favorite early elem. math that teaches conceptual base ten math?

[mommaslp]

I have used right start, singapore, MUS, Math Mammoth...

 

I still don't have a favorite but they are all great.  which is your favorite for teaching the base ten/conceptual math that helps with mental addition/subtraction?  Right Start is really great at this i know... is Singapore as strong as Right Start in this manner?  

 

Curious because I am picking a math for my rising 1st grader who has completed all of Singapores Kindergarten books and has done really well...  i don't love Singapores math as much for 1st and up due to the amount of books to buy and juggle.  but i AM considering it still.  

[Sherry in OH]

MEP  

[Rosie_0801]

Kate Snow's stuff and Education Unboxed.

[mommaslp]

MEP  

 

 

I have never been able to figure out how to use MEP!

[mommaslp]

Kate Snow's stuff and Education Unboxed.

 

 

i really like the education unboxed!  but what curric do you use?  i see she recommends singapore and MM.  

[Pistachio mom]

We use BJ Press  Math. I have used this from K5 up through Geometry, and have the books for Algebra 2 for next year.

 

I like the teaching for understanding before learning how to "do it." Learning is taught using 3D manipulatives, pictures of objects, and then the abstract numbers.  The teacher books explain exactly how to teach the concepts with ideas for a variety of learning styles. Review books are also available.

[Rosie_0801]

i really like the education unboxed!  but what curric do you use?  i see she recommends singapore and MM.  

 

My kiddo had a maths disability, so we used more than one curriculum. CSMP was the most effective for teaching her, with other stuff for practice.

[EKS]

I thought that Singapore's approach was just as good as RightStart's.  The most important thing is that the teacher understands the approach and continually reinforces it.

[fralala]

Singapore does a great job teaching it. If that's been working for K, I see no reason to switch things up.

 

As for juggling...

 

I do think with Singapore you could start with the absolute minimum # of books, especially for grade 1, and only get more if you feel like your child needs more practice and you don't have the time to scrawl out a few problems on the white board. (In Grade 1, coming up with your own practice problems is pretty easy even for those who don't consider themselves mathematically inclined.) At maximum, you would begin with 3 books: textbook, workbook, teacher's guide. If you wanted to eliminate one of those because it was too much juggling, I'd wouldn't get the workbook. There are plenty of problems to solve in the textbook (and it's prettier) and all other practice can be achieved with play at this age. I found myself referring to the teacher's guide (actually, I guess I used the home instructor's guide) frequently for 1A and 1B-- it has some helpful games and ideas, so I wouldn't skip that.

[daijobu]

Singapore is great for this.  

[mommaslp]

Singapore does a great job teaching it. If that's been working for K, I see no reason to switch things up.

 

As for juggling...

 

I do think with Singapore you could start with the absolute minimum # of books, especially for grade 1, and only get more if you feel like your child needs more practice and you don't have the time to scrawl out a few problems on the white board. (In Grade 1, coming up with your own practice problems is pretty easy even for those who don't consider themselves mathematically inclined.) At maximum, you would begin with 3 books: textbook, workbook, teacher's guide. If you wanted to eliminate one of those because it was too much juggling, I'd wouldn't get the workbook. There are plenty of problems to solve in the textbook (and it's prettier) and all other practice can be achieved with play at this age. I found myself referring to the teacher's guide (actually, I guess I used the home instructor's guide) frequently for 1A and 1B-- it has some helpful games and ideas, so I wouldn't skip that.

 

 

i agree, and i actually just went up to my local homeschool store and put my hands on it again.  i really love Singapore.  i am slightly worried over all the moving pieces... but really, it isn't that big a deal.  my daughter actually loves workbook pages, so getting the workbook would probably delight her.  she FLEW through SM Kindergarten, doing 4-8 pages a day, loving it.  i have never really used the HIG and i worry over if it is cumbersome or time consuming... do i need to prep the night before or is it fairly open and go?  it is down between SM or Rightstart at this point, both have their advantages. 

[kristin0713]

I did three levels of RS with my DD before switching her to Singapore because she really needed a workbook approach for drill and practice.  With my DS, I did RS A and half of B with him before switching him to Singapore, but I kept teaching him the concepts the RS way.  It was RS that taught me how to teach that early math well.  But the games-based practice did not work for us, since we mostly hate to play games.  :laugh:   Well, that's not entirely true.  DD definitely prefers workbooks, and DS likes games but he would rather know exactly what he has to do to be done for the day.  Singapore was the answer for us, after getting a solid start in RS.

[Sk8ermaiden]

Singapore definitely teaches this well. We only use the teacher's guides and the workbooks. Up to this point (finishing 3B), I have found we never use the textbooks. Sometimes I buy Intensive practice to do a few problems a day in the summer so she doesn't forget anything. 

[Sk8ermaiden]

i agree, and i actually just went up to my local homeschool store and put my hands on it again.  i really love Singapore.  i am slightly worried over all the moving pieces... but really, it isn't that big a deal.  my daughter actually loves workbook pages, so getting the workbook would probably delight her.  she FLEW through SM Kindergarten, doing 4-8 pages a day, loving it.  i have never really used the HIG and i worry over if it is cumbersome or time consuming... do i need to prep the night before or is it fairly open and go?  it is down between SM or Rightstart at this point, both have their advantages. 

In Singapore, I started using the teacher's guide somewhere in second grade. I just wanted to make sure I was teaching it the "right" way for the curric, because I knew it would build on itself. When we have a new concept that needs an actual lesson, she sits down next to me and I read through the TM and then tell her what it says! I draw her a few pictures and have her show me some understanding of the concept. Then we do a couple problems from her workbook page together and then she does the rest on her own. Once in a while I have to dig out the unit or base 10 cubes, but we're to a point we're not really using them anymore. I find it extremely open and go. I've never prepped for a lesson. And I find I only have to sit down and really teach one every couple weeks? After the initial lesson, the concept just builds, so it's easy to explain what's going on without a whole lesson. 

[sweetpea3829]

I really like Singapore for a good, solid conceptual math approach.  It DOES have a lot of moving pieces but, I have found that once you get into a good routine, it's fairly easy to work with.  

 

I did not start using the HIG really until 2nd grade but honestly, that was a mistake with my first Singapore kiddo (my oldest child did not use Singapore until this year, due to a math LD).  I did not have much experience with the Singapore approach or, really, conceptual math for that matter, and I should have been using the HIG from the get-go.  Chalk that up to a rookie homeschooler mistake with a first kid, lol.

 

Anyways, we primarily use the Workbook for daily practice.  I have the Textbooks but my kids rarely work the problems.  I usually use the TB during a direct teacher-led lesson for teaching purposes and to check understanding.  Then I assign the WB pages that correspond with the lesson.  

 

Then, I use the IP books for review...or, if those are too difficult, I use the Test book practice pages.  I assign those a few days to a week after the initial lesson.  I use Prodigy Math as a spiral review for the rest of the time.

 

I actually treat problem solving as a completely separate subject.  I use Process Skills in Problem Solving a year behind current grade level, and once we've worked through that, I pull out Challenging Word Problems for practice.  Sometimes I save the IP word problem pages for practice.  

 

My oldest boy is also using Beast, lol.

 

Obviously, we are a math-heavy family.   

[sweetpea3829]

Also, I have from time to time, handed my eldest son the HIG and had him teach the lesson to himself.  

[HomeAgain]

I'll second MEP.  It's easier to understand if you look at both the teacher's script and the child's page at the same time.  I give it quite a bit of credit for my son's math skills.  The way the concepts are practiced makes it so easy for him to do mental math and switch between multiple methods of solving a problem.  I looked over the curriculum we picked out for next year (Beast Academy 3) and honestly 90% will be easy for him, and the other 10% require a small bit of work.

[justasque]

I have used right start, singapore, MUS, Math Mammoth...

 

I still don't have a favorite but they are all great.  which is your favorite for teaching the base ten/conceptual math that helps with mental addition/subtraction?  Right Start is really great at this i know... is Singapore as strong as Right Start in this manner?  

 

Curious because I am picking a math for my rising 1st grader who has completed all of Singapores Kindergarten books and has done really well...  i don't love Singapores math as much for 1st and up due to the amount of books to buy and juggle.  but i AM considering it still.  

 

Honestly, at that age, I didn't really rely on a particular curriculum, I tended to set out a list of skills to master - a scope and sequence of sorts - and pulled stuff from different places for inspiration.  We did a lot of work with Cusinaire rods and 1cm cubes, playing games and so on, rather than making worksheet/workbook-based learning the focus.  (We did use worksheets, but they weren't the bulk of the work, and didn't drive the schedule of topics or the pace.)

 

If you have taught from the variety you mention, you could probably do this too if it would be a better fit for what you're looking to accomplish.

Edited April 18, 2017 by justasque

[Alice]

Another vote for Singapore. I use the TB and IP only. I have the HIG and used it with my oldest to help me learn how to teach but I very rarely have used it with my next two kids.  When I did use it I would read the HIG myself for the chapter we were about to do to give myself an idea of how to teach it. I do the TB with the kid as the lesson. Then I assign problems in the IP book. I find the IP book usually has enough of a mix of review and challenging problems for my kids. Two of mine are very "mathy" and don't need a ton of review. I have one kid who is not as much of a math kid and for him I will sometimes assign problems in the Textbook first and then he does the IP problems. He actually does better with the more challenging problems in the IP book as he gets bored with lots of review and then starts to lose focus. The HIG also has mental math sheets in the back, I copy them all at once and then give them out to be done as well. 

 

I've heard people say that Singapore has a lot of parts but it has never felt that way to me. Maybe because that's all we've used. 

[justasque]

Do you still have that list of skills, or did you use a published scope and sequence?

 

No I don't, sorry.  I based it on an old set of Virginia state standards which I thought were particularly good.  (They have since, of course, been changed and I can't find the old ones.)  And I also looked at a bunch of math texts and compared what was taught in each grade.  Usually stuff is introduced one year, then worked on fairly solidly the next year, then briefly reviewed the next.  The exercise of writing my skill list really helped me get a sense of the progression of skills, what varies book-by-book and what doesn't, etc.  It made me a better teacher in lots of ways, including helping me to see what needed to be mastered when, and what could be left to work on again the next year, etc.  

[justasque]

Do you still have that list of skills, or did you use a published scope and sequence?

 

No I don't, sorry.  I based it on an old set of Virginia state standards which I thought were particularly good.  (They have since, of course, been changed and I can't find the old ones.)  And I also looked at a bunch of math texts and compared what was taught in each grade.  Usually stuff is introduced one year, then worked on fairly solidly the next year, then briefly reviewed the next.  The exercise of writing my skill list really helped me get a sense of the progression of skills, what varies book-by-book and what doesn't, etc.  It made me a better teacher in lots of ways, including helping me to see what needed to be mastered when, and what could be left to work on again the next year, etc.