Singapore questions...How quickly do you...

[Sue G in PA]

move through each lesson? I'm looking at the 1A workbook and text and seeing how Singapore teaches the number bonds. Making 6, making 7, making 8, etc. instead of doing it the way MUS does it...doing +1, +2, +9, etc. Does that make sense? So, my question it this: Do you stay on a certain "topic" until mastery is acheived, like w/ MUS? Or, do you just keep doing a workbook page each day and blow through it? There isn't much review built-in so I would imagine you'd need mastery before moving on? I sure hope I've chosen the right program for my ds7 b/c I'm not a big fan of math programs that don't have built it review (spiral approach). Even MUS has review w/ each lesson. Hmmm...so any help you can offer me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Myrtle]

move through each lesson? I'm looking at the 1A workbook and text and seeing how Singapore teaches the number bonds. Making 6, making 7, making 8, etc. instead of doing it the way MUS does it...doing +1, +2, +9, etc. Does that make sense? So, my question it this: Do you stay on a certain "topic" until mastery is acheived, like w/ MUS? Or, do you just keep doing a workbook page each day and blow through it? There isn't much review built-in so I would imagine you'd need mastery before moving on? I sure hope I've chosen the right program for my ds7 b/c I'm not a big fan of math programs that don't have built it review (spiral approach). Even MUS has review w/ each lesson. Hmmm...so any help you can offer me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Yes, I stay on a topic until it is achieved.

 

Singapore 1A took a long time. In fact, with my daughter, it took a year for her to learn her number facts/bonds within ten.

 

My sons went through that section a lot quicker.

 

The idea with Singapore is not to "train" kids to respond automatically with answers, but to get them to think through the problem. You learn it the long way, and once the long way is learned, then the kid can do it the short way and automate it.

 

The good news is that there aren't 180 lessons per year. I think the most any year has is about 140 and the fewest is 90. Now that my daughter learned those number bonds she's going through lessons two per day...she's still on time, Singapore 1 is scheduled for the year in which the child turns seven.

 

One way to review is to keep a notebook of problems your child had difficulty with and pick out a few every day to review before their daily lesson. I write it out on a sheet of looseleaf paper. Another idea is to assign review problems as work that can be done on their own time at the end of the day.

[chiguirre]

You could drill with flashcards or print off fact practice from mathfactory for fact drill. If you want review of other concepts you can buy the extra practice workbooks that accompany SM or use something like Horizons for review (if you do that, I'd go back a grade).

 

I'm using SM 1A with my ds who finished R&S 1 this year and he's going very quickly. We'll finish 1A in less than 2 months working 3 or 4 days a week because SM is review but with a twist. If you think your ds needs a lot of drill to master his facts, you could do something similar. Once the facts are down, SM goes quickly and my ds is enjoying it. It feels more like puzzles than work and he loves the cartoons.

[Targhee]

We moved on when the concept of number bond was firm, but all her addition facts weren't memorized. We used drill sheets and math games (could use flash cards) for that.

[Jen500]

We stick with a topic until that concept is fully understood. So, some chapters go quickly and some take a bit more time for us. When it came to multiplication we just kept going, and still do some drill a few times a week.

[mycalling]

My ds did 2-3 exercises a day, which is why we're switching him to Math on the Level which will let him go as fast or slow in whatever concepts he's ready for. We had the Singapore CDRoms that give the extra practice they'd need. We also would do activities with the lessons after the exercises instead of needing extra pages of practice. He learned far more in just a few minutes of one-on-one practice instead of pages of problems.

[LauraGB]

move through each lesson? I'm looking at the 1A workbook and text and seeing how Singapore teaches the number bonds. Making 6, making 7, making 8, etc. instead of doing it the way MUS does it...doing +1, +2, +9, etc. Does that make sense? So, my question it this: Do you stay on a certain "topic" until mastery is acheived, like w/ MUS? Or, do you just keep doing a workbook page each day and blow through it? There isn't much review built-in so I would imagine you'd need mastery before moving on? I sure hope I've chosen the right program for my ds7 b/c I'm not a big fan of math programs that don't have built it review (spiral approach). Even MUS has review w/ each lesson. Hmmm...so any help you can offer me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Does 1A have Mental Math wkshts in the back of the teacher's guide? We use these as the syllabus calls for them. They don't have reviews after each lesson, but they do have pretty extensive ones in both the text book and the workbook after each section.

 

If you need more help, there are intensive practice books, too. I think with the content in 1A/B, I would just really play a lot of the dice and card games outlined in the teacher's manual as well as other math related games that help build strength in those areas. We didn't start with 1A, but I do remember needing to drill dd w/her multiplication facts for a good long time until she had them memorized - games, games, games.

 

As for skipping ahead, if she's not got the concept down, I don't think I really would. The program comes back to each concept after some time and grabs what they learned before and builds on it. If she doesn't get it now, it will be more difficult and discouraging when the concept comes back a little harder later on.

 

hth

[Narrow Gate Academy]

move through each lesson? I'm looking at the 1A workbook and text and seeing how Singapore teaches the number bonds. Making 6, making 7, making 8, etc. instead of doing it the way MUS does it...doing +1, +2, +9, etc. Does that make sense? So, my question it this: Do you stay on a certain "topic" until mastery is acheived, like w/ MUS? Or, do you just keep doing a workbook page each day and blow through it? There isn't much review built-in so I would imagine you'd need mastery before moving on? I sure hope I've chosen the right program for my ds7 b/c I'm not a big fan of math programs that don't have built it review (spiral approach). Even MUS has review w/ each lesson. Hmmm...so any help you can offer me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Generally we stay on a topic until it is mastered. That said, however, the topic of number bonds in the 1A book is an exception for us. With the number bond section, I required the kids to understand the concept being presented of whole vs. parts. It moves right into a section on addition and subtraction so you can work on memorizing the facts to +10 at that point with some flash cards, drill sheets, etc.

 

HTH

[sjp]

my son started the program in 1B in january and just started 2B in july. he works through all the books in each level before going to the next. he does about an hour's worth of pages per day. occasional flash card review doesn't hurt, but if you do all the books there will cumulatively be quite a bit of review already.

 

the one thing i am not crazy about so far is i don't think the books teach the concept of carrying when adding and subtracting as well as right start math. he did 2 levels of that before starting singapore so already understood the concept and i had learned how to review it, otherwise things might have been slightly difficult.

[Lydia]

We have been using Singapore Math all along (so beginning with 1A) and are now about to begin 6A. We have loved it. I do think that to get the full benefit of Singapore Math you should consider doing not only the regular text and workbook, but also the Intensive Practice and Challenging Word books for each year. They take it to a whole different level as they contain significantly more difficult problems than the workbook and really require the student to fully understand the concepts, not just memorize a way of doing a problem (particularly with the word problems).

 

Do you have the Teacher's Manual? There are two versions, the Teacher's manual (which is what we use) and a homeschool version of the teacher's manual. Those, or at least the TM, give lesson plans. So for each chapter it details what should be covered in each lesson. It goes into quite a bit of detail about the concepts that you should be teaching, and I think it would be very difficult (for me anyway) to teach Singapore Math to its full potential without the TM and its explanations.

 

We generally did one lesson (meaning one lesson from the TM) per day, although sometimes we were able to do two lessons in a day. We usually had to add a few days at the end of each chapter to allow us to finish the Intensive Practice and the Challenging Word sections for that chapter. And we added some days to prepare for the tests.

 

I actually think that as you advance through this program you will find concepts revisited. I also think that as you advance you will find, for example, that word problems (particularly in the Intensive Practice and Challenging Word books) begin to require not only things being studied in that chapter but also things from previous chapters. I really liked that.

 

There will also be some revisiting of concepts each year, especially in the early years.

 

Best wishes,

Lydia

[Lydia]

Two things I forgot to mention a minute ago:

 

1) As you may know, Singapore Math has a forum too. You can post with pretty specific questions about teaching particular concepts and in the past the moderator has been very nice about giving ideas.

 

http://www.singaporemaths.com/forums/

 

2) If you do want a program that has review questions built into each day's exercises, then you may not want Singapore. Because although I do think concepts build well on each other in this program, daily review of previous chapters is not done of this program. I *think* Saxon has review as part of each day's exercises.

 

Best wishes,

Lydia

[Jen in PA]

My dd is on the young side for 1A, but we moved into it in the spring after she was done with the EB series. I have not had her memorize any math facts yet, but focused instead on making sure she understood the concepts introduced (number bonds, counting on, grouping to ten, etc.), and we have moved on as she demonstrated an ability to put those concepts to use. Rather than drill, I have her use manipulatives or just oral response to answer additional questions. We began 1A doing a few workbook pages a day, but I have shortened our math lessons so that we cover just one page a day, 4 days per week, because I am hesiatant to push her into 1B too soon, which will require more drilling and memorization.

[Ummto4]

I'm not a S-pore user, but would like to chime in on review. Even if S-pore doesn't have any review built in, you can always start the day with your own review. It doesn't have to be a pencil and paper activity (aka drill sheet), or even flash card. You can do things orally, via online games, or via card games.

 

Rightstart (a curriculum which we use), also moves pretty fast. But it has daily review on counting up and down, number bond games, etc. So really, you don't have to stay with that topic till the facts memorized. You can move on as long as you know your child understands the concept.

 

Just my two cents.

Dian