Math advice

[kwg]

Hi!

 

I have been lurking for a while and am going to just jump right in with a question:tongue_smilie:. We just finished our first year hsing, ds is almost 7. We used Miquon this year. I really like it...but it does not feel complete to me. We have not finished the second book for this year yet so maybe it will. We did a lot of extra stuff through out the year of course but I am wondering if there is something that compliments Miquon. Or something better than? Ds loves Primary Grade Math Challenge; he can't really do them but together we puzzle the level one problems out. If you do Miquon plus something else, how do you schedule that? And do you finish? Ds wants to have a summer break like "all the other kids" and I am tempted to scrap the rest but I suppose we will try to work through it. I do like the program but I also find myself sort of just trying to get through it so I know we finished it:blush::smash:

[AngieW in Texas]

My two older girls worked through all 6 Miquon books and then switched to Singapore starting with level 3A. My youngest didn't do well with Miquon, so she did Singapore from level 1A.

[kwg]

My two older girls worked through all 6 Miquon books and then switched to Singapore starting with level 3A. My youngest didn't do well with Miquon, so she did Singapore from level 1A.

 

 

Thank you! That is a relief! I had this whole panic reaction thing.

[Ellie]

A good supplement to Miquon is Calculadders, which only does drills. Miquon teaches all other necessary concepts; some people just think it needs work on basic arithmetic facts, and that's what Calculadders does.

[hmschooling]

Singapore is a hit at my house! I'm using it with my 5.5yo and my just turned 8yo. We'll do Singapore from Earlybird K up to Primary 5 or 6, then Life of Fred. My kids are ahead in math skills and it only takes us 10-20 min. per day (half is independently done). :001_smile:

 

We're getting ready to start 3A very soon, and I am just going to be using the texts/workbooks and extra practice. I'll get the HIG in case I need some help presenting a topic since I didn't learn this way. I might add in Calculadder1 for dd who didn't start with Singapore and never got her +/- facts down with the program we used.

[Spy Car]

I think most people who start with Miquon (us included) eventually use Singapore. Some earlier, some later. Miquon was a great start for my son.

 

Another very interesting math program post-Miquon is MEP (the Mathematics Enhancement Programme), a British/Hungarian program that is available without cost (other than printing) to home educators. We love MEP.

 

Bill

[kwg]

Those were the ones I was looking at- Singapore and MEP. I will look into the drill program.

 

I think some of this started bc ds was complaining that Miquon was too easy all the time. So I gave him the Singapore placement test 1A and 1B. It was painful! He did it, but soooo sloooowww with LOTS of whining. I think at least part of that was that I gave him the second half after the first instead of at another time but still. It was hard for him. So I am worried he is behind grade level.

 

Thank you for your thoughts. They are very helpful!

[Spy Car]

Rather than "drill" you may want to look at the Right Start games. We are finding them a very effective way to cement the low-level retention of math facts, without "drill" per se.

[Karen in CO]

If your ds loves the Primary grade challenge math, then take a look at adding Singapore's Challenging Word problems (if you can find them) or Intensive Practice books to your math. My dd loves math word problems and math puzzles and would rather figure out a puzzle or a page of word problems than do a single simple problem. Also MEP seems to be the best fit for math programs for her. It covers problems as puzzles more often than any of the other programs.