Singapore Primary 1A - Need text?

[mom of 2 boys]

Hi there, my son is 51/2 and he's working his way through the Essential Math workbooks without any issues. He'll be finished with those in a month or two and I have to place an order for a different book right now, so I figured I might as well order his next math book while I'm at it and save on shipping. I'm looking at Primary Mathematics 1A and wondering, do I really need to bother with the text book? It looks pretty straight forward and I can't imagine what the text book could possibly have to offer. Is it reasonable to assume that I should just skip the text? If so, about what level does the text become necessary? Also - are these intensive practice workbooks worth it at this level, or is it just beating a dead horse if the child is reasonably good at math. Thank you! 

[Clemsondana]

I had one student go all the way through Singapore 6, and the other is is currently using 3B. I bought the textbooks, but find that we don't use them very often. There are some things that singapore teaches differently from how I was taught in school, though. We were taught the standard algorighm for addition, but Singapre puts a LOT of emphasis on making or breaking 10s. So, 9 + 8= 10+7, and for 23-5 you would borrow 10, but instead of subtracting 5 from 13, you subtract 5 from 10, then add 3. It sounds more complicated and takes a bit longer to teach, but both of my kids ended up doing mental math better than I ever could as a student. I think that I probably read the text the first time through, becauseI wouldn't necessarily have gotten that from the problem books. Do you get the homw instructor's guide? I could imagine that you could get by with one or the other, but probably don't need both. You will probably want a book when you get to bar diagrams - level 3 - unless you're familiar with the method.

[EKS]

IMO, if you're going to eliminate something, you should eliminate the workbook.  We found that the textbook has somewhat harder problems, which makes sense as it is meant to be used by students in class whereas the workbook is meant to be done independently.

 

We didn't like the Intensive Practice books, but we did like the Challenging Word Problems books (starting in grade 3), though the new version isn't as good as the one we used 10 years ago.

 

Also, keep in mind that your child should be doing the problems the "Singapore way" which is likely not the way you learned in school.  Because of this, I highly recommend that you either get the HIG for each level or invest in the book Elementary Mathematics for Teachers which explains how to teach the "Singapore way" for all levels of the program.

Edited January 21, 2017 by EKS

[fdrinca]

The problem sets in the textbook tends to be a little more challenging than the workbook, and the practice sections are a little meatier as well. 

 

We prefer to use textbook, workbook, and challenging word problems. 

 

[mom of 2 boys]

Thanks, everyone - I went ahead and just ordered the textbook and the workbook. It didn't cost that much more, so I didn't want to risk leaving anything important out. I also threw in a set of Unifix cubes while I was at it  :laugh: So much for saving money lol. 

 

On another note, has anyone tried those math wrap up thingys? They look pretty neat!