Do you supplement Singapore?

[IceFairy]

DS is doing 1A (US Edition) through HOD Beyond. We started with 1A so he could get a feel for the style of it....but I am wondering if it would not be better to also do a more standard program like Saxon or Horizond along with it. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Wildwood]

I'm using CLE I00 (Christian Light Education) along with Singapore IA/IB for my dd in first grade.

I think it's a good balance because CLE offers a more traditional scope and sequence while Singapore promotes a lot of mental math/out of the box thinking.

[Barb_]

I use Aleks. Generally a lesson of Singapore and 30-60 minutes of Aleks each day to cement.

[Meadowlark]

I'm using CLE I00 (Christian Light Education) along with Singapore IA/IB for my dd in first grade.

I think it's a good balance because CLE offers a more traditional scope and sequence while Singapore promotes a lot of mental math/out of the box thinking.

How do you use CLE with it? I'm always confused when people say that. Do you do both each day, alternate, what?

[Wildwood]

How do you use CLE with it? I'm always confused when people say that. Do you do both each day, alternate, what?

 

I do one CLE lesson along with one SM Exercise daily.

It's doable because the CLE I00 lessons are pretty short overall, and the SM Exercises are typically only 2-3 pages each.

[twoxcell]

We mostly just use Singapore with only an occasional game or something to add to a concept or for facts practice. ;)

[happypamama]

We use Miquon along with Singapore. We allegedly alternate - three days of Singapore, two of Miquon, per week, but in reality, it depends. My son is very heavily into Singapore right now; he's in 3A, doing the multiplication and division, so it's not any new concepts, just new number facts. He is highly motivated to finish the book soon and wants to keep doing it. A few week ago, he was really into the concepts that Miquon was doing and wanted to keep doing Miquon for several days. That's all fine with me. He likes both approaches a lot.

[Crimson Wife]

My DS is doing Singapore plus Beast Academy. He is using the SM textbook, IP, and CWP books. With the BA, I've been selecting problems that are either more challenging or on topics not really touched upon in SM.

[redsquirrel]

I have used MEP and Miquon alongside SM. Now we are using Beast Academy along with SM.

 

But I do so like MEP......

[daffodil]

My older daughter is doing Beast Academy alongside Singapore 3A. My younger daughter is finishing up RightStart A and is about to start Singapore.

[SevenDaisies]

We supplement very little other than with the Singapore supplements - mostly CWP, occasional Sprints, and maybe some Intensive Practice with my younger son who is more of a natural at math. I do have Math Mammoth and on rare occasion, when dd is having trouble, we will use it. Other than that I have found no need. The program seems complete to me, and in spite of the fact that dd doesn't like math, she has tested very well.

[madteaparty]

We do, with Beast. Because we are a bit haphazard this quarter, we are on 3D of Beast and just about wrapping up 4A for my 4th grader. This is not so bad because there is some overlap (i.e. fractions).

I also have ambitions of pulling pages/exercises from MEP here and there but that is not a true supplementation going on as I barely do it.

[Kathryn]

We use Standards edition. When we were doing 1A and 1B, we used Miquon along with it. When we started with 2A, we started using Singapore's Intensive Practice and Challenging Word Problems a year behind (so we are in 3A now and using IP2A and the first half of CWP2).

[linguistmama]

We use Beast Academy because we like it so much. In our case we use BA instead of the IP and CWP. We use the textbook, workbook and HIG from the standards edition of Singapore.

[marlowefamily]

We have the complete set of singapore books, eventually we'll see about going to AOPS...we've looked at a few supplements, but with the IP and CWP singapore books...there is almost no need.....khan academy for videos and some additional exercises is usually enough if we need to go outside singapore, there are also some nice cheap/free math apps for the kindle fire that I occasionally let the kids play.

[Satori]

Another Beast Academy supplementer here. :) We also read a few Life of Fred chapters a week (on Edgewood). I just add these to add fun to math, as my daughter wouldn't sit and do math all day as she would reading/writing. I setup a Khan Academy account but we haven't used it yet. Also thinking of using Hands-On Equations and other iPad apps.

 

For Singapore, I use the HIG and she does the workbook, tests, and IP/CWP (one year behind). 

[Roadrunner]

We are using it with Beast as well. My younger boy does MEP with SM, but he will be transitioning to SM/Beast combination in couple of months as well.

[squirtymomma]

We just use Singapore. :) And xtramath.org for facts practice.  My kids don't seem to be the types that need the endless repetition of problems.  Also, I have a BS in Math and am a math tutor, so I feel pretty comfortable teaching it.

[CrunchyGirl]

We do but not because I think SM is really missing anything but because I have a super-mathy kid I need extra stuff, otherwise he goes through curriculum too quickly.

 

We currently use:

SM's textbook, IP, and CWP. We use the extra challenging IP and CWP questions maybe a quarter grade behind.

Beast Academy

Life of Fred (I have him read it to me while we cuddle on the couch)

Living Math (right now it's our history supplement as well as math supplement, we may use it as our primary history going forward)

[Kathryn]

Oh, I forgot about Life of Fred! We do a chapter each Friday. I don't really consider that supplementing Singapore though as I would be more than happy to drop it but DS loves it.

[NittanyJen]

My older DS used Life of Fred exclusively from Fractions through Beginning Algebra (we are switching it up just for this year-- I am a firm believer kids need to be exposed to more than one author in the upper grades, because they can become too accustomed to "one style" of problem writing, even when the program is excellent).

 

This means that younger brother definitely wants to keep up with Fred as he has finished the Singapore Primary Math series and has begun Discovering Math series (I think the name switches to Dimensions Math at level 8?).  So we will continue to let him supplement with Fred, because he wants to!  However, I see definite benefits and bleed through into both his enthusiasm for math and how he applies it.

 

In Singapore, in a recent chapter, he encountered a problem that had him learn and manipulate the relationship between degrees Celsius and degrees Fahrenheit:  C = 5/9(F - 32).  He did fine on the questions relating to this and moved on.

 

The next day, my little daydreamer piped up from the back seat of the car, out of the blue:  

 

"So Mom, if instead of knowing F, I knew C, then I would need to use F = (9/5)C + 32, because that would be the inverse function."

 

Yes, he said that (he just turned 10) right down to inverse function; and that part is pure Life of Fred; he hasn't really done that in Singapore that I recall-- however, in Fred, he has worked extensively with functions, domains, and codomains.  Fred also daydreams about math and sits around and plays with it in his head, which encourages my son to do so as well.  We are also using Fred Physics as part of our Physics year.  It is loaded with hands-on experiments as well as math, and is great reinforcement for his math lessons.

 

We also do a chapter from Penrose the Mathematical Cat about every other week, just to inject more playfulness into math, since we work pretty hard.  It's fun to take time out to build a tetra-hexa-flexagon and do other fun stuff :).

 

 

[Guest]

We supplement with Miquon and math games. I had tried Miquon when my son was in K and I was like :confused1: . I am so glad we tried it again, I guess I've learned a lot the last few years! I love it because it's not the kind of thing where I feel like we have to check boxes off and I don't feel guilty if we don't finish it or get to it. I just take whatever concept we are learning or whatever concept I want and we work on that in addition to a Singapore lesson. I also don't want to go through Singapore too fast, so towards the end of the semester, we'll probably be doing mostly Miquon, until we start the next book in January. Between Singapore, Miquon, and games, I feel like they're getting enough fact practice, which is the only reason I would think you'd want to add a more traditional program. Oh, and we normally will do Singapore in the morning, and then have a more "fun" math time in the afternoon. We're in a good place right now with our math!!!

[Flowergirl159]

We use Singapore as our core math program. We have just recently added Miquon. DD8 is currently using Singapore 3A and 3B. She came to a rather difficult spot a month or two ago, so I gave her a miquon book, she really enjoyed working in that. Just yesterday, she asked if she could go back to Singapore. And she was able to overcome the hard spot she was previously in :)

 

My DD6 finished up with Singapore 1B about July of this year and I wasn't wanting to give her 2A until Jan/Feb. So she is working on the second Miquon book. I am really happy with our arrangement for now :) I like the way Miquon and Singapore compliment each other.

 

We also had great plans of using Life of Fred on Fridays for fun, we used it once :/ That's my problem though, I forget to get it out!

[boscopup]

At the grade 1 level, I didn't use any supplement with DS2 last year. He wasn't ready for more than a very short math lesson each day. He did fine, though their money chapter wasn't really enough for him to remember coin names, and his facts were a bit fuzzy. You do want to supplement with fact practice if your child isn't getting automatic on them. My oldest used just Singapore 4 and 5 with an occasional Life of Fred Fractions/Decimals&Percents for fun (wasn't necessary). And he is good with his math, but he did need more fact practice and a bit more drill and kill on some higher topics that aren't introduced until late elementary. We're covering all that now though, and it's not a big deal. He knows his facts, but he's not as fast as he could be, I think. Remember that in Singapore, the kids are being drilled and drilled and drilled on facts, and that's not apparent in the Singapore textbooks. ;)

[Coco_Clark]

I am finishing up 1A with my son right now (should be done in time for Christmas break). I feel the program has been really complete but DS has required quite a bit more drill to become really automatic with his facts. I purchased the Splash Math app (supposedly an entire 1st grade curric on its own) and have been really happy with the combo. He LOVES splash math, for some reason earning those fish for his aquarium is very very important, lol. We do our Singapore lesson and then he plays the corresponding (or a review) section in Splash Math for the remainder of our Math block (45 min).

 

We also do Life of Fred Apples once or twice a week, but it's separate during our "morning time". My DS adores Fred, but I'm not sure how much Math he picks up. Next year we might add either CWP or IP a year behind, I haven't really decided.

[Targhee]

Nope, we didn't supplement it with more math programs.  We did enrich it with things like math games, Education Unboxed videos, and story problems.  I think one of the advantages of Singapore is it's streamlined approach, whereas the US curricula are often trying to do too much but not doing it very well.  Realize that having the textbook and workbook isn't the entirety of SM.  You need to start with concrete examples (manipulaitves), and you can enrich with story problems.