Miquon and other Math question

[NatashainDFW]

I picked up Miquon because while DS8 totally understands all the operations he really needs more practice and I would love to give him a hands on approach to that practice before moving him on. We are flying through SM (switched back from MM and stepped back to SM3a but can already tell we will be through with it in a couple weeks). We have the IP and CWP (this he really has to work at because he isn't great with word problems but doing them the Singapore way is making a world of difference). Where should I start him in Miquon? I own all 6 books so wherever is fine I just don't want him to do a bunch of work that is so far below him that he is totally bored. 

 

He also played around on HOE's free android app and is begging for more algebra. What would you suggest for him? We are going over negative number calculations and he is understanding completely. I know he still needs fraction, decimal, exponent and order of operation practice which I know he will get in SM so I am not totally worried about it. I am only assigning two or three problems per exercise right now just to make sure he has a solid understanding of each concept and I am just lost lol. We took nearly a year off for him to deal with anxiety issues and now that we are back he is right back to flying through math like no one I know.

 

He is also working through BA3b right now but he doesn't like it as a full curriculum. He prefers to just do it weekly right now so we will continue doing that for him. I also have a year's subscription to quarter mile math that I am considering letting him play with.

 

With dd4 she is on lesson 18 of Singapore Essentials. What next? SM1a or Miquon orange or both?

[Dana]

When we used Miquon, it really was just 1st and 2nd grade. I used Singapore as our spine and used Miquon "as needed". I'd typed up a list of all the sheets by subject, so if I wanted extra practice with division, we'd look at those sheets in whatever book they were. So he never worked through a Miquon book - we just did sheets as needed.

 

I really preferred Miquon's approach to division. I don't like how so many texts teach division as giving two answers - quotient and remainder. Miquon shows it as one answer, written as a mixed number. Much much much better.

 

So unless you have a few things to review with Miquon, it doesn't sound like it'll be much help for your son (and avoid their word problems!).

You could add in Singapore's Process Skills... those are good with the bar model.

[kbutton]

I think the last two books of Miquon have some things you might benefit from. I bought the whole set to use with my K'er, and I see several things that would benefit my older son who is starting Singapore 4.  Did you know that Miquon uses both letters and numbers for their topics so that you can follow one sequence, say addition, through all six books? If you find a concept you think will benefit your older child, you can look in the back of each book to see how many pages in each book follow that topic. Then, find where he is in the sequence so that you can follow it through the remaining books. So, if H43 is a topic that is just right for him for fractions, you can look in the back of the book to see what other fraction topics are in that book and in the remainder of the series (H44, H45, etc.). If you want to use Miquon for specific topics only, that's the shortcut to finding the right pages.

[NatashainDFW]

Thank you so much for that info. I will start pawing through it and see what I can find. For DD4 should I just start with orange and work through it? If so would you add SM1 to it?

[kbutton]

I am not using all of Singapore with my K'er. I am using red and orange Miquon at the same time, and I plan to somehow work in the Singapore CWP for level 1. I may also follow some particular topics further into the Miquon books as I find them useful. Last year, I did Math-U-See Primer with him, and we were able to build on the basic topics to include regrouping/carrying and borrowing, but only with manipulatives. I'd like to revisit that, so I'll probably go deeper into Miquon with some concepts and then come back to others. Not entirely sure how I'll do it yet. It's our 2nd year homeschooling, so I am not really familiar with Singapore prior to 3A and 3B. We've also worked on some money and calendar stuff a bit, so I imagine we'll skip around a little.

[kbutton]

You might check out http://www.educationunboxed.com/. It's a series of free videos on how to use rods to teach just about everything. Rosie, who makes the videos, uses concepts from Singapore and Miquon. She has lots of really good games. I am just now getting into the site, and I think I need more rods so that I can use them with my older son as well. He didn't get a lot of conceptual background for math, and it shows at times.

[Spy Car]

Get him the DragonBox 5 (algebra) app. He will probably move through it briskly, but it is still (way) worth it. Later get DragonBox 12 (that will slow him down).

 

The Edward Zaccaro book Primary Grade Challenge Math has good (easy to grasp) chapters on algebra (and on other "advanced" topics). We are now following up PGCM with his Real World Algebra book, which is good too.

 

Bill