Anyone using the Singapore Series for Jr High/High School Year Students?

[SonshineLearner]

I'm wondering if anyone is using the Singapore Series for their older students. I'm thinking that we'll use the New Elementary Mathematics hopefully starting in 7th. I also have the Videotext Algebra course (just A, so far).

 

I'd love to hear about your experiences. Including your thoughts on how it is to teach the courses.... (And how far you've gone:-)

 

I really am enjoying doing the Singapore with her now, and hope to continue enjoying it.

 

Carrie:-)

[Musicmom]

We've been using NEM as a supplement, with Videotext as our primary curriculum. This has worked well. NEM is good for keeping the problem-solving skills going, but it often does not explain concepts very well--thus I think it would be hard to teach (and actually, that was the experience of a friend of mine who tried to continue with just NEM in 7th.) It isn't as good as the Singapore Primary math series.

 

Videotext does a much better job presenting concepts, but is weak in problem solving--NEM fills that gap nicely, plus once the student understands a concept, looking at the different way NEM presents it can then be interesting instead of frustrating.

 

I also went to an American program (Videotext) as a primary program because I wanted my kids to know and use American terminology and notation, in preparation for college math classes which will use it, and I wanted a slightly more traditional scope and sequence for high school, in preparation for the PSAT/SAT/ACT tests. NEM's terminology and scope and sequence are often quite different (indices instead of exponents, geometry mixed in, concepts like rotational symmetry which you don't find in American programs, etc.) While I'd be nervous relying on NEM alone--it's differences are what makes it such a great supplement. It's very broadening with an American program as a base.

 

Just my 2 cents.

[Miss Marple]

NEM is a fantastic program. I used it with my oldest son and would highly recommend it if starting in 7th. You will finish the series by 11th and be in a position to continue higher level maths. I chose to go with an American program with the other boys because of our utilization of concurrent enrollment.

 

We found NEM more teacher intensive than the American programs which is another reason we went away from it. But I would highly encourage anyone who has used Singapore before to continue with NEM if she is willing to spend the time with the student.

[Nan in Mass]

We used it with the older one (NEM1-3, then CC pre-calc). Now we are using it with the younger one. If you stick with it, you need to add NAM to NEM3 and NEM4. I've posted about its disadvantages and advantages before, so if you search for NEM+Nan in Mass, you should be able to find them.

-Nan

[Blue Hen]

I used NEM 1 - 3 with my oldest and have my younger son using it now. The older is a mathy kid while the younger detests math. My older son jumped right into NEM 1 but then found it moved too quickly. I pulled him out of NEM for a month while he worked through the first four books of Key to Algebra. When he went back to NEM 1 he flew through the book and finished it in 4 or 5 months without help from mom. Like I said, he is a mathy kid. Since it was only February--and he was finished with his 'math' program I pulled out Mary Dolciani's Algebra 1 book and he worked through that. In the following two years he worked through Keys to Algebra books 5 - 8, NEM 2 & 3 and Mary Dolciani's Algebra 2 with Trig. He finds math relaxing and fun (takes after me in that respect).

 

DS #2 started in NEM 1 in 7th but was far from ready for it. We used Mary Dolciani's Pre-Algebra book, Key to Algebra books 1 - 4 along with some other math books. This fall he worked through NEM 1 and found it easy stuff although he will also tell you he detests math. :) At least he is finding it easy. After the new year he'll start in with NEM 2 and complete NEM 3 in 9th grade. If he finds it difficult or if he suddenly moves quickly through it I will fall back on Mary Dolciani's Algebra 1 and her Algebra 2 w/ trig books.

 

NEM 1 - 3 covers Algebra 1, Geometry and some of Algebra 2. NEM does a great job covering Trig however there were other topics in Dolciani's Alg 2 w/ trig book that it did not cover.

 

Carole

[KAR120C]

In fact according to my "autofill" settings I've used that as a subject line before.... LOL...

 

I don't find it hard to teach at all, but then I'm mathy and so is DS (so it's minimal teaching on my part - more discussing). It's true that the explanations aren't always explicit, but I think that's where the "mathy" designation comes in... they're sufficient for a kid who will make some connections on his own (or a teacher who can give hints), but probably not for a student-and-teacher who really need the connections pointed out. There are other Singapore secondary math books if you wanted to continue with Singapore but were concerned about that... We haven't found it a problem ourselves.

 

If you search NEM and my username apparently I have fifty related posts! :)

[kpupg]

We use a similar approach to Musicmom's for our mathy ds. I use Life of Fred as the spine and NEM chapters spliced in as appropriate. This gives us the traditional American sequence and the advantages of both programs. We did this for Algebra I, Geometry, and currently, ds is doing Advanced Algebra, using LOF Adv. Alg. and Singapore NSAM.

 

For Pre-Calculus and Calculus, Singapore's shifts to other books, so that will require a little research in the future.

 

NEM is not intended to be self-teaching -- it's what was used in Singapore's public schools for so many years. Now there are new Singapore curricula available -- most of which, I believe, are considered "more approachable" or easier than NEM. The forum at singaporemath.com talks about these differences/similarities at length, so I would recommend exploring that if teaching time/skill is an issue.

 

That said, we are using entirely different materials for our math-hating dd. She hates anything her brother excels at, and if I forced LOF or NEM on her, she would deliberately fail ... sigh .... so we are using Larson (with CD videos) and Gelfand for her. We'll see how that goes. She has the smarts, but it's the attitude that's the problem. Making me pull my hair out ...

 

HTH,

Karen

[Julie in MN]

Anyone using the Singapore Series for Jr High/High School Year Students?

 

NEM isn't the only high school Singapore option. Discovering Mathematics is actually the series that is most recommended on their forum these days, as it's supposed to be a little easier for homeschoolers to schedule?

 

I just used a bit of NEM-1 with my son at the end of 7th grade & didn't find it to be a difficult transition at all. However, there were TONS of problems as compared with the teensy amount of problems in Singapore Primary, so the scheduling help would have been a plus for me. (But I probably would have gotten used to doing it myself if I'd used it longer.)

 

Julie