to slide on might be helpful. Those habits are hard to break once they get firmly established, unfortunately...and I should know, since I still wrap my thumb around my pencil! :)
  16. The material in 3A sounds easy when you look at the list of topics, but the material is actually very advanced and goes far beyond typical third-grade material. For example, skip-counting sounds like a piece of cake, but the problems towards the end of the unit are challenging even for adults who mastered their multiplication facts long ago. Another benefit of starting earlier is that it allows your child to get used to Beast Academy's puzzle-y problems without simultaneously learning brand-new concepts. One other reason why I strongly recommend that people start in 3A is that Beast is designed so that children who have gone through 5D will be ready for pre-algebra in 6th grade. (Contrast that with MM and most other math programs, which teach pre-algebra in 7th.) So, even though it feels like being behind to start over in 3A, the program actually condenses four years of math into three years. As a result, there's really no harm in going "back" a year, considering you're going to end up in the same place.
  17. At my house it's usually 20 minutes of independent work plus 10-15 minutes of discussing any harder problems together. My son loses focus after half hour, so I get diminishing returns after that!
  18. No, no, don't feel dumb at all! Those puzzles at the end of the first chapter are ridiculously hard. (Check out the FAQ--there's even a specific mention about them: A note about Guide and Practice 3A, Chapter 1: This Shapes chapter is often described as the most difficult third-grade chapter. This may be due in part to students getting used to Beast Academy’s challenge level, but the spatial thinking required in the chapter can be very difficult (especially in the later Practice problems). If your student becomes frustrated while working through Chapter 1, feel free to move on to Chapter 2 and come back to Chapter 1 later. It's truly fine to skip the end of the first chapter and move on to chapter 2. The level of scaffolding definitely increases after that. You can also use the solutions to help your child if she gets stuck on what to do on a particular page. When my son is really stuck, I read the solution myself and explain one of the problems to him, and then use that reasoning to help him tackle the next ones. Sorry it's been frustrating so far--I hope things feel better once you get to the next chapter!
  19. Agree with the above. It depends on what exactly you mean by teaching a child the metric system, too. If you're looking for a general understanding of what the units mean, the more hands-on work you do, the better. Measuring tools are good, but using metric measurement in daily life is also important: How many milliliters of soda are in the can? How many kilograms is the cereal box? How many kilometers is it to grandma's house? etc.
  20. What a great idea! My son often invents "his own alphabet" and is currently working his way through the very traditional cursive in CLE. Creating his own font might keep him using cursive longer than if I require the traditional version. Thanks!
  21. My mistake, I totally missed that you're doing FLL and OPGTTR. That's certainly still plenty for reading and language arts! My favorites for history with CC memory work are The Story of the World and The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History. The Usborne First Encyclopedias of Science are good references, too, but my favorite science books for that age are the Robert E. Wells books. They're not as comprehensive, but much more interesting!
  22. Sounds like a lovely first grade plan. I'm assuming you're using the Math, Language Arts, and Reading for CLE? If so, you have the basics well-covered. Using the CC memory work as a spine for your history and science should work fine. Personally, I'd invest in some good history and science books rather than the CC cards, though. I found them written at too high of a level for my first-grader to comprehend well, so I didn't use them enough to warrant the investment.
  23. Yes, they're essentially the same procedure...but I cross multiplied for years without realizing what I was doing or why. Introducing it as "finding a common denominator" makes the procedure make a lot more sense...and if a child then realizes that she can dispense with the actual denominator, there's no harm done at that point.
  24. I was taught the cross-multiply method, which is terrible--it becomes just an arbitrary procedure for comparing fractions, with no meaning attached. What I like about both the common denominator and convert to decimal methods is that they both preserve the meaning of the fractions and are reasonably intelligible to kids. Either is good, but as others said, the common denominator method comes up over and over again in algebra. Decimals are often more useful for real-life applications.
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