Kathie in VA Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 If I go with the standards edition, it looks like there are no Intensive Practices books or Challenging Word Problems books (only ones I can find are for the US edition)?? Are these just not done yet or are they included in this new version (aka not needed)?? I also noted the price difference, the standards costs more. (and possibly more on RR than Singapore site). :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 If I go with the standards edition, it looks like there are no Intensive Practices books or Challenging Word Problems books (only ones I can find are for the US edition)?? Are these just not done yet or are they included in this new version (aka not needed)?? I also noted the price difference, the standards costs more. (and possibly more on RR than Singapore site). :confused: The new CWPs are not tied (by name) to either the US Edition or the Standards Edition. The Intensive Practice books are US Edition. We have had no troubles using them to supplement the Standards Edition books. The SE versions are slightly more costly per book, but you also get a good deal more content so they are actually less expensive per page. Plus the Textbooks are full color. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 If you're going to be using the Home Instructor's Guides, definitely go with the SE. I've used both and the SE HIG's are *SIGNIFICANTLY* better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lamolina Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Would you recommend the HIG for all levels? Or at what level would you say it becomes more necessary? I will be starting Singapore with a K, 2nd, and 5th grader. thanks1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 I just used the CWP a level behind so there was no need to match topics. BTW, I much prefer the Standards edition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Would you recommend the HIG for all levels? Or at what level would you say it becomes more necessary? I will be starting Singapore with a K, 2nd, and 5th grader.thanks1 Definitely the 5th grader, possibly the younger two. For 1A/B, I personally decided it wasn't worth the money. At 3A & up, I absolutely find that I need it. I haven't yet taken a child through 2A/B (my oldest started Singapore at 3A after having used Right Start B & C) so I don't know yet whether I'll find it worthwhile for that level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlestonmom03 Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I've used the HIG with levels 1 through 3 and found them very helpful. My boy using 1A needs me to do a lot of the extras that are suggested in the HIG - he rarely gets something the first time through. Plus we like the mental math in the back of the book. I also use the CWP, but I don't try to match up topics - we go through it slowly and then finish it over the summer months. We bought both the US and SE for 1A and much prefer the SE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lamolina Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Thanks for the input on the HIG's. Looks like I will plan to get them for 2 and up, and look into it a bit more for 1. Also, at what level do you all recommend starting the IP and CWP? Cost was mentioned earlier... is the Singapore site the best price for ordering the Standard version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I got a REALLY good deal on the 2A/B books on eBay. It was for the US editions. I got the HIG, but I only use it for the mental math in the back. Math is my favorite subject and DS picks it us really fast, so we don't do the extra games and things in the HIG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 Would you recommend the HIG for all levels? Or at what level would you say it becomes more necessary? I will be starting Singapore with a K, 2nd, and 5th grader.thanks1 I would. The better educated a parent is in whole-parts mathematics the better the math experience the child will have. Plus math should be a well-rounded subject, and not just textbook/workbook learning. The HIGs are a helpful resource on both fronts. Unfortunately the standard for "necessary" is often when the parent can no longer figure out the answers or how to explain to a child how to get the "right answer." IMO this is a lousy standard of "necessity." There are other ways to round out Singapore Math and other ways for a parent to educated themselves in this sort of math approach. But the HIGs are a very efficient means for a time-pressed parent to use. They are also non-consumable so they will serve for multiple uses. The entry level is a critical stage of learning. This is when you want to get it right. Do not think this is the "easy" stage, it isn't. This is the time to lay a strong foundation and a time to make math a fun activity-filled subject. Bill (who does not get kick-backs, but probably should :D) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I the SE HIG's are *SIGNIFICANTLY* better. How so? And, any idea *why*? I gave up buying them after 3, which I never used. I didn't find the games interesting, everything was so obvious, anyway, and there was no way we were going to make it on the schedule. Kiddo zoomed through some topics, and took years to get others. Also, why do you say they become important? We are only about 1/3 of the way through 4A, but it hasn't crossed my mind to need a HIG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 If I go with the standards edition, it looks like there are no Intensive Practices books or Challenging Word Problems books (only ones I can find are for the US edition)?? Are these just not done yet or are they included in this new version (aka not needed)?? I also noted the price difference, the standards costs more. (and possibly more on RR than Singapore site). :confused: Each has its fans. I don't like the standards. I don't like stiff spine we wrestle with, I don't like the color/aesthetics, and I do like the really lean US edition. I use it to clue me into what to teach, and I run with my own examples. I guess, reading other responses on the yillions of SM threads, I use the textbook as my HIG. :) To find out what I'm "missing" by not being in CA, and to have the SE way of doing examples, I get the SE extra practice, which has the whole explanation all over again (whereas the US edition EP didn't ... it just had EP -- at least in the years I've eyeballed). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 How so?And, any idea *why*? I gave up buying them after 3, which I never used. I didn't find the games interesting, everything was so obvious, anyway, and there was no way we were going to make it on the schedule. Kiddo zoomed through some topics, and took years to get others. Also, why do you say they become important? We are only about 1/3 of the way through 4A, but it hasn't crossed my mind to need a HIG. I think the bolded part is key. If you're an intuitively "mathy" person and find that the Singapore approach is "obvious", then I'd agree that you probably don't need the HIG's. Most Americans, however, are not intuitively "mathy" people and the way that we studied math growing up was often seriously lacking from a conceptual standpoint. I always got A's in math all the way up through calculus, but it was because I was good at memorizing. Prior to beginning homeschooling, I was competent at quickly calculating the right answer but I didn't understand *WHY* the algorithms worked. Singapore assumes that the teacher has what Dr. Liping Ma calls "a profound understanding of mathematics". I don't have one, so I need the HIG's to help me teach the Singapore way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I think the bolded part is key. If you're an intuitively "mathy" person and find that the Singapore approach is "obvious", then I'd agree that you probably don't need the HIG's. Most Americans, however, are not intuitively "mathy" people and the way that we studied math growing up was often seriously lacking from a conceptual standpoint. . I just wanted to point out that I was a child of the WORST of the new math (mid 1960s), with everything as "sets" (oh, how I hated HATED drawing all those brackets), bombed out of 1st year algebra, dropped out of high school, struggled through a semester of CC algebra, sweated and laboured over "units" in all my sciences, used a calculator for everything, and generally had a panic attack about teaching my child math. To arm myself, I pretended I was a child, and got out the counting bears. I played my way through EB with kiddo, read a book on elementary math for teachers, using manipulatives and pretending I was a child through them all. Somewhere in there it clicked. By the time I got to Liping Ma's book, where I would look at the question posed at the beginning of each chapter and propose an approach before reading how her teachers did it, I was keeping up with her good teachers. Next up is to start on the next phase, and educate myself on pre-algebra, and hopefully beyond, but WHAT a liberation to suddenly feel math is not a nausea-creating, mind-numbing, tear-squeezing disaster, but a language in symbols about logic. I swear this is in the grasp of every average IQ'd hs parent, unless they have a specific learning disability in the math area, and I HIGHLY encourage new and scared moms to give my method a shot. Think of the money you will save on HIGs. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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