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happycc
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How long does it take to go through one Singapore Lesson...with the HIG and have the kids do all the practice problems, textbook and workbook problems. It seems to take a LONG time here and it is miserable with three kids.

At this point we have been mostly skipping the textbooks.

 

Maybe they are not getting enough practice?

They are getting the problems correct in the workbook though for the most part.

We are basically doing catch up work as I started them at SM3A at the beginning of this year and they are fifth graders mainly to learn the bar method and mental math stuff.

So most of this stuff is review but at the same time they are getting more practice in the stuff they already learned.

 

The 3rd grader I slowed her way down to 1a/1b which she did quickly and now on 2b.

 

I just want to hurry up and catch them up but I love the way the SM HIG teaches so I don;t want to miss anything at the same time.

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Kid in 1B: about 10-15 minutes to do everything. I don't necessarily do every single thing in the HIG. I read the HIG and use it to help me teach the Singapore way, but if my kid doesn't need certain reinforcement ideas, we don't do them. We do the textbook orally, then do the workbook written.

 

Kid in 5B: 20-30 minutes for everything. Again, I use the HIG to tell me how to teach, then we go over the textbook problems orally. I don't do all the problems if they're just practicing a simple concept (like if there are 8 problems that are more "drill like", I'll save that for workbook time and only do a couple to demonstrate that he knows what he's doing). He then does the workbook on his own. Some topics are super easy, and we end up doing 2 lessons in that time frame. Some topics take a little more time. Just depends. We do CWP in a separate session, together at the white board. DS loves CWP time. :D CWP usually takes us longer than our regular lesson.

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we are slow here. An hour to do the HIG stuff, like games or review, than the Textbook, which I don't think is good to skip, since it is often more challenging than the workbook, and should be done in full, then finally the workbook. I don't usually skip any problems. I feel SM doesn't give enough review practice as it is, I'm not going to skip problems.

 

edited to add, we also do mental math each day, usually half a sheet.

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It really varies. I don't use the HIG, but I do introduce the concepts concretely before opening the text, using what I read in the text as inspiration, so I suspect it is about the same. Then we cover the text and work the sample problems together, generally on the white board, until I see the lights go on. If he looks pretty solid, I give the lesson an extra chance to sink in by waiting until the next day to have him work the workbook pages. This gives his brain more time to process what we discussed and time to figure out what he did not realize had failed to sink in. If he looks confused or we only cover a very small amount, he can start workbook the same day as the lesson and spread it to two days as we continue to the next topic.

 

We wouldn't even consider doing every question-- he would quickly hate math. We too started by remediating behind his grade level (two years ago) and he has soared back and now ahead... 2 entire chapters in 2 days.

 

Maybe 30 minutes -- 35 min per day for my 9YO. 45 min if he drags his feet, nearly done with 5A.

 

 

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You might try doing everything orally, rather than having them do it "homework style." I find oral work goes much faster and is more enjoyable, and it also gives you the best idea of exactly what they understand (that is, whether their mistakes are from misunderstanding concepts or just from carelessness). When you work orally, you can also judge whether you can skim ahead or whether today's lesson is an area that needs more work.

 

I always tried to limit our work to 10 minutes or less per grade level. More time than that seemed to just cause burnout. Mental work is tiring! Even now, with my youngest in 8th grade, she can't go much more than 45 minutes without getting grumpy and frustrated. If you have to do more than that, try splitting it into two sessions with a nice break (and maybe a snack) in between.

 

Don't worry too much about "catching up" -- if your students are learning and making progress, then they're doing fine! Grade levels are artificial in the max, and it's a shame that we parents put so much stress on them. You will find that there will be some topics that go quickly for your children, and some that go slower. For my kids, the B books of Singapore math always seemed to go much faster than the A books, because A has more of the just-plain-arithmetic stuff that they and I find boring. For your kids, the pattern may be something different. But take the pace that seems to fit their learning level, make sure their understanding is firm, and don't worry about being "behind" an arbitrary number.

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I guess if Singapore were our only thing I would have the time to do everything. The older girls are also being tortured with KEY To decimals (finished fractions last year) and Math Mammoth percent and occasionally some standards based textbook to fill in the gap for the Star testing.

 

My younger one has to do Stams/Cams as well. Education Unboxed, Thinking blocks. Some random workbook to drill multiplication/division.Teaching textbooks-this was leftover from last year. She could do only half of it last year and then we had to stop because she needed to get her multiplication/division facts down first.

 

Thanks letsplaymath...that makes sense 10 minutes or less per grade level. Is this per subject? So for 3rd grade 30 minutes or so. 40 minutes for 4, 50 for for 5th and 60 minutes of math. What about stuff like Dreambox, Education Unboxed, Thinking blocks.

 

Yeah we seem to have A LOT of breaks with our 3.5yrs old and newborn!

 

I also notice with my younger one that if we have been studying fractions for a while...she forgets all the other stuff!

WHATTTT!

 

So now throughout the day I am torturing her with a bit of fractions, a bit of multiplication, a bit of division, back to place value. ---why is this happening for this child.

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I also notice with my younger one that if we have been studying fractions for a while...she forgets all the other stuff!

WHATTTT!

 

So now throughout the day I am torturing her with a bit of fractions, a bit of multiplication, a bit of division, back to place value. ---why is this happening for this child.

 

 

Teach those other things integrated with fractions (this happens quite naturally in Singapore anyway). Fractions and division are almost impossible to teach separately anyway. You can hardly move far into fractional division without doing multiplication (and multiplication with fractions is way simpler than addition with fractions anyway!). Fractions lead directly to decimals, which leads back into place value. So, f you are teaching fractions, no need to backtrack into anything-- all of the topics you mentioned will be included anyway!

 

Fractions are easy, and a fantastic way to start tying everything together; they're a great way to start teaching your kiddo that all this math stuff is one thing and not a list of unrelated skills at all!

 

 

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...Thanks letsplaymath...that makes sense 10 minutes or less per grade level. Is this per subject? So for 3rd grade 30 minutes or so. 40 minutes for 4, 50 for for 5th and 60 minutes of math. What about stuff like Dreambox, Education Unboxed, Thinking blocks.

...

 

 

Math is the only thing I keep track of by time. Since we use "real" books for everything else, we just go by chapters. As for the extra stuff and playing online, I either count that as part of the "school" math time or count it as part of play time, depending on the day and the child and my mood and whatever. We're pretty laid back around here!

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It really depends on the lesson and how much is in the text book.

 

We're at the end of 2a right now. I don't usually make ds write out the textbook problems. If he seems to be really getting the concept, I only have him do the workbook. If he struggles with that I do the textbook problem with him.

 

Some math time takes 15 minutes. Some takes a half hour. At 20-30 minutes his focus goes away, so I do try to keep it short (we can do multiple sessions of math a day if necessary).

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DS2 just started 2B. Usually he does about 4 pages in the workbook every day, but I may or may not do the textbook with him. It depends on the topic. Right now, it's just multiplication and division, which he understands completely, so it's just practicing the problems in different ways to help him learn the facts (which I like about Singapore). Going through the textbook doesn't always add anything and sometimes just wastes time. But for just the workbook, it takes him around 15 minutes, depending on how much he's staring into space. It really isn't much of a challenge for him right now, but he's not needing a challenge in concept; he's needing to cement the facts in his head.

 

A new concept might take more like half an hour, depending on how many ways I need to explain it. We do textbook problems orally, workbook ones on paper.

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Yes...for some reason I had to add extra stuff outside of Singapore to get the facts down for one of my daughters. I got one of those workbooks with plenty of math fact questions to drill and drill into it stuck in her head.

 

Ok another questions...do you use Thinking Blocks and Education Unboxed with your Singapore curriculum? Where do you add that in your curriculum and of course that increases the hours in a day we do Singapore as well?

 

I just had the one in SM2b go through the addition/subtraction/multiplication Thinking Box videos and modules to prepare for 3a and 3b word problems.

 

I had the ones in SM3B go through all the fraction ones to prepare for the fraction word problems.

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