Singapore Question

[NatashainDFW]

How do you do singapore? How long does it take you to complete a lesson? Do you turn your child loose with the text and workbook or.....? Just curious because we will be starting 2A on Monday.

[kmom]

:lurk5:

[Alice]

I use the US books, but I'd guess it's similar for Standards. We have finished through 3A.

 

At the beginning of the week I read over the HIG for what we are doing that week. I look over the TB, WB, IP and CWP and get an idea for what I want to cover that week.

 

My son is fairly "mathy" and gets the concepts fast. I spend the first day of the week teaching from the textbook, primarily. We do this orally together and use any manipulatives that are helpful. The rest of the week each day is a combination of problems from the workbooks, problems from the Intensive Practice book, a Mental Math sheet (from the end of the HIG), problems from the CWP, and math games. I aimed for about 30-45 minutes a day of math last year for second grade. I don't assign every problem in the workbook, just enough to make sure he gets it. From the IP and CWP we are generally working a little behind. The problems are much harder so it's usually a concept he already understands but just a tougher problem.

 

An example week might be:

Mon- Cover chapter on Multiplication, use manipulatives to demonstrate concept. Do someTextbook problems together orally.

Tues- Mental Math sheet on 2 digit addition, give him 3 minutes to complete. 2-3 workbook pages on Multiplication chapter. Math game to start memorizing multiplication tables.

Wed- Math game, Mental Math sheet, some difficult problems from IP book

Thurs- Extra problems from IP on multiplication since he seems to need more for this chapter.

Fri- Math game, Mental Math sheet, some difficult problems from IP book or CWP

 

I check his work each day and make him correct his mistakes. This is mostly because for him it's almost always careless mistakes and I'm trying to break that habit. If he makes a bunch of mistakes and it's clear he didn't understand the concept, we will go over it again and I'll make sure we "park" on the topic for a bit longer.

[kalanamak]

We do math 6 days a week. I have a very wiggly boy and I sit next to him for most of the math class. I like SM because it is adaptable (and because I "clicked" with their method). Kiddo will spurt ahead in one topic, covering 2 months in 3 weeks, and then languish waiting for some developmental stage to click (e.g. it took him a year to figure out how to read, and do math with, time).

We go over the text. If he is glazing over, instead of going to the workbook, I pull out something reinforce this, or I do review for the second half of the lesson, and after class I look at the topic and decide if I want to do 1) more examples 2) review the building blocks for that topic, or 3) skip it and come back. (It is usually #1). The next day I do 1 or 2 . If it works that way, we then move onto the workbook. I do not wait until kiddo can sit down and do the workbook perfectly and on his own. My son gets very spacey if things are too easy. So, we push through, and I correct the mechanics of his mistakes. (I am reminded of a Peanuts comment years back: I'm still confused, I'm just confused at a higher level).

 

Some lessons, when I've done the text the day before and we start on the workbook, I finish off with review (off the top of my head) or drill sheets, flash cards, or a few problems out of an "enrichment book" (currently we are doing Key to Fractions book 1, which is review and solidification, getting him ready for the next part of SM 4A, and MM multiplication 2, which is reinforcement for what we are doing now (two digit multi)), or some Zeus on the Loose to build mental math.

 

If it is a topic kiddo blows through, e.g. anything having to do with geometry, I don't do any enrichment books.

 

Every few weeks I spiral back through EP or pull out CWP or challenges from the IP of the year BEFORE. Once a month we spend a couple days on the FanMath bar method books from Singapore. Once or twice a month I do something with measurement and units. I think I have a science child, and units, units, units are important to me.

 

Ah well, ramble ramble. I just wanted to make it clear that SM is lovely because it is a barebones spine and you can hang any style of muscle off of it. It is a thrill to me, and made-to-fit for my son. HTH.

[Crimson Wife]

DD is using the text, CWP at level, and IP at level. The textbook lessons we go over together, then she works on the textbook practices, CWP, and IP independently unless she gets stuck. Then I sit there and prompt her: "what's the first step?" "okay, what's the next step?" etc.

 

A few of the most difficult CWP and IP problems I wind up just having her follow along while I show how to solve the problem. Some of the problems in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade books are the types of things I remember being on the SAT; at this point, it's more about exposure than being able to complete every single problem in the challenge books.

 

It usually takes her 30-45 minutes.

[kristinannie]

I use the US books, but I'd guess it's similar for Standards. We have finished through 3A.

 

At the beginning of the week I read over the HIG for what we are doing that week. I look over the TB, WB, IP and CWP and get an idea for what I want to cover that week.

 

My son is fairly "mathy" and gets the concepts fast. I spend the first day of the week teaching from the textbook, primarily. We do this orally together and use any manipulatives that are helpful. The rest of the week each day is a combination of problems from the workbooks, problems from the Intensive Practice book, a Mental Math sheet (from the end of the HIG), problems from the CWP, and math games. I aimed for about 30-45 minutes a day of math last year for second grade. I don't assign every problem in the workbook, just enough to make sure he gets it. From the IP and CWP we are generally working a little behind. The problems are much harder so it's usually a concept he already understands but just a tougher problem.

 

An example week might be:

Mon- Cover chapter on Multiplication, use manipulatives to demonstrate concept. Do someTextbook problems together orally.

Tues- Mental Math sheet on 2 digit addition, give him 3 minutes to complete. 2-3 workbook pages on Multiplication chapter. Math game to start memorizing multiplication tables.

Wed- Math game, Mental Math sheet, some difficult problems from IP book

Thurs- Extra problems from IP on multiplication since he seems to need more for this chapter.

Fri- Math game, Mental Math sheet, some difficult problems from IP book or CWP

 

I check his work each day and make him correct his mistakes. This is mostly because for him it's almost always careless mistakes and I'm trying to break that habit. If he makes a bunch of mistakes and it's clear he didn't understand the concept, we will go over it again and I'll make sure we "park" on the topic for a bit longer.

 

This is really helpful. Thanks!

[Momling]

We've only been using Singapore for 4 months, but so far... I introduce a topic with manipulatives if possible. Then my kids do the textbook orally with me and the accompanying workbook section on their own. I started them back a little ways, so everything has been mostly review so far. We haven't done the CWP yet and my kids were not fans of the IP book. We need simplicity and it was getting to be too many books.

[Holly]

We generally have a short lesson with manipulatives, then go over the text problems with or without manipulatives depending on how they are doing. Finally we finish up with the workbook exercise. Sometimes we break up an exercise over two days (or we may do two) depending on how long they are and how well my DC understand the lesson.

 

When we hit the review pages, I have them do 1 page a day in addition to their regular lesson and wb pages. My DD hated having several pages of review and this seems to help.

[Spy Car]

Try to be actively involved in teaching the lessons in the Textbook and try have something prepared to round out the lessons. The HIGs can help time-strapped parents have activities, games, demonstration ideas and the like to compliment the lessons. Or you can create your own. But don't let this become a "workbook"only type program that the child is expected to do alone, if you want good results.

 

Bill

[NittanyJen]

With DS8, I sit and go through the text lesson with him-- generally one section per day (we might do, say, chapter 3, section 2 one day; chapter 3, section 3 the next day). He can do most of the examples orally, sometimes on the white board; occasionally I make him write them out just for practice.

 

He does the workbook on his own, and when appropriate, the matched pages of the IP book. We do a rotating 4 days on/1 day off of Singapore, plus 1-2 pages of Math Mammoth and a chapter of Life of Fred elementary series for math.

 

On his "off" Singapore days, he'll tackle 2-3 pages of Math Mammoth, and then spend 20-30 minutes (or more at his discretion) on Khan Academy on a topic of his choosing.

 

Generally, I feel there is too much review in Singapore (we use the US edition) for him-- it gets pretty tedious and he gets pretty bored with it and clearly knows the material. In the text, when there are 2-3 Review pages, I'll task him to do 1 full page and half of the next on his own (written on notebook paper) and assuming at least 90% accuracy, we move on. For chapter tests, we use the Reviews in the workbook.

 

I think his favorite by far is the IP book (more interesting problems, less boring), Khan Academy, and Life of Fred Apples, which he successfully applies to other subject areas, which is very cool (he applied the stuff about Archimedes and vigintillion to his chemistry lesson about the size of atoms the other day-- sweet!).

 

At this pace, we started 2A at the end of February and are in the third chapter of 2B now, with several interruptions over the summer for travel and 4-H club and things, so I think he'll finish 3B by the end of the school year in May or shortly afterward if we keep up this pace. After that, I'll have to see if he needs to slow it down a bit or if he keeps jumping through 2 years every year; maybe I started him behind where he should have been-- who knows, but it works for us. If we slow down, I'll probably use the same model but perhaps not cover a section or review every Singapore day.

 

He can apply his math skills readily outside of math class, so I am happy that the understanding and retention are there.