Newer Singapore Math Supplements?

[Foofaraw]

My daughter is finishing up Math Mammoth 2 this Spring, I am leaning towards a Math With Confidence 3 detour for this multiplication/division facts year. I’m interested in supplementing with more word challenging word problems. I’ve read several of the threads on singapore’s Intensive Practice or CWP or process skills… There are a LOT of supplements at rainbow resource these days.
https://www.rainbowresource.com/category/11475/Singapore-Math-Supplements.html

Can anyone offer any tips on these different workbooks for beefing up the challenge of another curriculum? My guess is the Intensive Practice books are being phased out in favor of one of these.

 

[Clarita]

I didn't see those new supplements at Rainbow Resources last year when I was looking. 

I bought Intensive Practice and I liked it because it was a mix of regular problems plus some word problems. Then I can just pick what I want.

Beast Academy has extra puzzle books for some of their levels. I find BA problems more challenging (requiring more critical thinking) than Singapore Math. The Singapore Math Intensive Practice feels more like regular math problems and to me Singapore Math.

FWIW My eldest started off with Singapore Math and we switched over to Beast Academy Level 1 per his request. So, I used Intensive Practice just to give him a little more practice especially with math facts stuff.

[chiguirre]

I'm doing Singapore Math 3 with my nephew right now. We use the textbook, workbook and Intensive Practice. I found them on Amazon with Prime delivery. I really like IP, I used it with dd 12 years ago and it prepared her really well for the SAT, AOPS and the Calc 1-3 college sequence. I hope they don't phase it out although it could do with a bit of graphic design updating.

SM3 assumes you've already introduced multiplication and division. They do a quick review and then teach carrying and remainders. If you need to start from the beginning, you'll need to start with SM2. If you just want to supplement, it's probably a good idea to step back a level anyway so you don't run into topics that you haven't covered yet. IP has challenging problems even if the math topic is something you know well. You have to think to solve them.

For math facts, I bought addition cards at the Dollar Tree, made subtraction cards through 18-9 (the ones they sell are weird and don't go into the teens???) and made "Make a Hundred" cards (1-99, 37-63, 85-15, etc.). Nephew knew his facts but was slow when we started 3 weeks ago. Now, he's not. The "Make a Hundred" cards in particular make a kid's life so much easier. We're starting the multiplication/division review and carrying chapter next week and I'll just make my own cards to focus on the harder facts because he knows his 0x, 1x, 2x, 5x, 10x well. We also do timed math fact sheets I made online at a free site. We spend about 5 minutes on math facts a day. It doesn't take long but it makes a huge difference in how quickly he can get through 2-step word problems when he doesn't have to think about 7+8 but just knows the answer immediately.

[Malam]

15 hours ago, Foofaraw said:

My daughter is finishing up Math Mammoth 2 this Spring, I am leaning towards a Math With Confidence 3 detour for this multiplication/division facts year. I’m interested in supplementing with more word challenging word problems. I’ve read several of the threads on singapore’s Intensive Practice or CWP or process skills… There are a LOT of supplements at rainbow resource these days.
https://www.rainbowresource.com/category/11475/Singapore-Math-Supplements.html

Can anyone offer any tips on these different workbooks for beefing up the challenge of another curriculum? My guess is the Intensive Practice books are being phased out in favor of one of these.

 

Although I don't have any direct experience, I would suggest the original CWP/IP over the Marshall Cavendish books, and the Marshall Cavendish books over the Frank Schafer books. This is based on their relative proximity to the SM Primary Math curriculum

 

12 hours ago, Clarita said:

Beast Academy has extra puzzle books for some of their levels. I find BA problems more challenging (requiring more critical thinking) than Singapore Math. The Singapore Math Intensive Practice feels more like regular math problems and to me Singapore Math

So you're saying you found the content in the regular BA books to be more challenging than the content in the intensive practice books? Have you personally tried CWP or the BA puzzle books? 

[Clarita]

1 hour ago, Malam said:

So you're saying you found the content in the regular BA books to be more challenging than the content in the intensive practice books?

Yes. I didn't word it well in my post. Essentially I found IP to be straight forward extensions of what they taught in SM, which is great. I think the BA problems adds to that challenge because some of the problems are not straight forward extensions, which require you to connect the math you know. Just a different kind of challenge I guess depending on what OP might be looking for.

[Porridge]

I used CWP and IP with my kids when they were younger, and found both helpful. IP provided additional rote practice, but also  has a few more challenging problems at the end of each section. CWP promotes more problem solving skills. The first half of each section is pretty straightforward, but the second half is often more thought provoking. 
 We used Singapore standards and I didn’t feel that it provided enough practice or enough challenge. My older switched to Beast when it came out (we’ve been homeschooling awhile…..). My younger stuck with Singapore through 7th (dimensions). 
 

i know this is a ways off for you, but FWIW- dimensions was very good, and I did not feel the need to supplement.

[Porridge]

7 hours ago, Porridge said:

I used CWP and IP with my kids when they were younger, and found both helpful. IP provided additional rote practice, but also  has a few more challenging problems at the end of each section. CWP promotes more problem solving skills. The first half of each section is pretty straightforward, but the second half is often more thought provoking. 
 We used Singapore standards and I didn’t feel that it provided enough practice or enough challenge. My older switched to Beast when it came out (we’ve been homeschooling awhile…..). My younger stuck with Singapore through 7th (dimensions). 
 

i know this is a ways off for you, but FWIW- dimensions Middle school  was very good, and I did not feel the need to supplement.

 

[Malam]

10 hours ago, Porridge said:

FWIW- dimensions was very good, and I did not feel the need to supplement

How did it compare to PM? Which years did you use it for? Was DM's challenge the reason you didn't feel the need to supplement?

[Porridge]

@Malam

I used Dimensions for 6th and 7th. 

It is a very different feel and format from the Standards / Primary Math series. The textbooks feels much more "text bookish" with more... text (haha) and more of a "big kid" feel. There is no longer a teacher's guide / home instructor's guide. Instead, there is a Teaching Notes book with some very brief notes (which was often just confusing for me because I had to flip between multiple books and figure out which section matched which section), but in general, it seems like Dimensions expects the teacher to be pretty comfortable teaching the concepts. I'm not the strongest math person on these forums, but I'm decently comfortable with math and was able to teach it using only the textbook - the examples are very robust, and there are plenty of examples. 

The 6th grade book feels like a bridge between elementary and middle school format - the workbook still has big font and lots of blank space to work the problems. 

The 7th grade book feels like it's firmly out of the realm of younger-kid-world. The workbook isn't really a workbook in that it doesn't have blank space  to work problems. It's more like an extra bank of problems. I found that the end of section problems in the textbook were generally enough practice for my student. I would end up using the workbook 1-2 chapters behind the textbook as a kind of review (since singapore is mastery, not spiral) to reinforce concepts and keep them fresh.  The workbook contains both routine, drill type problems, as well as an ample selection of more challenging problems for every chapter. We did not try to do all the workbook problems - it would have been overkill for my student. Instead, I would pick selected problems for review and extra challenge.  I'm not aware of any supplemental books for the middle school Singapore math, and I didn't feel the curriculum needed any supplement -- the workbook seemed plenty robust with regard to challenge and quantity of additional practice if needed.

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by Porridge

[Ting Tang]

I am using Singapore Dimensions for K, 2nd, and 4th.  "Challenge problems" appear at the end of most workbook exercises.  I definitely feel this curriculum in its entirety is more than sufficient.  

I did buy the 6th grade Standards Edition for my oldest, and we ended up not using it for my current 5th grader.  😞  It is different from Dimensions. --I liked that it had a more elementary math book feel to it than the Dimensions Middle School books.