Streamlining the Singapore book shuffle

[vaquitita]

I'm looking for ways to streamline our Singapore routine. Looking for tips

Edited December 12, 2015 by vaquitita

[TheAttachedMama]

In our house, we use all three of those books each day.   So there is no day that is completely independent.   And there is no day which is overly teacher dependent.   This feels really good to me, and I feel like it works well.   

 

PLUS--if you teach 3 lessons at once, that is a lot of information to throw at a child.   Teaching a little bit each day sort of spreads it out and provides lots of constant review / help.   I am one of those weirdos who believes that math is one of those subjects that is impossible to OVER practice.  You can nearly always obtain a deeper understanding of new math concepts.  And having just a little bit of teacher interaction everyday helps to really solidify those topics.  (Even if they appear to have been fully understood the first time.) 

 

This is our routine:

(NOTE:  I don't even allow them to have their textbook or workbook out initially.  That just distracts them.)

 

1)  We start out with some quick warm up and review of previous topics.  You could use mental math for this.  We have been focusing more on getting our math facts down.

2)  Teach the lesson on a white board using the HIG as a guide.   This is often when we will pull out the manipulatives and work at things on a more abstract level. 

3)  Pull out the text book and read through the recommended pages for the lesson together.  Then, we work these problems together on the white board.  They are our examples.  This makes things LESS abstract, and the child is shown some models of how to work through these types of problems. 

4)  Next, we pull out the wb.  The child works through these problems independently.  (Asking for help if they need it.)  This allows me to see how well they understood the material.

5)  We finish the lesson by checking all of the answers together.   Any problems missed are re-worked together to make sure the child understands any mistakes. 

[happypamama]

We don't even use the WB anymore. We go over the HIG and TB, doing the MM as suggested in the HIG, and we work problems in the TB as much as needed for understanding the concept. Then most days, he does a couple of pages in the IP, where the problems are a little more challenging, and we will do the CWP when he finishes the other stuff. He's a quick math student, though, so the WB was becoming tedious and not challenging him at all.

[SeaConquest]

We work from the IP and CWP. I only break out the TB or HIG if he doesn't intuit the math right away or needs more review. We don't use the WB at all.

[vaquitita]

I don't teach three lessons every time, just when the lessons are similar AND seem to be already mastered by my son. We only switched to Singapore at the end of last school year and I had him start in 2a. We were in MEP. Some things he knows already and we go quickly, other units we go through more slowly.

 

I have considered dropping the WB, because he gets all the problems right. Other than a few careless mistakes. But I need his worksheets to be mostly independent. Though obviously I would help if he had trouble. Idk, if I use the IP instead if he would work on it independently well or not. I could give it a try and see. I have the year 2 IP's but have held off using them, figuring I'd stagger them behind by one semester when we start 3a. How well does the IP match up with the standards edition? Good enough probably. The one problem that might come up is the IP has a lot more problems on the page. My son does balk when given a page with a high number of problems on it. The same number of problems spread over two pages is fine. Well I may give it a try and see how he does.

 

My two big questions are:

If I'm using strayer upton for review and drill, what part of Singapore can I drop?

And do you think it will matter if he does the worksheets for a specific chapter a week or two after the teaching session? Cause it would make it easier for me if I cut the books apart and just had a mixed pile of WB, IP and/or CWP pages for him to work through. He would never have to be waiting on me to give him the next thing to do, he would just work through the pages.

 

Ok, third question... How many pages per day does your child do? 2?3?

[SeaConquest]

My son is young (almost 6), so he is not able to do the Singapore 2 IP independently. I mean, we could, but handwriting everything himself would slow us waaaaaay down. So, I scribe for him 90% of the time. We also don't have a set number of pages per day, or even a set amount of time. I basically go until I think he has had enough, which tends to be about 45-60 minutes of math. On average, we do a chapter in the IP per week, but we only school 3 days/week. Some chapters are longer or more difficult than others. But, we also mix in the CWP, some other supplements, and living books to break up the intensity of the IP.

[vaquitita]

Ok I broke out the 2a and 2b IP books today, the first time I've really looked at them. A lot of the pages I saw was making them write down all the steps used to add or subtract numbers mentally. What's the point of that? Why teach them a mental math strategy, then make them write it all down in a multitude of tedious steps? Why not let them do the work mentally? My son hated the IP. It would be ok if I sat with him, helping him and scribing some, but that ain't gonna happen. I also have 1a and 1b IP books, so I got those out. He could do 1b on his own ok, but then it wouldn't be practicing the things I had just taught him in the TB. Using the IP a year behind does not sound like a good substitute for using the WB. My son does like math outside of school and is I think good at it (he will figure some concept out and talk about it a lot for weeks. Then nothing for awhile. Most recently it was square roots), but is overwhelmed by too much writing. Idk, maybe he's just used to math being easy and doesn't want to do anything that requires work. Or he could just not be a kid who likes puzzling things out, maybe those frustrate him.

 

So since I'd have to use the IP a year behind, I'm guessing I better keep the WB. I have both the IP and CWP because I wanted to see them, but I think I need to pick one or the other. How do you choose? The IP I would have to use a year behind. The CWP not so much, he could start book 2 right now, which I guess would be a semester behind. The CWP has less problems per page (2-3) which would be visually more appealing to my son. Though again, used a year behind he could handle IP. I can just hang onto the IP books in case one of my younger kids turns out to be a math whiz or enjoys puzzling things out.

[vaquitita]

I tried looking through past posts on Singapore IP/CWP, but that just made me more confused. Lol. Seems like so many people use the WB and the IP and the CWP. That seems like way too many pages to do each day in order to finish within the school year. Or is it that everyone does math year round? We like following the traditional school year.

 

If my son has done all the problems in the TB and definitely gets the concept, then maybe we could skip the WB and just do the IP a year behind? Then we could do IP and CWP. It seems wrong that a bright 9yo should be in book 1b though. But I guess that's why it's called INTENSIVE practice. Lol. Or maybe I just don't care about the IP? I want a good solid math foundation, but I'm not looking to train a math whiz. Lol. Ugg. Now I get why people don't like the Singapore shuffle. Yes you can tailor it to your child, but there's just so many options, so many choices to make!

 

I looked up the number of pages in each book, if we did WB, IP a year behind, and CWP, we'd have to average FOUR pages per day to finish with a school year. If we did IP a year behind and CWP, we'd only have to do 2 pages per day. WB and either IP or CWP would be about 3 pages per day. Four pages is just too much. Right now we do two, we could go to 3. Especially if the 3rd page was CWP which is just 2 problems per page on average.

 

Idk... The WB is fairly easy for my son. Maybe. He does get 100% most the time, but he moans about doing it. The IP just looks SO hard, done on level.

 

Eta: I think I'm going to add CWP 2 for this year. Then next year when he does 3 we will also use IP2. That way I will use the books I have, plus get a better feel for CWP vs. IP. Going forward I'll know which works better for DS and can just get that.

[TheAttachedMama]

I tried looking through past posts on Singapore IP/CWP, but that just made me more confused. Lol. Seems like so many people use the WB and the IP and the CWP. That seems like way too many pages to do each day in order to finish within the school year. Or is it that everyone does math year round? We like following the traditional school year.

 

 

YES!  That is what I wonder too.  It seems like way too many pages of math per day!  

[pitterpatter]

We are finishing up 2B. I use the HIG and textbook together to teach, as instructed in the HIG. We complete most of the problems in the textbook orally "together" (or DD jots her answers on a Boogie Board and shows me) to be sure DD gets the concept. We rarely complete the reinforcement activities in the HIG anymore. I used to, but it just takes way too much time with everything else. After teaching, DD completes the workbook pages independently. I check her work and assist her, when needed.

 

Except in very rare cases, I teach one lesson per day. As a warm-up each day, DD completes a 10-question column from Didax Mental Math. I also give DD review problems from SM Mental Math, SM unit reviews, IP and/or CWP for after school. I usually pick 5-10 problems (depends on difficulty...I usually pick a combo of easy and harder). She completes these while I fix lunch or get school ready for the next day. I also use IP and/or CWP at the end of each section/unit. We'll take a day or two for DD to work through some of the problems for the section/unit she just completed. I only pick the problems that are kind of different, enriching and/or are generally more fun. Ones that aren't simply more of the same.