If you were going to jump into NEM 1,

[StaceyinLA]

what would your child need to have covered first?

[Myrtle]

what would your child need to have covered first?

 

 

I don't think the problem with switching into NEM is going to be with lack of knowledge of operations on integers, fractions, and decimals, but I think what will be difficult would be the lack of familiarity with how to go about solving hairy word problems.

 

If my neighbor came to me and said, "Tutor my kid she's ready for algebra" I'd give them Sing placment test first. Then I'd start them in Challenging Word Problems for whatever level they tested into.

 

A van and a car both travelled a distance of 190 km from Rose Town to Orchid Town. The car left Rose Town 50 minutes after the van, but it arrived at Orchid Town 20 minutes ealier than the van. If the average speed of the van was 60 km/h, find the speed of the car.

 

That's from the sixth grade.

 

NEM assumes that the student is already capable of handling word problems with that level of complexity and will build on that--it's only going to get harder.

 

Technically, the student will learn order of operations, negative numbers, and division of fractions and decimals in NEM I before begining the chapter on algebra.

[kpupg]

I don't think the problem with switching into NEM is going to be with lack of knowledge of operations on integers, fractions, and decimals, but I think what will be difficult would be the lack of familiarity with how to go about solving hairy word problems.

 

:iagree: What she said -- all of it, really !

 

The first 4 chapters of NEM 1 are pre-algebra:

Ch.1 WHole Numbers: Operations, factors/multiples, primes, HCF/LCF, patterns, variables, basic number laws

Ch.2 Fractions, Decimals, and Approximation Fractions: add/Subtr of fractions, Mult/Div of fractions, decimals, approximation, conversion, estimation

Ch. 3 Arithmetic Problems: Units of measure, word problems

Ch. 4 Real Numbers: Negative numbers, add/sub of integers, mult of integers (sq. roots), div of integers, rational/irrational numbers, order of calculation, mental calculations

 

Not until Chapter 5 do they start seeing a, b, x, y.

 

However ........................................ those word problems can be doozies. It is one of the strongest aspects of the Singapore Primary series, and if the student isn't up on that, NEM is going to be one big bear.

 

So, what she said about using Challenging Word PRoblems or otherwise learning How To Solve Word Problems, which is a separate skill set above and beyond the arithmetic skills involved. Hope that makes sense.

Karen