Saxon 2 to Singapore 1B

[farming_mum]

My son has just started Saxon 2 (lesson 15) and he is finding it very easy and boring. I am also quite disappointed with it and so I would like to give Singapore Maths ago.

 

I got him to do the placement test for 1A and he got 83% (standard edition). A lot of the mistakes where on the math sentences. I am just wondering if we should start on 1A anyway, even though SM recommend him to do 1B, as he got over 80%. I don't want him to miss any of the fundermental steps by jumping to 1B but I also don't want him to be bored redoing work that he already knows.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! :)

[SonshineLearner]

I absolutely LOVE Singapore :) I had my son do it from the beginning.... I think the REALLY important step is to get into the mind of teaching "Asian Math" :) I recommend taking a break and reading Liping Ma's book I love the "number bonds" and the way my son thinks about math. I'm not sure exactly what part is Singapore... and what part is just "how he is" :)

Enjoy!! :) (BTW, you can probably do just the Textbook with the HIG for the first book... playing games along the way. There are some games recommended in the guide)

[Five More Minutes]

My son has just started Saxon 2 (lesson 15) and he is finding it very easy and boring. I am just wondering if we should start on 1A anyway, even though SM recommend him to do 1B, as he got over 80%. I don't want him to miss any of the fundermental steps by jumping to 1B but I also don't want him to be bored redoing work that he already knows.

 

 

If you have the budget for it, I would probably get the SM 1A HIG (Standards Edition) and workbook and review for yourself how SM teaches the different topics (especially number bonds, addition, and subtraction). You could have your son do workbook problems for some of the topics (such as the adding within 20), because the unique way SM teaches those becomes foundational to a lot of the later addition problems.

 

I think that doing the whole of 1A would bore your son, so I wouldn't plan on spending much more than a couple of weeks dealing with topics in that level.

 

If you don't have the budget for it, then get the 1B HIG (SE) and student books. The 1B HIG has a few spots where it reviews how to approach some of the topics introduced in 1A -- it's not as thorough as in 1A, but if you do the activities that they recommend, it should be okay.

 

I'd also agree that Liping Ma's book, which you may be able to get from the library, is a fantastic resource for helping us as teachers think about teaching math in a different way. Highly recommend it.

 

HTH,

 

Lynnita