bethben Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 (edited) I'm thinking of skipping Singapore 6A/6B and going straight into TT pre-algebra. He will have worked through Singapore 5B by this time. Did anyone else do this? It's mostly for the ease of my life since TT takes a lot less teacher time. I'm not a lover of TT and would prefer Singapore, but ds prefers TT and my life continues to be crazy so I need less me teaching stuff. Ds would be a young 5th grader for this. Beth Edited March 9, 2010 by bethben . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usetoschool Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 I didn't skip it because I prefer the way Singapore presents things, but it does cover much of the same material as a pre-algebra course. We finished 6B in January and just skimmed through the Saxon 1/2 book to cover a few things that Singapore doesn't like base 2 numbers, unit conversions, some more advanced geometry formulas and a couple other things I don't recall at the moment. Singapore 6, as far as I can see is a basic pre-algebra course and covered just about everything we need. It also depends on what book you will be using next. We are using NEM, among other things, so I wanted the flow of methodology to continue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraGB Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 We didn't skip it, and are doing it right now. One thing I can say is that while there is a lot of review and those things are taken one step further (in classic SM fashion), there are a quite a few more formulas introduced to be memorized. I would suggest possibly getting a hold of the 6B HIG or even just the textbook and skimming it to see what you can implement from it before he heads into TT. All in all, if he is that advanced, whatever you find that is new probably wouldn't take much time to cover, but would most likely be to his benefit before moving on into a different program. hth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonshineLearner Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 Wow, I'm looking at our 6B that we'll be starting soon. It's gonna take a bit to dig this out of my brain. I'd bet that it's gonna be harder than the TT for a while. It's a pretty serious jump from 5A&B. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happymom Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 My dd went from 5B into Liah's BCM. My ds is about to finish up 5B and I am trying to decide what to do next. I won't be doing Singapore as I like a more traditional approach to Pre-Algebra . It's been a few years but someone had posted about what Singapore didn't cover as compared to a traditional elementary curriculum, and I felt that there were too many gaps that I would have to fill in before Algebra 1. For my son I've been looking at TT or Chalkboard. I also may add in the new Pre-Algebra Life of Fred w/Biology book. BCM was very thorough but very dry and I don't think the college vocabulary is a good fit for my son. I'd be interested to now what others are doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usetoschool Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 I would suggest possibly getting a hold of the 6B HIG or even just the textbook and skimming it... The HIG for 6A & B won't be done for some time. The Teacher's Guides ($44 each) are done though. I managed to get through it without either but did have to ask for help with one problem on the Singapore Forum. Turns out we were just thinking about it wrong and it was an easy problem - one of those 'duh' moments. And I had to really go over the lessons to understand what they were trying to teach - the big picture - but it is doable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraGB Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 The HIG for 6A & B won't be done for some time. The Teacher's Guides ($44 each) are done though. Do you mean they are unavailable for SM? I just used mine this morning. :confused: I think I'm misunderstanding... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama25angels Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 Do you mean they are unavailable for SM? I just used mine this morning. :confused: I think I'm misunderstanding... I think she means for the standards edition, the ones for the US edition are completed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama25angels Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 We did not skip 6A/6B ( we just finished 6B this morning) I wish I had, i'm not mathy and these last two books were torture for me, but my DS was fine with them over all. We will finish out the year using Key to Algebra and then start TT when our new year starts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethben Posted March 9, 2010 Author Share Posted March 9, 2010 For my son I've been looking at TT or Chalkboard. I also may add in the new Pre-Algebra Life of Fred w/Biology book. I like the idea of chalkboard or video text, but I don't think ds is ready for a video instructor. I've been tossing around in my mind to just teach him algebra and all the higher maths, but don't know if I have the time to do it. It would be nice because then I could make some cash being an upper math tutor. Not a big deal - I went to college with the intentions on being a high school math teacher but couldn't handle the giant classroom situation. 150 kids per day in 5 classes- oy vey! Beth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 We did. We finished 5a and went into LOF percents/decimals plus the fractions. Now we are in LOF pre-algebra and ds has done fine. I have the 6B txt book just for reference but ds was ready to move on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 I seriously considered it last year when we were in 5a/b. 6a/b looked like so much review; I was considering just skipping it and heading into DM. But that would've had us in Algebra in 7th, and I was wondering why I needed to rush. We had already finished LOF Fractions and Dec/Percents before going into 6a. 6a/b has been fine, and has added some new things and stepped things we knew up a notch, as someone else said. It's true one of my dds has been making lots of mistakes, but that's partly (perhaps largely) attitude and carelessness. Which actually makes me especially I'm glad I didn't just skip it, as better to deal with that in 6b than try to fix it in Algebra. After this one of my dds is going into Lial's BCM and doing LOF PreAlg/Bio, and the other will do Singapore DM 1a/b. Then on to Algebra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama25angels Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 I seriously considered it last year when we were in 5a/b. 6a/b looked like so much review; I was considering just skipping it and heading into DM. But that would've had us in Algebra in 7th, and I was wondering why I needed to rush. We had already finished LOF Fractions and Dec/Percents before going into 6a. 6a/b has been fine, and has added some new things and stepped things we knew up a notch, as someone else said. It's true one of my dds has been making lots of mistakes, but that's partly (perhaps largely) attitude and carelessness. Which actually makes me especially I'm glad I didn't just skip it, as better to deal with that in 6b than try to fix it in Algebra. After this one of my dds is going into Lial's BCM and doing LOF PreAlg/Bio, and the other will do Singapore DM 1a/b. Then on to Algebra. May I ask how old your dds are? My DS that just finished this book had a horrible attitude throughout too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 May I ask how old your dds are? My DS that just finished this book had a horrible attitude throughout too! My dds are 11 1/2. Such a lovely age! :rolleyes: We're at the point in 6b now where the only new thing left to be introduced is volumes of solids - the rest of the book is review after review. So I'm thinking we may well move on to the next books before the end of the school year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy in Indy Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 We did 6a/b (ds was in 7th grade) as our pre-algebra course and then went to TT Algebra (1 and 2, then Chalkdust Geometry, TT Precalculus and Calculus at the cc). I hope to do the same with my younger ds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethben Posted March 9, 2010 Author Share Posted March 9, 2010 So, I'm getting the impression 6a/6b is a lot of review. The standards editions seem like that is not so much the case. If they are review and a little more, it may be nice to try and teach him how to learn from a math textbook. I'll have to look a little more closely. My oldest is having medical issues and I'm looking to ease up on teaching time a little more just for my stress levels (of course I have the mother who says"put them in school" - as if that would solve my problems!). Beth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 So, I'm getting the impression 6a/6b is a lot of review. The standards editions seem like that is not so much the case. Yes - I forgot to even mention that I'm using the US Edition! Standards came out too late in the sequence for me to bother jumping ship. I think Standards 6 has a lot more of the regular US pre-Algebra stuff that the "old" Singapore didn't - exponents, negative numbers, grid coordinates, etc. If they are review and a little more, it may be nice to try and teach him how to learn from a math textbook. As I said, I'm moving one dd to Lial's BCM after this - you could probably do it even after 5b, certainly after 6a, and it looks like a great text for a kid to learn how to learn from a textbook from - if that's not too convoluted a sentence. ;) All the teaching is in the book, written to the student. And there are DVTs you can buy fairly inexpensively to supplement if needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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