Julie of KY Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 Can Singapore's New Elementary Math be combined with Chalkdust. I am strong in math and I like NEM, but I'm not sure I want to take the time to teach it to everything to my son. Can the Chalkdust dvds be used alongside NEM to help explain some of the concepts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 (edited) but we use NEM and I don't think that many other people do, so I thought I'd chime in with what we've done. I do teach every lesson. I like the way NEM presents most concepts; their class activities hit most of the places my children get confused so it is worth the time, for me, to go through those together. I've also found that my children need to watch me solve problems talking and writing as I go, not just read the book. Just reading the book works most of the time, but it is hard for me to untangle their thinking when they get lost if I haven't been working with them all along, both because I don't know what they've been doing and because I can usually stop wrong thinking right away when I work with them every day. It turned out to be easier to just do the lesson with them daily than to spend figuring out where they went wrong. For review, or for slope-intercept stuff or radicals or absolute value (not much in NEM, especially early on), or other things like that, I've used Keys to Algebra or Hippocampus, both of which are self-teaching. Hippocampus is free, online, and talks to you, which is nice. I haven't looked at the program as a whole enough to say whether I like it or not, but it has worked as reenforcement or review well enough. It goes quickly if used like that, which is nice. My unmathy son used NEM1-3a with a bit of Keys to and some Hippocampus, then took pre-calculus at the community college, and is now taking calculus in college. My mathy son is doing NEM3a now. At least, I think he is. I'm having my normal fall crisis about NEM, wondering if this would be the point to jump ship and switch to Dolciani (which I used in high school). None of this answers your question, but I thought it might be a little helpful anyway. Let me know what you decide and how it goes. -Nan Edited October 5, 2009 by Nan in Mass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted October 5, 2009 Share Posted October 5, 2009 Just based on talking with the Chalkdust guy at convention, you can just match up the topics with any program. However, NEM mixes in geometry, so you might have to get the Chalkdust geometry, too? Now back to answers from folks who've actually used Chalkdust :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted October 6, 2009 Author Share Posted October 6, 2009 I'd love to hear how others incorporate NEM into your schools. Is it easy to teach? Do you add other things? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reya Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 We've done the first couple of chapters. Honestly, I think it teaches itself. It is VERY straightforward, and I could see a middle schooler teaching him or herself, even. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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