Rachel Posted August 30, 2013 Share Posted August 30, 2013 I am sure this question has been asked before but I can't find it. How do you teach Singapore Math Kindergarten Essentials? Is it intended to be taught as 1 unit per day, a few pages per day, 15 minutes per day, or something else? My books finally arrived today and on the initial flip through I think it is going to be pretty easy for my son who is 5.5. I could see him completing 10 pages in a setting without any problem. But should I let him? Right now I am playing things by ear on other subjects, but typically work about 15-20 minutes before switching to something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xixstar Posted August 30, 2013 Share Posted August 30, 2013 I've been thinking that we will probably limit it to 3 pages a day at most but I had the same impression. Very little looks like it would be even the slightest challenge for dd. But I think it will still be a good gentle entry into math. I'm thinking we'll end up starting MM1 by the middle of the year. My dd would probably love to sit and do most the book in one sitting, but she loves worksheet type things. And thing she has to 'do' or follow directions on. Looking forward to hearing any other experiences too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HelenNotOfTroy Posted August 30, 2013 Share Posted August 30, 2013 I let my son do as much as he wanted at a time. If I was scribing for him, we only did one or two pages. I never discourage him from doing fine motor activities if he is enjoying it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 Book A is very easy, so I let the kid do however much they want. Just watch for signs of "I'm done." Book B is more difficult, but I used the same method. Both of my kids that have used it did about 30 pages the first week of Book A, but slowed down later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carriede Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 With my DS4, we do a minimum of 1 page (front only/back only) a day. Then I ask if he wants to keep going. If yes, we do the next page. If no, we stop. Rinse and repeat. The most he's done is one sitting is 8 numbered pages, but that's rare. He naturally slows down when we get to topics he doesn't really get yet, so it's obvious to me that he needs more practice/to slow down/to skip a section (I'm not concerned with mastery at this point). We breezed through the counting to 10 section, but took more time with patterns and did more manipulative a with that too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Strawberry Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 We did one chapter per day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted August 31, 2013 Author Share Posted August 31, 2013 Thanks for all your replies! I'm finding I want a little more hand holding than I thought I would as I figure all this out. I'm adding in math next week, so we'll see how it goes. My guess is my son will want to do a lot the first week and then want to slow down after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaCEmom Posted August 31, 2013 Share Posted August 31, 2013 We skipped Book A, so I can't comment on the pacing of that one, but for Book B I just let him do as much as he wanted. If I had tried to slow down an easy topic that my son was capable of breezing through and stretch it over multiple days, he would not have been happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoxcell Posted September 5, 2013 Share Posted September 5, 2013 I usually have my dd do like 1-2 pages sometimes more if it is easy and she is enjoying it. I also add in some hands on at times that goes with the topic we are learning. There are ideas at the bottom of the page as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted September 8, 2013 Author Share Posted September 8, 2013 We've been working on it for a week now, I wish I had seen the book in person and started with book b instead. It feels more like a preschool book than a kindergarten book to me, but maybe that is because my son is an older kindergartner. My 3 year old has been piping up during the lessons quite a bit though. Since we have it, we are using it. He doesn't mind doing easy things and the later units will introduce some new concepts to him. So far I've been setting a timer for 15 minutes and he goes through however many pages that works out to be. It has been about 7 or 8 pages a day. I haven't really done any of the further learning things on the bottom yet as I feel like he is mostly reviewing right now. I think he will slow down when we get to the weight and capacity units and the extra activities will probably be helpful then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThursdayNext Posted September 29, 2013 Share Posted September 29, 2013 I'm doing book A with my 4.5 year old now. We usually do 3 single side pages a day. Yes, it is very easy (except the drawing bits for her). But I find that limiting the pages gives her more excitement to do it the next day. Stopping before she's reached her limit works well for us. Also, she has done some math pages on her own for her daddy. "Which flower is different, Daddy?" "Can you point to the bugs that are in the same pattern?" So even though she knows this stuff, she is thinking about it more and creating her own problems. I love this age! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Texican Posted September 29, 2013 Share Posted September 29, 2013 The Singapore kinder book was most useful to me for practice writing the numbers correctly. (5,2) (3,E). The other book I found useful for that was Kumon dot-to-dots 1-150. Whoever wrote that dot-to-dot book intentionally did stuff like put 25 near 52 which I thought was genius. He only did a page or a few at a time so that it was slow, consistant practice on "which way does the three point?". (I used that question to introduce the concept "look it up"/ look around that page or the next page and you'll see how the number looks.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted September 29, 2013 Author Share Posted September 29, 2013 I'm going to have to look for the dot-to-dot book. We have the Kumon Maze book and it is great too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xixstar Posted September 30, 2013 Share Posted September 30, 2013 A few weeks in and I'm ready to chunk book A out the window. It takes up the time she's interested in doing school without challenging her in any way possible. I'm going to hop forward and see if that helps but the stuff she has been doing is way too simple for us. I'm starting to even thing about just stopping with it at all, saving it for dd3 later, and just printing out MM1 that I have and going from there. Essentials A is making me hate math just a little. eta - flipping through a little further in the book and I think it will pick up fast enough for us, especially because I'm giving myself permission to skip the pages that are obviously too simple for right now (yeah, permission sounds silly, but I'm very much a follow the steps in order kind of person - character flaw, I guess). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted September 30, 2013 Share Posted September 30, 2013 A few weeks in and I'm ready to chunk book A out the window. It takes up the time she's interested in doing school without challenging her in any way possible. I'm going to hop forward and see if that helps but the stuff she has been doing is way too simple for us. I'm starting to even thing about just stopping with it at all, saving it for dd3 later, and just printing out MM1 that I have and going from there. Book A is more preschoolish, though when you do it, ask "why" a lot. It really gives you insight into how they're thinking. ;) Particularly in the section about grouping, there are often more than one correct answer. You might find book B more appropriate for a K'er. I have never used Book A with a 5 year old. I've always used it at 4. Book B ramps up quite a bit. It's still K math, but it's not preschoolish. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted September 30, 2013 Author Share Posted September 30, 2013 A few weeks in and I'm ready to chunk book A out the window. It takes up the time she's interested in doing school without challenging her in any way possible. I'm going to hop forward and see if that helps but the stuff she has been doing is way too simple for us. I'm starting to even thing about just stopping with it at all, saving it for dd3 later, and just printing out MM1 that I have and going from there. Essentials A is making me hate math just a little. eta - flipping through a little further in the book and I think it will pick up fast enough for us, especially because I'm giving myself permission to skip the pages that are obviously too simple for right now (yeah, permission sounds silly, but I'm very much a follow the steps in order kind of person - character flaw, I guess). Yes, give yourself permission to skip pages that are too easy. I do have to keep telling my son it's OK though. I like book B so much, I wish we had started there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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