What exactly is covered in 5th-6th grade math?

[KIN]

My ds will be finishing RightStart math this year (if you read my previous post on not enjoying RS E, I've changed my mind.).

 

RightStart recommends starting VideoText Algebra plus RightStart Geometry in 5th grade. I'm not sure that starting Algebra in 5th grade is the way to go.

 

What exactly is covered in 5th-6th grade math? My son has done addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals and percents. I know that my son shouldn't start Algebra until 7-8th grade at the earliest, yet I wonder what else is there to learn before moving on?

[patchfire]

We've followed a twisty windy path, but IME, fifth and sixth grade math seems to include a lot of estimation, review of the things you've listed, especially long division, fractions, decimals, percents, and ratios, an introduction to negative numbers & the number line, various graphing concepts, applications of the above (area, perimeter, volume, etc), and estimation. (Yeah, I mentioned estimation twice. I'm still bitter over the *half a year* spent on estimation when I was in fifth grade. It's the only part of my elementary math career that I remember, because it was so very boring!)

[KIN]

Thanks for your reply. If you don't mind me asking, I see you are doing LoF Decimals and Percents with your 4th grader. Where will you go after that? I would like to do LoF Fractions and the Decimals book with my 5th grader next year, but I'm not sure he will be ready to do pre-Algebra in 6th. And, is LoF Fractions & Decimals and Percents enough for the 5-6th grade years???????? This is killing me!!!!!!!! :) I have loved RightStart (most of the time), but it will end this year and now I have to make a new choice and it is overwhelming to say the least.

[buddhabelly]

I don't know, but we finished RS E this summer and we're doing Singapore 5A, Singapore 5B, Life of Fred Decimals and Life of Fred Percents. Life of Fred is taking longer than we thought, so that might be enough. If we finish all that, we will start Right Start Geometry. My son always asks for Life of Fred.... I am rationing it!

 

Oh, I meant to say that RS E is not really thorough in all those topics you listed. So you would really need some fraction work and some decimals work, which both LOF and Singapore give you tons of.

 

Julie

[Ferdie]

My ds went from RS E to BJU math 6.

 

I'm glad we did math 6 because he really struggled with the factor tree, least common multiple and greatest common factor type problems. Math 6 covered: adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimals and fractions, geometry, equations (finding n), ratio, proportion, percents, area, volume. measurements and sets. It was such a great review we ended up doing BJU math 7, too.

 

My ds is great at mental math after using RS math. The down side of that is that he tends to work out problems in his head and guess at answers on standardized tests. His 4th grade standardized test scores, (after using RS E) were lower than I excepted due to this issue. So we used math 6 and math 7 for 5th and 6th grade as a review and to focus on showing his work on paper, which he is going to need to do in higher level math.

[KIN]

Julie -

 

How are you combing these programs? And, has Singapore been confusing after RightStart? I'm not sure why, but looking at Singapore is a little overwhelming to me. Will you continue with both programs or switch to one or the other?

[KIN]

Thanks Ferdie. I will put BJU 6-7 down as another option for 5-6th grade. :)

[patchfire]

Thanks for your reply. If you don't mind me asking, I see you are doing LoF Decimals and Percents with your 4th grader. Where will you go after that? I would like to do LoF Fractions and the Decimals book with my 5th grader next year, but I'm not sure he will be ready to do pre-Algebra in 6th. And, is LoF Fractions & Decimals and Percents enough for the 5-6th grade years???????? This is killing me!!!!!!!! :) I have loved RightStart (most of the time), but it will end this year and now I have to make a new choice and it is overwhelming to say the least.

 

DD is probably not the best child to base it on. We are going to go forward w/ LoF Beginning Algebra just before Christmas (we're taking a 6-8 week break btw the end of Decimals & Percents and starting Beg. Algebra to focus on percents, ratios, and measurement). If she can't handle it, hopefully the new LoF book will be out by then! Even if she does do well, we'll repeat Alg I with a different course. I've never had her doing just one math course before, so I figured why start now. ;)

[happymom]

Wow, I can't imagine starting VT Algebra in 5th grade unless your son is a math genius. For each concept, Algebra 1 problems are taught and then Algebra 2 problems are taught. The problems are pretty rigorous. I'd recommend a solid year of pre-algebra first. That's what we did after Singapore 5. With my oldest math loving child we did Lial's Basic College Math. With my youngest I think we will do Teaching Textbook pre-Algebra.

[partyof5]

Kathy, we are a RS family...here's what we are doing with our oldest.

 

After RS E (mixed reviews here as well but we stuck it out and glad we did), I was unsure. Since dd loved the RS drawing board lessons throughout, we bought RS Geo and decided to do it over two years, grade 5 & 6, alternating two weeks of RS G with two weeks of a more traditional "review" math like BJU. We tried BJU and hated every minute, so I dropped that mid-year in grade 5 and bought LoF instead. DD is in LOVE with Fred!

 

Now, we are in grade 6 and still alternating RS G with LoF...so far, we are nearly done fractions & about to start decimals/percents. After that book is done, I anticipate some time being left in our school year. At this point, I will consider revisiting that BJU book and selecting some gap-fillers, like the dreaded estimation :tongue_smilie:and perhaps long division, and the like...

 

Truth be told, I have no idea what I am doing for grade 7...probably more Fred, but not sure.