How do you teach 3 levels of Singapore Math?

[Flowergirl159]

If you are using Singapore Math with three children, please explain to me what your math day looks like. Or even your week of maths work?

 

Do you use the HIG and various activities in there? How do you use the mental maths sheets?

 

Do you use other supplements?

 

Do you spend 20 minutes with each child each day?

 

How do you fit in review and practice?

 

If it helps, we are currently using 5B, 4A and 2A.

 

Thanks so much :)

[Targhee]

I don't teach all kids from Singapore currently, but they have each used Singapore at some point, I have taught all those levels, and I have taught math to 3 kids at once.

If you are using Singapore Math with three children, please explain to me what your math day looks like. Or even your week of maths work?
For Primary Maths our lessons last 15-25 minutes. For the lower levels manipulatives and activities from the HIG are helpful. I then assign workbook problems which they complete on their own.

Do you use the HIG and various activities in there? How do you use the mental maths sheets?
We use mental math strips in 3rd and 4th, but not for the other levels. We do whichever activities in the guide seem necessary to achieve understanding, but that is definitely not all of them. For level 5 the HIG provides me with answers to workbook and a few challenging questions.

 

Do you use other supplements?
My kids have a subscription to DreamBox, which they use 0-20 minutes a day to fill up the balance of the hour of math. We play games often too. In level 3 we used CWP sometimes.

Do you spend 20 minutes with each child each day? Yes, or more. Math is a primary and fundamental skill that needs instructor guidance. My two middle kids have used/use Beast Academy for 3rd-part of 5th. These are more discovery based and I am around to help them through their problem solving - there's still teaching from me but it is as needed and not scripted. In this manner I help all three (my oldest doing AOPS books) simultaneously over the hour. Still, it's roughly 1 hr of instruction/my time and 60 min work for each of them.

How do you fit in review and practice?
Which Singapore book are you using? The Standards edition (and common core Ed) features built in reviews. We Dreambox for an additional strand of learning, and skill practice. The mental math strips are helpful too. Singapore isn't necessarily a spiral like say Saxon, but it comes back to and builds upon each concept in subsequent years.

If it helps, we are currently using 5B, 4A and 2A.

Thanks so much :)

 

 

Edited May 6, 2016 by Targhee

[SevenDaisies]

If you are using Singapore Math with three children, please explain to me what your math day looks like. Or even your week of maths work?

Math is the one subject which I teach to each child on a daily basis. I let everyone work on their independent work and then call them in one at a time to wok on subjects where they need me.

 

Do you use the HIG and various activities in there?

I do - especially the hands-on activities in the earlier books. We don't do all the activities, but I do look at it daily and decide if it's worth doing. In the older elementary books there is more explanation of textbook problems than hands-on activities.

 

How do you use the mental maths sheets? The mental math sheets are scheduled in the HIG. I assign them as they are assigned in the HIG.

 

Do you use other supplements?

We use CWP.

 

Do you spend 20 minutes with each child each day?

Yes, some days more.

 

How do you fit in review and practice?

We do the reviews in the textbook together, and I assign the workbook pages as independent work. They have flashcards for math facts in the early grades.

 

If it helps, we are currently using 5B, 4A and 2A.

We are currently using 2B, 3B, and 6B.

[prairiewindmomma]

I have kids in 2A, 3A (has dyscalculia) and early bird with a 4th kid in algebra.

 

1. I have individual time with each kid due to their unique strengths and challenges.

2. I have some sort of drill work targeted for each kid. One uses Dreambox (my average math kid).  One plays games from Ronit Bird's materials with me (my dyscalculia kid).  One uses educationunboxed videos with me (my preschooler). One uses Khan Academy (my kid in algebra).

3. Other supplements: see the drill work above. My dream box kid also uses some Horizons math.  She needs cumulative review more than my other kids, and she has no dysgraphia problems.

 

My day is set up so that I rotate through all of my kids. I have a very long day.  I work with my youngest first, then spin her off.  My kid in 2A is next.  I do her phonics and handwriting then as well.  By late morning, I do my individual work with my dyscalcic kid.  We have lunch.  Afternoons are for joint history, science, and art with my younger 3.  I work with my oldest in bits through the day, but a lot after the youngers are in bed.  This is just based on his need for silence and non-interruption + his night owl body.

 

I have friends who have 4 kids and do school in two hours a day (ages 7-16).  That's not me.

[happypamama]

I only have one currently using Singapore, but I am teaching math to three children at different levels.  I do spend 20-40 minutes doing math with each child every day.  They can't be combined for much at this point and definitely not for math.  Like a PP said, my day is long.

 

For Singapore, I use the HIG a little.  I usually glance at it, but tbh, I don't generally need to run through what it says.  I think that's highly variable, though.  I'm good at math, and my Singapore-using son picks concepts up quickly, so the HIG's directions are less useful.  We go over the textbook sets and do enough practice problems to know that he understands them.  We do not do the workbooks anymore; the textbook has enough practice for him.  We do do the enrichment problems in the HIG when they come up, and we do the mental math exercises when they come up too.  We typically do two out of the following in a day: textbook lesson with practice problems, mental math exercises, textbook review problems, or Intensive Practice book/Challenging Word Problems.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

We're in 5a, 2B, and Early Bird.  

 

When 5a has his lesson, my younger is doing her duolingo.  When the lesson is taught and he moves to workbook, I teach to 2B.  Her lessons are still relatively short, so I end up with both kids doing WB simultaneously, and I sit around for help and questions.  Earlybird get one-on-one time for her math as well.  

 

I correct after each WB page before they go to the next.  

 

Mental Math is done as a warm up to the lesson.  I usually go across the columns, rather than down he columns, so that several skills are being reviewed at once.  

[Flowergirl159]

Thank you for your replies.

 

I currently begin with my oldest - flashcards for the multiplication tables she still needs to work on, then we do a lesson using the HIG and textbook. Usually she is then free to work on her workbook.

 

I do this with each girl and it takes about 20 minutes each, so an hour for me.

 

I have gone through times where we have used the mental math sheets, but that was a while ago. Do you use the same mental maths sheet over and over again each day for a week?

 

If we were to work on a textbook Practice, that would take all of our 20 mins math time, so there would be no time for a lesson which means no workbook exercise would be completed that day. Is that how it works for you?

 

What if you come across a problem that you realise your child didn't pick up earlier/ or doesn't remember the correct procedure to work it out, do you take note of that and be sure to add that into your math lessons the following day?

[prairiewindmomma]

I think you need to plan for longer lesson times with each kid. I slot 30 min for my preschooler and 45 for my older kids.  I always incorporate some aspect of review into my teaching time.  My kids each have their own planner, and I make notes there. I have planning time each week for sketching out lessons for the next week.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I only have two kids.  I did one on one with each.  I did not use the HIG.  I did do math games and stuff though and that sometimes could be done altogether with some modifications.  Math games are a good way to get in the "extras". 

 

 

[happypamama]

Thank you for your replies.

 

I currently begin with my oldest - flashcards for the multiplication tables she still needs to work on, then we do a lesson using the HIG and textbook. Usually she is then free to work on her workbook.

 

I do this with each girl and it takes about 20 minutes each, so an hour for me.

 

I have gone through times where we have used the mental math sheets, but that was a while ago. Do you use the same mental maths sheet over and over again each day for a week?

 

If we were to work on a textbook Practice, that would take all of our 20 mins math time, so there would be no time for a lesson which means no workbook exercise would be completed that day. Is that how it works for you?

 

What if you come across a problem that you realise your child didn't pick up earlier/ or doesn't remember the correct procedure to work it out, do you take note of that and be sure to add that into your math lessons the following day?

I mark any problems that are incorrect and have them check them again at whatever point in their days they are doing independent work.  If they don't understand the problem with a second look, they ask me about it whenever I'm working with them.  20 minutes isn't always enough for math.

[Targhee]

We used select Practice problems from the text book so I was confident they caught on to the lesson, then they did WB. If they weren't doing well on select problems we finished all practice problems together and any additional teaching/review needed, and saved WB for next day. This can throw off a rigid schedule, so I just make math time routine more than hard and fast times of the day.

 

The kids always spend a minimum amount of time on math - in 2nd grade that was 45 min but once in 3rd it's 60, and 5th on its 60 min or until it's done (60-90 minutes most days). Sometimes that's 15 min with me, sometimes it's more. If I'm working extra with one kid I may have another work on DreamBox the whole time I'm sorting stuff out with the first kid.

 

We did not use flash cards. Ever. Except when I tried it with oldest and nearly ruined her love for math and her confidence in it. We use games and I give them a multiplication table to use until they've looked them up so often they don't need it any more.

 

Mental maths I occasionally recycled, but usually used each only once. I followed suggested MM strip use from HIG. There isn't always one each day.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Thank you for your replies.

 

I currently begin with my oldest - flashcards for the multiplication tables she still needs to work on, then we do a lesson using the HIG and textbook. Usually she is then free to work on her workbook.

 

I do this with each girl and it takes about 20 minutes each, so an hour for me.

 

I have gone through times where we have used the mental math sheets, but that was a while ago. Do you use the same mental maths sheet over and over again each day for a week?

 

If we were to work on a textbook Practice, that would take all of our 20 mins math time, so there would be no time for a lesson which means no workbook exercise would be completed that day. Is that how it works for you?

 

What if you come across a problem that you realise your child didn't pick up earlier/ or doesn't remember the correct procedure to work it out, do you take note of that and be sure to add that into your math lessons the following day?

 

 

I only do about 10 warm up problems.  Usually 7-8 are from the mental math section, then 2-3 are reviews of old things (for SM2, it might be add/sub using the borrow/carry algorithms.  For SM5, it might be finding a LCM or GCF, order of operations...).  The warm-up is put together on the fly, before each lesson, based on weaknesses I see.  I do jot down notes to myself on post-its which I stick on the book cover if I am afraid I might forget what I wanted to hit in the warm-up.  

 

If we hit a review section and kiddo is drawing a blank, I will stop completely and spend the next lesson(s) reviewing that concept instead of moving forward in the book.  I will then work a lot of those types of problems into the warm-up set.  Being able to stop and review it is a great advantage to homeschooling.  After a month off, my dd completely forgot the add/sub algorithms.   :cursing:  :scared: We went all the way back to manipulatives for THREE LESSONS.  Kill. Me. Now.  Anyway, we're back on track again.  lol.  Don't ask me how many times I've said in the last week, "If you have two apples, can you take away seven apples?  No?  Ok then, you need to BORROW SOME FREAKING APPLES!"   :lol:

 

 

I agree with Targhee- delegate all fact memorization to games.  We love X Germs Addition (free app and free online game) and Big Brainz Timez Attack (both free and paid versions).  But these are only for well after the concept of making tens (for addition) has been learned, and the idea of multiplication is well-understood and the concept that x4 is the same as x2x2, etc, has been learned.