Singapore Math / Too many math problems?

[Guest sarawhitford]

Hello all!

 

This is my first post at this forum. I homeschool my 7-year-old son. We are using Singapore Math for the first time this school year. He is in book 2A, which we began using several weeks ago.

 

I only bought the textbook and the workbook, although I've heard there is a teacher's guide.

 

Here is my question:

 

Do most homeschoolers using Singapore Math have their kids do all of the problems that fall (in both the text and workbooks) under a particular lesson each day? It seems like even if you use 2A for the fall semester, and then 2B for the spring semester, and you break the books down logically for the amount of days you'll be spending in a semester, you end up having a TON of problems to work through each day.

 

I think I've decided I'm going to start slimming down the amount of math problems I have him to do, unless he starts struggling, at which point I'll give him more practice in a particular area.

 

Am I the only one who has wondered about this? LOL

[AngieW in Texas]

My youngest did better with having an amount of time to work instead of an amount of problems to work.

 

My two older girls didn't start Singapore until 3A. They typically did a full workbook exercise in one day (sometimes they did two in one day when the exercises were short). Reviews were always spread over 3 days.

 

My youngest balked at the number of problems in an exercise. Seeing how many problems there were freaked her out. I started her off with just 20 minutes/day of math. She went from spending over an hour and still not finishing a single exercise to sometimes doing more than one exercise in 20 minutes.

 

I think she just got overwhelmed looking at all there was to do. She did great once she knew that she could stop after 20 minutes of solid work.

 

Even now in 7th grade, she's only doing 35 minutes/day for math. I have to split it up into two sessions - 15 minutes in the morning and another 20 minutes in the afternoon.

[karensk]

Do most homeschoolers using Singapore Math have their kids do all of the problems that fall (in both the text and workbooks) under a particular lesson each day? It seems like even if you use 2A for the fall semester, and then 2B for the spring semester, and you break the books down logically for the amount of days you'll be spending in a semester, you end up having a TON of problems to work through each day.

 

 

(I think everyone does it a little differently, btw.)

 

I've used SM from the Earlybird level through PM-6 and then we did the first half of NEM-1. It's been a couple years since dd did PM-2, but this is approximately what we did....

 

For any given unit (e.g., numbers to 1000, addition&subtraction, length), we've usually completed some parts of the following books:

- 100% of the Workbook problems for that topic

- 50% of the Textbook problems (the Practices and the Reviews) for the topic

- 50-90% of Intensive Practice problems (skipping the Take the Challenge) for the topic

- 50% of Challenging Word Problems for the topic

 

We might come back to some of the unfinished problems for extra review later in the year, if needed; we do that most often using the Intensive Practice exercises, as they are significantly more challenging than the ones in either the Textbook or Workbook.

 

HTH!

[siloam]

Actually Singapore is considered light on written work when compared to Saxon and many other programs, especially if you are only using the textbook and workbook. We also do the Intensive Practice and Challenging World Problems books

 

But that said I have my 2nd grade students do 2 pages a day and no more. My 3rd grade students do 3 pages and my 4 grade and up students do 4 pages a day.

 

Heather

[twoxcell]

I am using 2a/2b with my 7 year old. I'm following the schedule from HOD, and no we do not do every problem on the page. He does all the workbook problems, but we only do how many textbook problems it takes for him to get it. I use the textbook as my instruction time, so the problems in it we work out together using manipulatives and such. When we get to the review/practice pages I pick out some problems and use it like a little test.

Edited August 25, 2010 by twoxcell

[Matryoshka]

:lol: Have to do that since the most common complaint about Singapore is that there aren't enough practice problems! So many people have their kids work through a whole 'nother math program (like Saxon or R&S) or do the supplementary workbooks from Singaproe (IP, CWP) on top of the regular workbook...

 

I never felt the need for all that (where does everyone find the time??) - We just did the text/workbook.

 

Now, the textbook is to be taught. So, I go over those problems with the kids on a whiteboard. I do out the examples as examples, and I have them do a certain amount of the practice problems in the lesson - if they showed me they "got" the concept, then I had them stop and do the workbook problems. In the early years, I often hauled out whatever manipulatives I felt might be necessary to help with the lesson (I didn't have the HIG, I just winged it).

 

The Practice sections and Reviews in the Text are optional - it says so right on the front page. I would only have them do the Practice sections in the Text if I felt they needed more practice on the concept - otherwise we skipped them. The Reviews in the Text I often did with them on the whiteboard as a review for the Review in the workbook, which they did independently.

 

So, we did enough of the examples and practice/review problems in the text to make sure they got the concept, but they did everything in the workbooks.

[Diviya]

I do the same as matroyshka. We don't always need the textbook, particularly at the early levels.

 

My minimum requirement from the kids is 2 pages or one exercise a day, whichever is more. The reviews typically take them two days. We do math 6 days a week, year round.

 

They will sometimes do more. I don't plan out the year. We just go on to the next level when we are done with this one.

 

We typically only do the IP and CWP books on vacation.

[brownie]

We have ended up using pretty much just the workbook and challenging word problems (about a semester behind). HOWEVER, that is more than enough for my easy to teach ds7 who is finishing up 3B. He often skips reviews and we've been known to skip chapters that he already knows. ON THE OTHER HAND, ds9 finishing 4A complains about all the problems and needs more review than in the workbook but since I know what he needs, I make review sheets targetted at his needs rather than going to the textbook these days. I like them to get 5 pages done a day.

 

Brownie

[Penelope]

In 2A and B we did quite a bit of the textbook (80%?), all of the workbook, and the parts of the IP books that were a step up in challenge (but not all the stuff on graphs, time, and the sections that were basically a repeat of the workbook). We also did some of the CWP for level 2 but most of them weren't more challenging than the WB. I think it must be the higher levels where CWP shine.

 

Now in 3A there is just SO much in the text. We are not doing it all. We do a few of each type of problem together, and then I have him do the WB, and we will also do the IP (I stagger the IP into the curriculum as review). But we are using Standards this year for the first time, so maybe that is the difference. I dunno, I know Standards is supposed to be the same as PM, but it seems like there is more busy work and review so far than there was in PM2.

 

I was thinking that, at least in Standard edition, the textbook might be what the teacher is teaching with in the classroom. I don't know for sure. But I can imagine a teacher-led group, with the teacher working out the problems in front of the children and then asking them to take turns solving them, maybe working in small groups to solve some of them before starting the workbook. So I think if I explain it and my child gets it right away, we don't have to do every single thing in the text.

[EKS]

The number of problems in Singapore tends to be on the light side for a typical math student. Gifted math students may need less repetition than the textbook and workbook combination, but if you are doing this, you're probably wanting to go faster as well (like 2+ lessons per day) or deeper, using the IP or CWP books, or some combination of faster and deeper.

 

Since the textbook problems tend to be more difficult than the workbook problems, if you want to eliminate problems, eliminate workbook problems first. I suggest that if you do decide to eliminate the workbook problems, that you have him do the practice problems (Practice 1A etc).

 

However, fluency is also important. If it seems like it is taking forever for him to do a problem set (textbook+workbook), there is likely a problem with fluency. The lessons are designed to take a reasonable amount of time and if they're not, then perhaps speed is an issue that needs to be addressed.

[Flaura]

 

However, fluency is also important. If it seems like it is taking forever for him to do a problem set (textbook+workbook), there is likely a problem with fluency. The lessons are designed to take a reasonable amount of time and if they're not, then perhaps speed is an issue that needs to be addressed.

:iagree:

I have found that to be true. If they are taking a while to complete the problems I would work on fluency with math facts.

[twogirlsmommy]

DD is finishing 3B. I used to to Extra Practice and IP, but it was just busy work for her. Now we do the textbook together (and go over one or 2 problems per section orally) and she does the workbook. I have her do all of the workbook since I use the textbook for teaching purposes only. I like the problems in the workbook and often we use the white board to go over a couple together.

 

I have to mention I chose Singapore for DD because she is not a hands on learner (hates to use manipulatives) and she doesn't require a lot of practice. She does well with learn, practice, move on. The review in the Singapre Math workbooks is adequate for her.

[imhim]

Wow, so this make me think I am doing to much math, maybe?

Every day we do 2 pages of CWP (behind several chapters), 2 pages of Abeka workbook, a lesson from HIG with manipulatives, and using the Textbook, and everything for that lesson in the Workbook. When we finish a letter 1a, fi, we do the entire IP for1a, several pages a day, plus the 2 Abeka and 2 CWP and some testing or RS games. Is this too much for a second grader (just turned 7?). My background is MS in Computer Science and i wonder if I am pushing too hard??? 4 or 5 days a week.

[Halcyon]

My just-8 yo works through the given lesson in the Textbook, with me or without me, depending on the difficulty (we're moving into multiplication and division in 3A so I will probably need to be more hands on). Then he does the Workbook. Every afternoon we do 20-30 minutes of MEP. When we're done with a given section in the Text, we spend a few days doing the IP.

 

I generally work by time limits--30 minutes in the morning, 20 min or so in the afternoon. Sometimes more, but never less. I think overall, SM has fewer problems than other curricula, but in general, they (especially the word problems) require a bit more thought. Not a lot of drill and kill, which would kill my kid.

[EKS]

Wow, so this make me think I am doing to much math, maybe?

Every day we do 2 pages of CWP (behind several chapters), 2 pages of Abeka workbook, a lesson from HIG with manipulatives, and using the Textbook, and everything for that lesson in the Workbook. When we finish a letter 1a, fi, we do the entire IP for1a, several pages a day, plus the 2 Abeka and 2 CWP and some testing or RS games. Is this too much for a second grader (just turned 7?). My background is MS in Computer Science and i wonder if I am pushing too hard??? 4 or 5 days a week.

 

How long does it all take? For a just turned 7yo, I would do no more than 30 minutes of math per day unless s/he was begging for more.

[StephanieZ]

It's not too many problems, IME.

 

We skipped the "Practice" problems that are in the TEXT, but did all the WkBks problems.

 

We would usually skip some of the Text problems that are in the teaching sections once the kid "got it" solidly. (I.e., when they have a dozen identical problems at the end of the teaching section, sometimes we'd get through 5 or so and call it a day.)

 

If he is struggling to keep up a pace of an exercise per day in 2A/2B, I would guess that it is a math fact / drill problem. Once they hit multi-digit addition/subtraction/etc, they will get bogged down if they don't have their facts superfast.

 

My dc have ecah been able to do an exercise a day in SM in an average of 10-15 min. They do a couple pages of Miquon each day as well. And a few minutes of drill. All in much less than 30 min/day, teaching time included.

 

If fact-speed is the problem, it is an easy fix! Get on the drill (5-10 min/day every day) and get those facts down!

 

If needed, take a couple weeks and just drill drill drill (with fun games, etc) to get the facts in hand and then return to SM.

 

HTH

[Crimson Wife]

My personal feeling is that for a bright kid, doing all the textbook problems and all the workbook problems is overkill. If the kid can demonstrate that he/she has mastered the concept by doing a handful of problems in the text, it's simply "busywork" to have him/her complete a whole bunch more in the workbook. Better to have the student apply what he/she has learned to solving the harder problems in the IP and CWP books.

 

I recently read a very interesting book called The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born, It's Grown- Here's How by Daniel Coyle. He makes a strong argument in favor of what he calls "deep practice". It's much more effective to have the individual challenge himself/herself to the edge of what he/she can do during practice, than to coast along doing too-easy things.

[siloam]

Wow, so this make me think I am doing to much math, maybe?

Every day we do 2 pages of CWP (behind several chapters), 2 pages of Abeka workbook, a lesson from HIG with manipulatives, and using the Textbook, and everything for that lesson in the Workbook. When we finish a letter 1a, fi, we do the entire IP for1a, several pages a day, plus the 2 Abeka and 2 CWP and some testing or RS games. Is this too much for a second grader (just turned 7?). My background is MS in Computer Science and i wonder if I am pushing too hard??? 4 or 5 days a week.

 

It would be too much here, but that is for my kids, and I like a relaxed CM approach starting out then turning more rigorous as we go (just like CM).

 

Heather

[imhim]

Thank you all. It takes 50 min. In MO we have to count the hours, so I don't think I can only do 30 min and call it an hour, although she may be doing more school than in public school in 30 min. But I do not give homework. Where I grew up we did lots of math, I did not grow up in the US, so I really don't have a good feeling about what is right.

[Jenn in Mo]

We started with the textbooks and workbooks in grade one, but quickly dropped the workbooks altogether. We found the textbook problems to be plenty for review and never missed the workbooks.

 

That said, we took a month off from Singapore during 3rd grade to focus hard on memorizing the multiplication tables after learning the concepts with the Singapore books - Singapore really doesn't dwell on memorizing these for long at all.

[siloam]

Thank you all. It takes 50 min. In MO we have to count the hours, so I don't think I can only do 30 min and call it an hour, although she may be doing more school than in public school in 30 min. But I do not give homework. Where I grew up we did lots of math, I did not grow up in the US, so I really don't have a good feeling about what is right.

 

I really dislike it when they require hsers to count hours. What a school teacher can get done in an hour and what a hser can get done in an hour are so vastly different that it is absurd. All the kids in a classroom end up with lots of messing around time, interrupting the teacher, calling on people for answers, getting out their books, handing out papers, sometimes even correcting papers is all part of that hour and is not part of hs. On top of it I seem to remember the teacher would give us a certain amount of time to do an assignment, but if we finished early we were free to do something else quietly. It isn't like in a US classroom all the child's time is engaged in either instruction or working like you do with hs.

 

I really don't pay attention to the time it takes us to do specific subjects. I spend about 30-60 mins a day one on one with my ds, and he probably has about 15 mins of independent work. That is for all subjects. My middle two had their independent hs done by 10 this morning and were out playing. Now I still need to do 30-60 mins of one on one with each of them, but again that is for all subjects. My oldest spends roughly 45 mins a day on RS math and 15 mins a day on Singapore as a 7th grader. She is behind "grade level" in both programs yet scored a 97% on her 3rd grade CAT 5 test, and an 84% on her 5th grade CAT 5 test. Yes you do see the drop in score for her being behind, but goodness, how high a score does a non-math student need? (She is a writing girl.) The slow pace keeps her from hating math. BTW that is the NP score, which means if you line up all the students who took the test then put my dd in that line only 3% scored better than she did in 3rd grade and only 16% in 5th grade.

 

It just frustrates me the work load they make you put on your child, whether they need it or not. If they need it and aren't frustrated by it, fine. It sounds like you are lucky and your child doesn't mind. But it would drive my poor wiggly ds over the edge. He loves math now and does well with it, but this sort of thing would kill his love of math quickly. These people have the best of intentions (I assume) but really need to become more familiar with the situation before they go making laws like this.

 

Heather

Edited August 26, 2010 by siloam

[imhim]

Yes, you are right Siloam. I spend much more one-on-one than you with my 7 yo and it may be too much. We have to count 1000 hours of instruction, at least 600 of which are core subjects. Good thing dd loves read-alouds.

I think I am probably too strict on math. I will have to see how I will adjust that. Thank you.

[siloam]

Yes, you are right Siloam. I spend much more one-on-one than you with my 7 yo and it may be too much. We have to count 1000 hours of instruction, at least 600 of which are core subjects. Good thing dd loves read-alouds.

I think I am probably too strict on math. I will have to see how I will adjust that. Thank you.

 

(((Hugs)))

 

I hope you can find balance and peace between fulfilling requirements and meeting your child's needs. All you can do is you best to honor both. It is hard when you are in between a rock and a hard spot.

 

Heather

[angela in ohio]

Thank you all. It takes 50 min. In MO we have to count the hours, so I don't think I can only do 30 min and call it an hour, although she may be doing more school than in public school in 30 min. But I do not give homework. Where I grew up we did lots of math, I did not grow up in the US, so I really don't have a good feeling about what is right.

 

It's not a bad thing that you have to count instructional hours, imho. It's a good thing for homeschoolers to think about how much actual time they take top teach their dc, especially young ones. Since you have to count them no matter what, look on it as an opportunity to remind yourself to find ways to be intentionally teaching your child.

 

You can be more creative in the way you count your hours, though. 30-45 minutes of math 4-5 days a week is plenty of time, but I don't think it's too much, especially if a lot of that is time with games and/or manipulatives. Then count another 15-30 minutes of "everyday math." Play War with flashcards, do addition or skip counting in the car. It is a good idea to be intentional about things like that anyway. Count hours for field trips, games, playing, cooking, etc.

 

I wouldn't do two workbook based programs (A Beka and Singapore) unless your dc loves workbooks. I would do one curriculum of workbook-type activities and then spend the rest of the time in games, manipulatives, etc., whether that is another program (RS, Miquon) or just what you do on your own schedule.

[Dmmetler]

Another option, especially for facts drill, would be audio files. I have a "Carschooling" playlist with Latin chants, math facts songs, skip counting songs, bible verse memory songs, and so on, and when I check my iPod at the end of a week, we've often listed to each one at least 50 times, often more like 100, just by having it on shuffle when we're driving. That adds to a LOT of instructional minutes quickly.

[Jenn in Mo]

You might contact HSLDA to confirm it, but a Missouri homeschooling class I went to said that a completed lesson qualifies as an hour's credit even if it is only half an hour. Less than this and it should probably be counted as a half credit, but a half hour is fine. Before 4th grade, more than half an hour is a LOT of math for most kids.

[SnegurochkaL]

Hi, you might think that I am "crazy" mom but this summer my child was doing between 6-10 pages of MEP books for review 4-5 times per week during 2 months. We skipped problem which required a class activities( go and measure your classmates and make a graph etc) My youngest son didn't want to participate in experiment:) It would take my daughter between 2.5-4 hours to do them(she was also foolling around reading books while waiting for a clarification of language used etc.

I didn't find ANY math program which will be complete for me so I do 4 different math programs with my child and I am happy with it. We are not rushing but going deeper in topic. We were doing RS and SM at the beginning so now we are pretty much on SM/MEP/Russian math (for 2nd grade which is equavalent to 3rd grade math in US). We will do RS when we need it. Generally I require 2 hours of productive math work.

For example, my daugher was reading SM textbook, doing assignments in something similar to workbook( we used Graded papers for primary math instead of workbook, which were more challenging), next day we would do Challenging problems(level 3) and IP problems without challenging ones, day 3 we will do IP challenging + CWP. Then I will check with MEP/ Russian math to find correlated topics etc. We used to do math 6 times per week, but this year we are cutting down to 5. Tuesday is a light study day for us.

I do planning 1 week ahead assigning lessons, problems etc. A lot of things my daughter does orally instead of writing or just writes the answer.

Math and Languages are the priorities in my kids education, so that is why she is studying "so much". She is not profoundly gifted in math, she needs to work to get the results. She started understanding" How math works" and that is important for us.

I think "how much math to consume" will depend on your goals and your child abilities, so far my requirements meet my child abilities. If they wouldn't I would go easy on her.

Edited August 27, 2010 by SneguochkaL

[EKS]

Hi, you might think that I am "crazy" mom but this summer my child was doing between 6-10 pages of MEP books for review 4-5 times per week during 2 months. We skipped problem which required a class activities( go and measure your classmates and make a graph etc) My youngest son didn't want to participate in experiment:) It would take my daughter between 2.5-4 hours to do them(she was also foolling around reading books while waiting for a clarification of language used etc.

I didn't find ANY math program which will be complete for me so I do 4 different math programs with my child and I am happy with it. We are not rushing but going deeper in topic. We were doing RS and SM at the beginning so now we are pretty much on SM/MEP/Russian math (for 2nd grade which is equavalent to 3rd grade math in US). We will do RS when we need it. Generally I require 2 hours of productive math work.

For example, my daugher was reading SM textbook, doing assignments in something similar to workbook( we used Graded papers for primary math instead of workbook, which were more challenging), next day we would do Challenging problems(level 3) and IP problems without challenging ones, day 3 we will do IP challenging + CWP. Then I will check with MEP/ Russian math to find correlated topics etc. We used to do math 6 times per week, but this year we are cutting down to 5. Tuesday is a light study day for us.

I do planning 1 week ahead assigning lessons, problems etc. A lot of things my daughter does orally instead of writing or just writes the answer.

Math and Languages are the priorities in my kids education, so that is why she is studying "so much". She is not profoundly gifted in math, she needs to work to get the results. She started understanding" How math works" and that is important for us.

I think "how much math to consume" will depend on your goals and your child abilities, so far my requirements meet my child abilities. If they wouldn't I would go easy on her.

 

I honestly don't think arithmetic is that complicated.

[SnegurochkaL]

I honestly don't think arithmetic is that complicated.

I agree with you. It is not. You can get through 6 grade math curriculum withing a month by doing it few hours per day 4-5 days a week.

[nmoira]

I honestly don't think arithmetic is that complicated.

:iagree:

 

My head is spinning.

[Corraleno]

I honestly don't think arithmetic is that complicated.

:iagree: Two hours a day of math for a 2nd/3rd grader seems really unnecessary :confused:

I agree with you. It is not. You can get through 6 grade math curriculum withing a month by doing it few hours per day 4-5 days a week.

Why on earth would you want to blow through an entire 6th grade curriculum in a month??? Is somebody chasing you? Is there a prize? :confused::confused::confused:

 

Jackie

[nd293]

My youngest balked at the number of problems in an exercise. Seeing how many problems there were freaked her out. I started her off with just 20 minutes/day of math. She went from spending over an hour and still not finishing a single exercise to sometimes doing more than one exercise in 20 minutes.

 

 

With dd9 it helped to time her on doing just a couple of sums as fast as she could. (Or seeing how many she could do in 10 minutes). Then she could see that she could realistically work through x problems in y minutes. Before that, she was also spending an hour without really getting through any work. It was driving me nuts!

 

Nikki

[SnegurochkaL]

Why on earth would you want to blow through an entire 6th grade curriculum in a month??? Is somebody chasing you? Is there a prize? :confused::confused::confused:

 

Jackie

 

There is no prize and nobody chasing you. I just said you could if you want. At least I did at age 11 out of curiosity if I could do it. I had a math book something between SM 6 and NEM1(refering to topics which were covered there).

[Jenn in Mo]

I agree with you. It is not. You can get through 6 grade math curriculum withing a month by doing it few hours per day 4-5 days a week.

 

You cannnnn, yes, but why? In your case at age 11, it was curiosity, which is grand. But this much math for someone who is not requesting it will eventually cause the student to detest math. Also, from everything I have studied and seen in practice, it does very little to improve the student's understanding of math. Students learn mathematical concepts through steady incorporation and through building blocks laid on established foundations. Putting 2 hours of math in the brain gets the work done, but doesn't lay a foundation nor enlighten a brain nor inspire curiosity for more. It beats out every last ounce of appreciation for the subject that might still be hiding in a corner of their brain.

 

UNLESS the student is requesting it. Some kids love it and want more more more! I had one of those. It happens. But it's weird.

[Jenn in Mo]

:iagree: Two hours

 

Why on earth would you want to blow through an entire 6th grade curriculum in a month??? Is somebody chasing you? Is there a prize? :confused::confused::confused:

 

Jackie

 

:lol: I snorted out my coffee.:lol:

[nmoira]

Why on earth would you want to blow through an entire 6th grade curriculum in a month??? Is somebody chasing you? Is there a prize? :confused::confused::confused:

You hear about this occasionally with unschoolers and those who delay formal schooling, though the actual time cited is a two or three months rather than one. I don't have a good sense of how often it actually happens though -- I'm aware of one such homeschooler, but like most have heard of others. Maybe we have all met the same girl. :D

 

SneguochkaL, I guess I'm curious as to what benefit you see your daughter receiving by spending 2-4 hours a day on math? How long is your schoolday?

[angela in ohio]

You hear about this occasionally with unschoolers and those who delay formal schooling, though the actual time cited is a two or three months rather than one.

 

I have a friend who bought into this; many years later, her son still struggles. The "unschooling equation" (learn a subject later in a shorter amount of time) omits the role of repetition in learning. A few lucky kiddos can get concepts without ever repeating them again, but for the rest, they will struggle to move on. There is a reason concepts are repeated for several grades, and it isn't just to fill the school day.

[6packofun]

Yep. :)

[nmoira]

 

I have a friend who bought into this; many years later, her son still struggles. The "unschooling equation" (learn a subject later in a shorter amount of time) omits the role of repetition in learning. A few lucky kiddos can get concepts without ever repeating them again, but for the rest, they will struggle to move on.

But this isn't the way unschooling works. Skills are not developed in isolation, or studied for the mere sake of learning the skill. Repetition comes through application in everyday life and/or advanced studies. I've get to meet a 10-ish unschooler who can't count or add, or doesn't have a basic understanding of fractions and proportions from cooking or the like. A "normal" child who is allowed to develop number sense isn't going to be hurt by delaying the start of formal math education for a few years. Some on this board do it. K-6 math isn't rocket science.

[SnegurochkaL]

[quote name=nmoira;1988875

 

SneguochkaL' date=' I guess I'm curious as to what benefit you see your daughter receiving by spending 2-4 hours a day on math? How long is your schoolday?

 

The reason my daughter was doing so much math this summer because she was thinking too slow(mental math). She likes to dream:) Few years ago she was 2-3 grades ahead in math, but I slowed her down and she switched her attenion to Languages. She would rather spent 2 hours on French or German than math, so my husband was complaining that she was behind and thinking too slow:( He used to teach integrated class of accelerated students many years ago. He is one of the "profoundly gifted" kids. So that is why my daughter was doing few hours of math during summer to catch up). I don't want to say that every child should spent 2 hours of math. Some days she does more because she wants to ease her Tuesdays for skating practice. She has assigned papers so she needs to do them. If she wants to play math games(when time is left),we do so. I have a lot of ways to reinforce it. We play pet detective which she likes a lot.

She wants to be Very good at math. She wants to compete in math Olympics, so she needs to be good. She is perfectionist.

 

There were more than 70% of accelerated students in my AP class( middle school). We competed individually in math olympics on regional levels. I wasn't always send there because school administration though they need to give other students a chance to participate at high level competitions (if we had several kids getting the same score and only 2 could represent the city). Way back it was teachers decision who would go.

 

 

P.S. Our regular school day is between 5-7 hours. She also read 1-2 hours independently every day. Playing educational games included also.

[EKS]

Few years ago she was 2-3 grades ahead in math, but I slowed her down and she switched her attenion to Languages.

 

I'm assuming that we are talking about your 8yo here? I'm confused.

 

If she was 2-3 grades ahead in math a few years ago (I'm taking that to mean 2-3 years ago), then, assuming that she is in 3rd grade now, in K or 1st grade, she was working at a 3rd grade level. And according to your previous post, she is working at a 3rd grade level now. So she has made no progress in a few years?

[SnegurochkaL]

Skills are not developed in isolation, or studied for the mere sake of learning the skill. Repetition comes through application in everyday life and/or advanced studies.

 

:iagree:

I am not rushing her through topics, no way. I just trying to encourage her thinking independently. She is very advance in Logic/thinking skills. Russian math and MEP gives her a lot of good non-traditional thinking practice. I never dreamed making my child spend 2 hours adding "2+3", it is rediculous. No mistakes or 1 on test, we move on. More than 1 mistake, we works more on the topic. I am teaching her thinking logically and mathematically.

 

We enjoyed RS math but it was going too slow for us, so we ended doing 2-3 lessons per day.

 

My daughter likes geometry so she loves geometry part of Russian math/RS. We will do "geometric approach" of RS program in a year or so.

 

P.S. I was lazy enough to describe the whole approach of studing math in our house. My husband wants to work with my daughter on applying math to different field like making a robot and writing a program for that or working on different base math system. She has not been ready for that yet.

[SnegurochkaL]

I'm assuming that we are talking about your 8yo here? I'm confused.

 

If she was 2-3 grades ahead in math a few years ago (I'm taking that to mean 2-3 years ago), then, assuming that she is in 3rd grade now, in K or 1st grade, she was working at a 3rd grade level. And according to your previous post, she is working at a 3rd grade level now. So she has made no progress in a few years?

 

I am trying to clerify my writing:

In pre-K(3,5 years) she was doing a mix of K arithmetic and geometry of 2/3grade. We did RS A + few other things. In K she was doing a mix of 1/2 grade (Calvert math + other things), in 1 grade she did 2/3 math and in 2nd grade she didn't do much math because we were thick for 4 month out of 9, then tried to catch up with LA, science, history, art etc, last year wasn't productive at all. She did some math but needed to go over it again. That is why my husband thought she should be in 4 grade math being in 2 nd grade. She wasn't interested exelling in math last year at all. Math was her least favorite subject. She was doing her French, Latin, social studies etc. We were part of on-line school partially for first half of the year and had been sick starting in February. She is not even in every subject that is why I need to adjust a lot of things to fit her needs. She is a gifted child that is why she swings from one extreme to another, which is normal:)

Edited August 27, 2010 by SneguochkaL

[EKS]

Got it.

[nmoira]

 

so my husband was complaining that she was behind and thinking too slow:( He used to teach integrated class of accelerated students many years ago. He is one of the "profoundly gifted" kids. So that is why my daughter was doing few hours of math during summer to catch up).

Catch up to whom? Is she on grade level now? Do you have her drill past mastery? With DD the Elder (8) I initially had my doubts/fears, but allowing her to forge ahead through K-6 math turned out to be the best decision I could have made. Parking to work at challenging middle school level math has been a more engaging and rewarding experience than that of doing page after page of challenging 2nd or 3rd grade problems. There's some built-in excitement when presented with a problem for which you have your choice of methods as to how to solve it. Edited August 27, 2010 by nmoira
typo

[EKS]

Parking to work at challenging middle school level math has been a more engaging and rewarding experience than that of doing page after page of challenging 2nd or 3rd grade problems.

 

I agree.

 

We get K-6 math done quickly and well here and then mosey through algebra and up.

[SnegurochkaL]

Catch up to whom? Is she on grade level now? Do you have her drill past mastery?

 

It depends on your criterias of Mastery. Everyone has her/his own ideas and goals. I chose mine. That is why we homeschool:) You know what your child is capable of doing and you encourage her/him to go on. Mine needs to be challenged.

 

I want my child to be able handling different kind of "simple" non-traditional problems before she moves to complicated one. She might be going slower than she would without having so many challenging problems, but I think it is much better to give her an experience of brain teasers, math olympiad assignments etc to be sure she can think creatively and out of box.

 

We also are trying to make some kind of unit studies combining math, science, literature, LA and history for particular topics. She is going to reinforce her Roman number understanding studying Ancient Rome and Roman scientist/mathematicians in few months by making several lap-note books covering this subject. I do like math applications.

 

P.S. When I was 10, I attended a " Mathematical circle"(an extra curriculum math class). We had meetings weekly. Once my teacher tought me how to find a squire root out of numbers without using a calculator. We are talking about square roots without any reminders:) I used to be able to do it mentally from up to 6 digits numbers. It was very handy because during competition you were not allowed to use any special tools except few common one(a calculator didn't count, but a slide ruler did later on)