Singapore Math 1A - Tell me what you do when your child needs more practice.

[pitterpatter]

We've been working on adding and subtracting within 20 this week (SM 1A, Unit 6, Chapter 2). We've been completing one lesson per day, but all of the different methods are getting jumbled. Should I be spreading out the lessons to a week or so each for Unit 6, Chapter 2?

 

I want to do Unit 6, Chapter 2 over and spend more time on each lesson so it sticks and DD automatically knows what method to use when. Right now, I have to tell her which method to use and/or show her examples in order for her to get going.

 

I guess we're going to finish the chapter out and then go back. I'm thinking about going onto Shapes first, though, then going back for a week of practice with Unit 6, Chapter 2, Lesson 1. Then, go onto Length. Then, go back for a week of practice with Unit 6, Chapter 2, Lesson 2 and so on.

 

I'm not really sure what to do. She can work the problems, but she can't remember how she's supposed to do them from one day to the next.

 

PS - I don't understand why the workbook focuses so much on pictorials and doesn't provide practice with breaking apart numbers/making tens with number bonds. I don't see how DD is supposed to work the problems mentally if there are pictures on every page. I covered them up sometimes, but that makes her mad.

 

PSS - I still don't understand how to incorporate those danged Cuisenaire Rods. If I let her use them to figure out all of the problems, how is she going to learn how to use the Singapore Math mental math methods?

[FairProspects]

PS - I don't understand why the workbook focuses so much on pictorials and doesn't provide practice with breaking apart numbers/making tens with number bonds. I don't see how DD is supposed to work the problems mentally if there are pictures on every page. I covered them up sometimes, but that makes her mad.

 

PSS - I still don't understand how to incorporate those danged Cuisenaire Rods. If I let her use them to figure out all of the problems, how is she going to learn how to use the Singapore Math mental math methods?

 

The point of Singapore is to go from concrete-visual-mental/abstract. You can't really expect her to jump through all 3 at once! The rods are the concrete representation of what the numbers are doing, once she is firm in working with this concept concretely, move to the pictures on the page as a visual reminder, and finally she will be able to do them mentally or abstractly, but it is a developmental skill just like anything else and just takes time and practice. If anything, I do think that Unit 6 is weak on concrete practice and I like Rosie's place value "going over ten" videos much better.

[pitterpatter]

That makes enough sense. Being new at this, I wish that's how the lessons were divided up. I guess they kind of are, but it feels like you're supposed to do it all in one day.

 

Maybe I should just chuck the chapter, move onto shapes, then start it over...more slowly.

 

The point of Singapore is to go from concrete-visual-mental/abstract. You can't really expect her to jump through all 3 at once! The rods are the concrete representation of what the numbers are doing, once she is firm in working with this concept concretely, move to the pictures on the page as a visual reminder, and finally she will be able to do them mentally or abstractly, but it is a developmental skill just like anything else and just takes time and practice. If anything, I do think that Unit 6 is weak on concrete practice and I like Rosie's place value "going over ten" videos much better.

[pitterpatter]

Where do I find this? Thanks!!

 

The point of Singapore is to go from concrete-visual-mental/abstract. You can't really expect her to jump through all 3 at once! The rods are the concrete representation of what the numbers are doing, once she is firm in working with this concept concretely, move to the pictures on the page as a visual reminder, and finally she will be able to do them mentally or abstractly, but it is a developmental skill just like anything else and just takes time and practice. If anything, I do think that Unit 6 is weak on concrete practice and I like Rosie's place value "going over ten" videos much better.

[Alte Veste Academy]

Do you have (and use) the HIG? If not, get that ASAP. There is lots of instruction in there, including various manipulatives.

[FO4UR]

 

PS - I don't understand why the workbook focuses so much on pictorials and doesn't provide practice with breaking apart numbers/making tens with number bonds. I don't see how DD is supposed to work the problems mentally if there are pictures on every page. I covered them up sometimes, but that makes her mad.

 

PSS - I still don't understand how to incorporate those danged Cuisenaire Rods. If I let her use them to figure out all of the problems, how is she going to learn how to use the Singapore Math mental math methods?

 

 

 

The idea with the C Rods is to use them so much that the child can visualize them in her head...and reach a point where she realizes that she can do it faster in her head than with the rods. If she's not to that point, the rods are still serving an important purpose.

 

 

 

For making 10's, line up the rods you are adding in a train. Set an orange rod down next to it. Ask her which rod will make the train with the orange rod equal to the other train. (8+7=10+5) Do this kind of exercise as a warm-up daily...for whatever concept might need reinforcing.

[pitterpatter]

Absolutely, we do! We do darn near everything in it. What's listed in the lessons anyway. I admit, though, I didn't really read ahead on this chapter. (I read through the lesson and prepare a day ahead.) The way everything else has been divided has worked well for us. This is the first time I've felt like we need to slow down and divide up each lesson even more.

 

Do you have (and use) the HIG? If not, get that ASAP. There is lots of instruction in there, including various manipulatives.

[pitterpatter]

Ok, thank you! That helps.

 

The idea with the C Rods is to use them so much that the child can visualize them in her head...and reach a point where she realizes that she can do it faster in her head than with the rods. If she's not to that point, the rods are still serving an important purpose.

 

 

 

For making 10's, line up the rods you are adding in a train. Set an orange rod down next to it. Ask her which rod will make the train with the orange rod equal to the other train. (8+7=10+5) Do this kind of exercise as a warm-up daily...for whatever concept might need reinforcing.

[FairProspects]

Where do I find this? Thanks!!

 

It's under her mental math section.

[blondeviolin]

The idea with the C Rods is to use them so much that the child can visualize them in her head...and reach a point where she realizes that she can do it faster in her head than with the rods. If she's not to that point, the rods are still serving an important purpose.

 

 

 

For making 10's, line up the rods you are adding in a train. Set an orange rod down next to it. Ask her which rod will make the train with the orange rod equal to the other train. (8+7=10+5) Do this kind of exercise as a warm-up daily...for whatever concept might need reinforcing.

 

This is how we work with the rods this way. Then, I move to explaining, "Well, if we wanted to have that brown rod become an orange, what would the black have to share? That's right, a red!" So then we change the black out for red and yellow. So now the 8 has become a 10 and the 7 a 5. This is a beautiful move into Singapore's method. We call it "making them share" and we did it a lot with the rods until the rods became almost cumbersome to pull out and she started working it mentally.

[Alte Veste Academy]

Absolutely, we do! We do darn near everything in it. What's listed in the lessons anyway. I admit, though, I didn't really read ahead on this chapter. (I read through the lesson and prepare a day ahead.) The way everything else has been divided has worked well for us. This is the first time I've felt like we need to slow down and divide up each lesson even more.

 

Oh, good. But then I'm no help. :tongue_smilie: I will say that it's normal sometimes for something not to click. You can go back and forth, on to another topic and just come back. Just keep doing a little something with the puzzling topic and it will eventually click. Also, if your DD is still 5, there just may be some abstractions that she's not ready for yet. Different things click at different times.

[staceyobu]

We switched to math mammoth...

[kitten18]

I go back and forth between SM and Miquon. When we hit a spot in SM that I think we need to stay at for awhile, I try to find corresponding pages in Miquon.

 

Or use the videos from Education Unboxed.

[sweetpea3829]

DS5 is just behind your DD in Singapore 1A...he'll be heading into that chapter next.

 

We have found there to be plenty of practice opportunities between the workbook, the Intensive Practice, the CWP, the Processing Skills and the Express Strategies workbooks.

 

Acually, it's often TOO much...and we haven't even really started much in that Express Strategies workbook yet.

 

If you're not using Intensive Practice, I def recommend it. I usually pull a page or two from it every day for "daily math review."

[boscopup]

That is a very hard concept for a 5 year old, even a gifted one. Definitely stick with manipulatives as long as she needs them.

 

When my oldest did the making 10s in Math Mammoth 1 at 6 years old, that was the ONE concept he needed manipulatives for, and I had to explain it a few times. He's very mathy and is an abstract thinker, but that concept was tricky. Then it clicked and we kept going. It's the only real snag we've had in math so far.

 

I'll be doing that section of 1A with DS2 next month. Not sure yet how he'll do, but if we need to park there for a bit, no biggie. We've also watched Rosie's video. Definitely check that out!

[alisoncooks]

I finally had to make peace that I'm not going to be able to follow SM's (loose) weekly schedule. It introduces and moves on from # bonds pretty quickly; I wanted to make sure that DD understands this since it's pretty important, taking a few days with c-rods, etc. So this is putting us a week behind schedule.... I'm just fighting my OCD tendencies and going with it...

 

(and there are a lot of things in the HIG! sometimes I chose certain review 'games' and doing them at other times of the day)

[Holly]

We've used the topical books from Math Mammoth when my oldest has gotten stuck. Other options are to move onto another topic and go back...that often works with my DC. Sometime math topics just "click" if you give it time. Another option would be just to move on...the same topics pop up repeatedly throughout the program.

 

My DD really struggled with regrouping and I kept re-doing the lessons and added MM for a slightly different perspective. She had tears on more than one occaision (although DD can be a bit overly-dramatic...no idea where that comes from). :blush: The funny thing is, we used the next level of SM (a year later) and she had it down right away. I really don't think it was the teaching...I think she just needed time to make the connections. Looking back, I wish we'd moved onto another topic and came back with fresher eyes.

[nono]

We've been working on adding and subtracting within 20 this week (SM 1A, Unit 6, Chapter 2). We've been completing one lesson per day, but all of the different methods are getting jumbled. Should I be spreading out the lessons to a week or so each for Unit 6, Chapter 2?

 

I'm not sure exactly what you define as one lesson. I just pulled out my ds's 1A books (he'll be starting them in a couple weeks) and I'm pretty sure I will spend at least 2 weeks to cover the material in both the text and workbook (he also does Miquon). I'm sure it took at least 3 weeks with my dd back when she was in 1A, as she was having reading problems. With her as my first, I learned to make peace quickly with "should-be-ats" and simply work with recognizing real accomplishment and learning. She loves math to this day. :)

 

We also use things like Math Wraps, electronic math games, etc. Math Wraps are still a hit with both kids and they take them in the car sometimes. For me, it's :001_huh:, but they like 'em. There's a possibility that C rods just aren't your child's thing. See if one type of manipulative resonates better and favor it for awhile as you teach.

 

HTH!

[pitterpatter]

This is a large part of the problem, I think. The schedule has pretty much worked for us up until now. Ever once in a while, we took two days to complete a lesson. I was really caught off-guard with this chapter. Wish I would have realized beforehand. I just thought you were supposed to do everything all in one day (i.e. hands-on teaching, textbook, workbook, etc.).

 

Although I read this or that on here all of the time, until one gets to that spot with one's own child, it's hard to understand and apply what others have suggested.

 

I finally had to make peace that I'm not going to be able to follow SM's (loose) weekly schedule. It introduces and moves on from # bonds pretty quickly; I wanted to make sure that DD understands this since it's pretty important, taking a few days with c-rods, etc. So this is putting us a week behind schedule.... I'm just fighting my OCD tendencies and going with it...

 

(and there are a lot of things in the HIG! sometimes I chose certain review 'games' and doing them at other times of the day)

[pitterpatter]

I do, but I was using it as review at the end of each unit. I have CWP too. Need to re-think how to best use these.

 

DS5 is just behind your DD in Singapore 1A...he'll be heading into that chapter next.

 

We have found there to be plenty of practice opportunities between the workbook, the Intensive Practice, the CWP, the Processing Skills and the Express Strategies workbooks.

 

Acually, it's often TOO much...and we haven't even really started much in that Express Strategies workbook yet.

 

If you're not using Intensive Practice, I def recommend it. I usually pull a page or two from it every day for "daily math review."

[pitterpatter]

I may get these. They're rarely mentioned here and I didn't give them much thought before. Thanks for the reminder!

 

DS5 is just behind your DD in Singapore 1A...he'll be heading into that chapter next.

 

We have found there to be plenty of practice opportunities between the workbook, the Intensive Practice, the CWP, the Processing Skills and the Express Strategies workbooks.

 

Acually, it's often TOO much...and we haven't even really started much in that Express Strategies workbook yet.

 

If you're not using Intensive Practice, I def recommend it. I usually pull a page or two from it every day for "daily math review."

[Professormom]

I didn't read through all of the answers here (have to get back to school,:lol:) but I just wanted to throw in that if you are solely using Singapore, just anticipate that you will definitely need to work on math facts outside of the program. The program is terrific (I use it too:-). But, it is an Asian model which assumes that drill is kind of part of your everyday life, so there isn't much incorporated into the program itself.

 

It is great that you noticed this now and can start out laying that extra foundation. Don't whack me over the head when I say this, but drill is your friend:001_smile:. Flash cards, drill sheets, etc will help your dd get to automaticity in math facts, which will help her greatly when she starts to hit more complicated concepts.

 

I love Singapore for it's mental math strategies, but even those really rely on mastery of math facts. At her age, those are really key. Just add 5 minutes of that per day (I usually do it right before our lesson and say it is so that they can 'warm up' their brain muscles) and stick with it for a while and you will probably be surprised at how fast some of it starts to stick. Consistency is the big thing.

 

Good luck! (and I apologize if someone already said all of this:tongue_smilie:). All right, it's back to work for me!

[pitterpatter]

Thank you for this. This is actually part of my mistake. I kept reading on here that memorizing math facts isn't as important as simply knowing how to figure out problems. DD was doing pretty well with that so I wasn't drilling her. However, when we got to this chapter, combining all of the little pieces got cumbersome. She can do the work and does, but it quickly tires her out. I recently realized that yes, getting those facts down is key. I do as you do now...use flash cards a little before each lesson.

 

I just hate hindsight. We were moving along so well. Now, I want to redo anything dealing with computation. I want to totally revamp how I teach the lessons. I want to move slower and take each part bit by bit. I really trusted and relied on the HIG. Now, I realize that I need to think each lesson out more. Make sure we're spending equal time on all of the pieces.

 

 

I didn't read through all of the answers here (have to get back to school,:lol:) but I just wanted to throw in that if you are solely using Singapore, just anticipate that you will definitely need to work on math facts outside of the program. The program is terrific (I use it too:-). But, it is an Asian model which assumes that drill is kind of part of your everyday life, so there isn't much incorporated into the program itself.

 

It is great that you noticed this now and can start out laying that extra foundation. Don't whack me over the head when I say this, but drill is your friend:001_smile:. Flash cards, drill sheets, etc will help your dd get to automaticity in math facts, which will help her greatly when she starts to hit more complicated concepts.

 

I love Singapore for it's mental math strategies, but even those really rely on mastery of math facts. At her age, those are really key. Just add 5 minutes of that per day (I usually do it right before our lesson and say it is so that they can 'warm up' their brain muscles) and stick with it for a while and you will probably be surprised at how fast some of it starts to stick. Consistency is the big thing.

 

Good luck! (and I apologize if someone already said all of this:tongue_smilie:). All right, it's back to work for me!

[Alte Veste Academy]

Thank you for this. This is actually part of my mistake. I kept reading on here that memorizing math facts isn't as important as simply knowing how to figure out problems. DD was doing pretty well with that so I wasn't drilling her. However, when we got to this chapter, combining all of the little pieces got cumbersome. She can do the work and does, but it quickly tires her out. I recently realized that yes, getting those facts down is key. I do as you do now...use flash cards a little before each lesson.

 

I just hate hindsight. We were moving along so well. Now, I want to redo anything dealing with computation. I want to totally revamp how I teach the lessons. I want to move slower and take each part bit by bit. I really trusted and relied on the HIG. Now, I realize that I need to think each lesson out more. Make sure we're spending equal time on all of the pieces.

 

OK, that is definitely your problem. In fairness to SM though, the very first thing the HIG says for Unit 6, Chapter 2 is, "Students should have addition and subtraction facts through 10 memorized before beginning this unit." It would be tiring to try to discern what strategy to use for a particular problem when you're still using a great deal of brain power just to split addends. In fact, that would make the process so time-consuming that it would encourage kids to not use the strategies at all.

 

I disagree that SM doesn't incorporate drill. You're supposed to be doing the daily mental math exercises in the back of the book. Forget what people say here. :tongue_smilie: If you need more than what's in the book or you can make up, my kids have enjoyed Math Sprints.

[pitterpatter]

LOL! Yes, that line has been haunting me for some time. DD computed the math facts so fast in the beginning, I thought she pretty much had them. It wasn't until this chapter that I realized that wasn't so much the case. The multiple steps throw her off.

 

I'm actually placing an order right now for pretty much all of the rest of the SM 1 supplements. If I don't end up needing them, fine...at least I'll know what each book is all about and can order accordingly in the future.

 

OK, that is definitely your problem. In fairness to SM though, the very first thing the HIG says for Unit 6, Chapter 2 is, "Students should have addition and subtraction facts through 10 memorized before beginning this unit." It would be tiring to try to discern what strategy to use for a particular problem when you're still using a great deal of brain power just to split addends. In fact, that would make the process so time-consuming that it would encourage kids to not use the strategies at all.

 

I disagree that SM doesn't incorporate drill. You're supposed to be doing the daily mental math exercises in the back of the book. Forget what people say here. :tongue_smilie: If you need more than what's in the book or you can make up, my kids have enjoyed Math Sprints.

[JessReplanted]

We spent a year and several months with SM, and my child always needed more practice. We finally switched to CLE, and have been much happier with math ever since!