Math Curiculum

[Coco_Clark]

I'm feeling very lost on choosing a math curriculum for my incoming kinder (who's doing math at a mid first grade level). So far it's been all dominoes, pen and pencil, base 10 set, clock, and a bag of change... But I think it's time for a "real" curriculum.

 

I'm not big into a ton of prep work, and I'm also not the strongest in math myself. But my son looves it. Seriously, he asked me yesterday for some "math problems" and I wrote out ten or so for him. Oh yeah, his handwriting is far far behind his math. I don't mind writing answers for him but its something to keep in mind.

 

Ok suggestions? Or if you can't suggest what are the differences between Singapore, kumon, math mammoth, ect?

 

 

[Five More Minutes]

Some programs worth looking at would be:

 

Miquon: very fun, playful, exploratory, and insightful. Kids use Cuisenaire rods to discover mathematical principles. To see it in action, watch the free videos at Education Unboxed. One advantage is that students who aren't strong writers can use rods to show their problem solving. It takes a bit of time (2-3 hours of reading?) to get your head around how you might implement it.

 

Singapore: thorough, and focuses on math concepts over procedures. The instruction moves from concrete to pictorial to abstract. Excellent home instruction guides (HIGs) for the Standards Edition help you teach the program well. Their Challenging Word Problems are excellent, and a good supplement to any program.

 

Math Mammoth: another conceptual program that has instruction similar to that offered in Singapore, but it's much, much more incremental and is written more for the student to do independently. Some students find the sheets a bit full, but not all problems are meant to be done unless the student needs the extra practice. It's very economical.

 

MEP: completely free, conceptual, and rigorous. It offers a lot of puzzling problems. It can require a bit more teacher time to implement lessons.

 

Kumon: IMO, useful workbooks for reinforcement.

 

HTH!

[joyfulmomSDG]

We use Horizons and it was pretty open-and-go for me at that level. It has the "problems" he is asking for and a fair amount of variety in each lesson as it is "spiral". It uses a workbook but we use a decent amount of manipulatives if applicable. If you were to start in the "K" level books they seem to start out slow but quickly advance so he wouldn't get bored. Plus, there isn't a ton of handwriting required. HTH!

[NASDAQ]

Kumon is a supplemental drill program. It isn't a math curriculum.

 

Miquon and Right Start are discovery-based curricula -- guided discovery. They are intensive work for you but manage to do quite a lot of mathematical conceptual work with very little people.

 

Singapore Essentials and MEP are somewhat more conventional programs, although they will include quite a bit of terminology that you may not remember from your time in school. Of the two, I prefer MEP. Both require some prep work. They are both fairly conceptual and challenging.

 

Singapore doesn't really get going until first (Primary Mathematics), and doesn't hit its stride until second or even third. If what you're looking for is a kinder program, Singapore Essentials and Earlybird, which both try to fill that gap, are not of the same quality as the later books.

 

On the other side of the continuum would be Horizons, BJU, CLE, Saxon, etc. These are math as you probably remember it from your childhood. Workbooks are involved. You will still be presenting material and so forth, but it won't require as much of an adjustment as Singapore or MEP probably would.

 

Rod and Staff and Saxon are both heavy on the drill. I would be hesitant to go there for a child such as you've described, one who is intrigued by math.

 

tl;dr: I would go for Right Start or Miquon. You would be amazed what you can do without writing.

[CrunchyGirl]

It really depends on your kid's personality. Right Start is amazing but with LegoMan it drove us both nuts. Too scripted and too slow for him but he cannot handle any review he does not initiate. I suspect RS will work way better for my artsy girl coming up. It's an awesome program and I was disappointed it didn't work for him. I moved him to Singapore and he sped through 1B and 2A in less than 2 months (is currently making quick work of 2B...sigh).