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Life after Singapore Math - Xposted


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My oldest is finishing up 5B Standard Edition.  I will probably do 6A and 6B but then what?  I very much like Singapore and would like to find a curriculum that is similar - spiral and builds great foundation for further math.

Would love to hear suggestions, opinions, experiences. 

thank you

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We’ve gone from 6b to AOPS.  I’d recommend switching after 5 if you are doing it as we didn’t cover masses in 6 and we’re trying to pick up with algebra in AOPS and finding it moves very fast.  I think having AOPS for prealgebra to get used to the notation etc would have helped.  Also I feel like there’s a tonne of kind of - “trick problems” in AOPS - like - look for the easy solution don’t just do it the hard way.  

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With oldest DD, she went from 5B to Jousting Armadillos, finished the whole series, and then went on to Jacob's Geometry. I t worked very well for her.

With my DD, he went from 5B to AOPS Pre-A, then onto AOPS Algebra. It has gone well, but was a really rough transition. He had never had to work at math before.

My youngest DD is in 5B right now. I am debating what to do with her: I don't think either path her older siblings took is right for her. I will probably either do Singapore 6, Doclciani Pre-A next year. Although I like the suggestion up thread of going to Math: A Human Endeavor. Eventually, we will probably get to Jacob's Algebra. (I actually own all these books making it harder for me to decide.)

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For a lot of kids, seeing the AOPS PA book can be overwhelming. There are no pictures and it's over 600 pages long. It's a textbook full of densely written text. There's a solutions guide that you get to help. There is no instructor guide as the text is written to the student. It could be a shocker coming from a colorful SM textbook. The setup is completely different from SM. The approach is discovery so students are supposed to work through the text problems to arrive at concepts that they wanted the student to grasp. It does not explicitly teach a concept if that makes sense. That may frustrate students who are not used to a math textbook that intends for students to wrestle and to get only get 75% to 80% correct the first time trhough. Tough sell to kids who may be used to getting everything correct.

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2 hours ago, calbear said:

For a lot of kids, seeing the AOPS PA book can be overwhelming. There are no pictures and it's over 600 pages long. It's a textbook full of densely written text. There's a solutions guide that you get to help. There is no instructor guide as the text is written to the student. It could be a shocker coming from a colorful SM textbook. The setup is completely different from SM. The approach is discovery so students are supposed to work through the text problems to arrive at concepts that they wanted the student to grasp. It does not explicitly teach a concept if that makes sense. That may frustrate students who are not used to a math textbook that intends for students to wrestle and to get only get 75% to 80% correct the first time trhough. Tough sell to kids who may be used to getting everything correct.

Thank you for this explanation.

so, if there are no workbooks, do they just use a regular notebook to do problems?

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On 2/18/2019 at 4:48 PM, Jean in Newcastle said:

We did Singapore Math through 6b.   Then Jacob's Mathematics:  A Human Endeavor.  Then Jacobs Beginning Algebra.  It worked well for us.

Did you work through all of A Human Endeavor, beginning in 7th?  And is Beginning Algebra the same as Elementary Algebra?  My daughter is in the same place.

I'm also trying to decide if we need to stick with 6A and 6B...isn't 6th grade a review year?

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Just now, beka87 said:

Did you work through all of A Human Endeavor, beginning in 7th?  And is Beginning Algebra the same as Elementary Algebra?  My daughter is in the same place.

I'm also trying to decide if we need to stick with 6A and 6B...isn't 6th grade a review year?

We did Human Endeavor in 7th for one kid and in 8th for the other.  It is like pre-algebra with a bit of trig.  Or at least that is how I see it.

Oh yes - I meant to type Elementary Algebra. 

 

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The videos are what makes my daughter love the program:) . She will watch R.R. any day!  So we do the first section of problems together, then she watches the videos, then she does the exercises (usually skipping the challenge problems) and then she does Alcumus (online problems, free through website) if I think she needs a little more practice before moving on.  She takes a little longer than her brother to grasp and solidify concepts, so sometimes I even have her repeat topics on Alcumus just to make sure she understands.  

We tried Jacob's Algebra but she greatly prefers the layout, the videos, and the online problems in Aops..  Others have used Jacob's with great success. 

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