Singapore Math 5a

[Cassy]

Up to this point we have been doing RightStart Math. Last year DS10 did RS E, each day's lesson being completed well within the hour we schedule for math.

 

This year we have moved on to Singapore 5a and DS is having great difficulty completing the week's work.

 

We do the Textbook exercises, Workbook exercises and Tests, NOT the Extra Practice. We've been going at it for 4 weeks now and in order to complete the week's work he's working 2 hours a day. He's not the most focussed of students, and does have a tendency towards laziness, but he is very bright.

 

What have been other people's experiences of Singapore 5a? Are we trying to do too much? Or should I just keep pushing for him to complete his work more quickly? I really don't want to put him off math, but neither do I want him to think that he can just mess about and get away with doing half the work he should be doing.

 

Please help!

 

Cassy

[Cosmos]

I found Singapore PM exercise sets to vary quite a bit in length and difficulty. I don't recall 5a in particular. We always worked by time. I spent about 15 minutes a day working with ds. We read the text and worked the textbook problems together at the whiteboard. Then he spent about 30 minutes working on the workbook exercises. With that proportion, we seemed to progress at about the same rate.

 

I think it was rare for him to finish a whole exercise set in one day, and yet we still finished each level in less than a year.

[Candid]

Did you use the placement tests that are provided by the Singapore folks? If not, it maybe possible that he needs to be dropped back some. If he is missing parts of the program that maybe the cause of the slowness.

[Cassy]

Did you use the placement tests that are provided by the Singapore folks? If not, it maybe possible that he needs to be dropped back some. If he is missing parts of the program that maybe the cause of the slowness.

 

We did do the placement tests, and for the most part the work seems to be well within his capability, although there are some questions that stretch him (and me!) a little, but I would have thought that to be desirable. It seems to be more the quantity of work that's a problem, rather than the difficulty.

 

Many thanks for your thoughts though :001_smile:.

 

Cassy

[Snickerdoodle]

I wonder if he should take the placement tests as well.

 

We didn't find anything unusual about 5A. My son did 2-3 exercises a day. He isn't the most focused child either but it never took him hours upon hours.

[redsnapper]

Cassy,

 

We are doing 5A this year. It is our second year of home schooling and PM.

 

Last year, since I was finding my way, I focused almost entirely on the workbook and skipped the text book altogether. I was in survival mode and that seemed simplest. What I discovered was that the text had all the helps in it while the workbook had lots of practice. Too much at times. My daughter was overwhelmed by the number of pages some exercises had, and when she was already struggling with math intimidation that made things worse.

 

This year, I am working almost exclusively out of the textbook (I am still aiming for simple but effective).

1) It includes helpful visual aids;

2) it's in color and that makes it "friendlier" to my dd, less intimidating;

3) since the problems are meant to be completed in a notebook, they are spaced closer together in the text, making each lesson usually only one page or less. This helped my daughter to be less intimidated by the "size" of her daily work. Plus there are plenty of problems in each lesson for me to see if she gets it or not; I don't need the amount of work available in the wkbk. If she needs more practice, THEN I go to the workbook for additional problems. Math is going significantly smoother for us this year as a result.

4) the text includes a Practice assignment to review that unit as well as a Review section to cover all that you've learned YTD. It's perfect for what we need.

 

Hope that helps!

-Melissa

[redsnapper]

Oh, I forgot to mention, one of the best pieces of advice I've gotten so far is to set a timer for math. Say 30-45 minutes only.

 

Last year, math would drag on and on. My dd would get slower and slower the more challenging the math, or other days she'd be distracted or dawdle. By the end of the year I'd discovered the timer trick. It helps in many ways:

 

- the child knows there is an end in sight! Math will not continue for hours and that takes some of the "dread" out of math time.

- the child has a limited amount of time in which to complete his work. At the end of the time, if the child has not completed the work, the parent can decide if that is enough math for the day or if the incomplete work is due to a character issue. In which case, you can require the child return to the math assignment during his free time later in the day to finish it. It's a good natural consequence for a dawdler. However if your child is working diligently but slowly, you may decide to take it up again the next day.

 

Good luck!

-Melissa

[Momling]

We are just starting 4b this month, so we haven't seen 5a... perhaps it's different. My daughter and I have an agreement that she will do math every day. But I will not ask her to do more than one little segment of math (to the pencil noting which workbook exercise to do). We do the textbook together. Then she does one workbook exercise that follows along with it. Nothing more. She is a very slow kid in everything she does (eating, walking, getting dressed...) but math is always done within an hour.

 

I'd probably skip the tests if I were you.

[Caitilin]

We are just starting 4b this month, so we haven't seen 5a... perhaps it's different. My daughter and I have an agreement that she will do math every day. But I will not ask her to do more than one little segment of math (to the pencil noting which workbook exercise to do). We do the textbook together. Then she does one workbook exercise that follows along with it. Nothing more. She is a very slow kid in everything she does (eating, walking, getting dressed...) but math is always done within an hour.

 

I'd probably skip the tests if I were you.

 

This is pretty much how we are doing it here with all my dc, including ds using 5A, unless the section or the exercise following it are exceptionally short. For us, this works because it is a visible end-in-sight, and I get very little resistance, even though ds is not the most, umm, non-resistant student.;):D

[Crimson Wife]

DD is currently doing 5A. We don't use the tests or the workbook, just the textbook, CWP, and IP. The end-of-chapter reviews she does on Fridays 1 semester behind (e.g. she's working through the 4B reviews now). I aim to have her work about 45 minutes per day on math. Sometimes it takes her less time and others a bit more.

 

Here's what is in her planner for this week:

 

Mon: Chapter 3 Practice D, IP pg. 30 #8 & 9

Tue: Chapter 3 Section 7, Practice E

Wed: Chapter 4 Section 1, Practice A

Thurs: Chapter 4 Section 2, Practice B

Fri: 4B Review 3

 

Normally I would have her start in on the CWP then IP after finishing the chapter. However, with the fractions topics in 5A I'm going to have her complete both chapters 3 & 4 before beginning the supplemental books. It'll be easier than trying to figure out which specific problems line up with the topics in each chapter.

[tessbois]

to their style. We are just getting started on Singapore and I can see that the math word problems are challenging but I think in a good way. Perhaps as everyone else suggests, slow it down, give less problems in areas that are new to him. But think about breezing quickly through parts you know he understands (cuts down on boredom) and just give him the chapter test.

 

We only do math 3 times per week and already my kids are ahead of their ps counterparts at the same grade level.

 

Also my kids have fun with math games so maybe adding some stuff you find on the internet to keep it interesting and keep it less workbook dull?

[Cassy]

Thank you so much everyone, you've been really helpful, it feels quite a load off my mind. I've just gone through it with DH too, who's a very mathy person; he agrees that the work is not at all too difficult for DS, and we're both relieved that it's quite normal not to do all of the Textbook, Workbook and Tests every week.

 

I think I'll follow the advice of redsnapper quite closely as your experience seems quite close to ours - ie we'll do mainly the Textbook and set a time limit on it, if he doesn't finish within the time limit then I'll ask him to do the rest for 'homework' (he will not like that at all :lol:).

 

Many, many thanks again to you all

 

Cassy

[Candid]

to their style. We are just getting started on Singapore and I can see that the math word problems are challenging but I think in a good way. Perhaps as everyone else suggests, slow it down, give less problems in areas that are new to him. But think about breezing quickly through parts you know he understands (cuts down on boredom) and just give him the chapter test.

 

We only do math 3 times per week and already my kids are ahead of their ps counterparts at the same grade level.

 

Also my kids have fun with math games so maybe adding some stuff you find on the internet to keep it interesting and keep it less workbook dull?

 

I think combining both the timer idea or something similar to this idea that he may not be used to the program are where I would lean.

 

We did a year of Singapore with half the exercises of three add on books but never did more than one exercise per day from the workbook so you should have plenty of time to split some exercises over more than one day.

 

If you can find areas that seem to really slow him down, you could drop back and reteach from the Singapore POV (I'm think of the rods for word problems, but maybe other things as well).

 

Also, at this level, he may be able to give you feedback on what's taking longer.