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04 Jul 2005 - 14:34
notes from Lone Ranger on homeschooling her daughters using Singapore Math:
Just a quick note that I didn't know where to put on this forum. I started homeschooling my daughter in August 2004. She had been in public school since kindergarten and was a rising 4th grader when we started homeschooling. She had suffered through 3 years of "Math Their Way" and then 1 year of "Everyday Math" before I woke up to the fact that she was not learning math well. Her third grade test scores showed her to be working at the 50% in math. Well, after one year of homeschooling using only Singapore Math Levels 2B- half of 4A and supplementing with Singapore Math's Intensive Practice her total math score on the Iowa Test of Basic skills is now at the 99%!! More importantly her confidence, fluency, and ability to work through difficult problems have gone through the ceiling as well. Happy 4th of July
We are taking home educating one year at a time. This coming year we will home educate again using Singapore Math. I am quite impressed with the program. At first glance it looks rather simplistic and lacking in review. However, I have found it to be very systematic in its presentation and its ability to build understanding is amazing. This is not your inch deep mile wide program at all. The review is there but usually disguised in word problems. Our school system is in terrible distress and using constuctivist math and science, whole language, and very little basics. The private schools are full and all but one have selected curricula I cannot tolerate. So for now it's home schooling. I'd love to hear what other people are using for high school level math. I keep hearing about the following titles: Jacobs Algebra and Video Text. What are good programs? Lone Ranger I used Singapore math books 2B, 3A, 3B and half of 4A before having my daughter take the ITBS test. She completed the 2B placement exam but took 3 times as much time to complete it as was recommended. I thought better to start her slightly below her level to build confidence, learn the rod diagrams, and build speed and fluency with her facts and basic procedures. We also used Intensive Practice books 2B, 3A, 3B, and part of 4A (not every problem though) I made the decison to use Singapore because through my research 2 titles kept appearing over and over: Saxon and Singapore. Saxon is expensive and did not seem to be a good fit for my youngest daughter. Singapore seemed to be the best one to try first, since I wouldn't be out a lot of money if it flopped! Not very scientific or glamorous but the truth. Once I worked with the program and saw the children's response to it I was sold. I am average in my math ability and studied through Trig in college. I think at first Singapore can be intimidating, but after working with it, it is fairly straightforward. I used the Instructor Guide for 2B and have not really used it since. I try to work out all the rod diagrams, and boy am I getting good at them. Jenny, at the Singapore Forum board, is a great help if I am hopelessly stuck. All problems at this level can be solved without using algebra and Jenny is very helpful for teaching people how to set up the rod diagrams. (singaporemath.com) I also am learning much along with my daughters. I think Saxon is also a great program and a few of my homeschooling friends' kids are doing very well with it. I am going to look into the Russian Math program too.
Rod diagrams are another term for bar models! Honestly, the only thing I did with the Singapore program was to follow it. This is what a day at our kitchen table looked like: First a warm up. At first this consisted of basic facts practice. Usually a worksheet of facts isolated by family (ie: just 9's in multiplication) until enough families were learned to combine them. The text presented them this way as well. Eventually we did our multiplication and division randomly mixed and often multiplication facts presented as missing factors 9 X ___=72. Sometimes the children practiced on a hand held device called "Math Shark" or used flash cards. After the children mastered their multiplication and division facts the warm up was several problems from the series that were difficult for them. These problems came from prior days' instruction and I often changed the story slightly and always changed the numbers. We would repeat "types" of problems each day until these problems became routine and easy to solve. Also, once they learned to compute equivalent fractions and reduce fractions to lowest terms I would have them do a warm up of these types of problems until I saw mastery of the procedure. This part of our lesson took about 5-10 minutes. The second phase of our Kitchen Table Math consisted of 1 or 2 pages of Intensive Practice from a book one level below the text. For example we are working in book 4A but are working in Intensive Practice book 3B. I found this was a great way to provide extra review and also not overdosing on the topic currently being studied in the text. Also parts of IP are quite challenging and having extra skills did not hurt. This part took about 15 minutes. The third part was the actual lesson in the text. The children worked orally and on white boards. They completed most of the practice exercises. Sometimes if I saw they had mastery, they only completed a few. We also completed every word problem using bar modeling if appropriate. This took 10-20 minutes. The final section of our lesson consisted of the children completing the corresponding workbook page(s) independently usually taking 5-20 minutes. I reviewed their work and had the children correct errors immediately. That's it!
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Just a quick note that I didn't know where to put on this forum. I started homeschooling my daughter in August 2004. She had been in public school since kindergarten and was a rising 4th grader when we started homeschooling. She had suffered through 3 years of "Math Their Way" and then 1 year of "Everyday Math" before I woke up to the fact that she was not learning math well. Her third grade test scores showed her to be working at the 50% in math. Well, after one year of homeschooling using only Singapore Math Levels 2B- half of 4A and supplementing with Singapore Math's Intensive Practice her total math score on the Iowa Test of Basic skills is now at the 99%!! More importantly her confidence, fluency, and ability to work through difficult problems have gone through the ceiling as well. Happy 4th of July - Lone Ranger -- KtmGuest - 04 Jul 2005
Hey Lone Ranger, Congratulations on your daughter's achievement -- and on catching the problem in time! Most people wise up too late to fix the problem. So are you going to continue homeschooling and using the Singapore curriculum the whole way through? -- CarolynJohnston - 04 Jul 2005
We are taking home educating one year at a time. This coming year we will home educate again using Singapore Math. I am quite impressed with the program. At first glance it looks rather simplistic and lacking in review. However, I have found it to be very systematic in its presentation and its ability to build understanding is amazing. This is not your inch deep mile wide program at all. The review is there but usually disguised in word problems. Our school system is in terrible distress and using constuctivist math and science, whole language, and very little basics. The private schools are full and all but one have selected curricula I cannot tolerate. So for now it's home schooling. I'd love to hear what other people are using for high school level math. I keep hearing about the following titles: Jacobs Algebra and Video Text. What are good programs? Lone Ranger -- KtmGuest - 04 Jul 2005
I have to know everything! First of all, I'm interested in how you made the decision to use Singapore Math. Are you mathematically talented? Working in a math-related field? In other words, did you feel at all concerned that you wouldn't be able to handle SINGAPORE MATH yourself. By this I don't mean that you wouldn't be able to do the math in 2B & 4....my concern was that SINGAPORE MATH was obviously meant to be taught be well-trained teachers, and I just didn't have the confidence in either my ability to teach math per se or in my own knowledge of math, to take the 'risk.' I had the added problem that Christopher was failing outright, of course. (Although in fact his state math score at the end of 4th grade was a 4, believe it or not. He was flunking math, and testing 'advanced' on state tests. This is why I say Don't trust the tests!) Anyway, when I put those 3 things together, I opted for the 'safe' choice of SAXON MATH. -- CatherineJohnson - 04 Jul 2005
I'm also interested in why you used books from 2 and from 4--content reasons? (In the sense of missed content?) -- CatherineJohnson - 04 Jul 2005
I WANT TO HEAR EVERYTHING!!!!! -- CatherineJohnson - 04 Jul 2005
What do you think about using the INTENSIVE PRACTICE books entirely as a supplement to a regular math class in a regular school.....I think you've recommended this before, but I'm curious if you have more specific thoughts. -- CatherineJohnson - 04 Jul 2005
THE high school book to look at is Dolciani. I'll check to see if I've got it posted yet. (Check Barry's article on the 'Recommended Reading' page. He talks about Dolciani; that's how I found out about her. I've got the book; it looks incredible.) THE geometry book is the SMSG book by Nosie & Downs. If I haven't posted them yet, I will. (I've also got a review by Barry I need to get up.) I have heard good things about Jacobs myself, and plan to order the book and read/work through it. But I don't know anyone who's used it. We'll get Barry & David Klein to chime in-- -- CatherineJohnson - 04 Jul 2005
I've never heard of 'Video Text,' I don't think. -- CatherineJohnson - 04 Jul 2005
btw, the Russian Math book is unbelievable. It's brilliant. To me, it makes Singapore Math look like an over-achieving strivers; the Russian book is the real thing. (I have no idea whether others would agree with that impression, but it's powerful, and I'd be interested in what you think.) I've essentially decided that Christopher will do the Russian Math book next summer, before we move on to Dolciani (assuming we do Dolciani, and assuming I'm still needing to homeschool-on-the-side.) -- CatherineJohnson - 04 Jul 2005
I should probably add that I also found the teacher manual for SINGAPORE MATH pretty tough to work with (not impossible, but it was going to take time that I really didn't have). So one part of my decision was based in the fact that we had to make huge progress very, very quickly. As enormous as the SAXON books are, you can march through them, which is what we did. -- CatherineJohnson - 04 Jul 2005
Happy July 4th, everyone! We are just now getting in from our fireworks, which we go to in a town near here with friends every year. It was as impressive as usual; every year there is some new and wonderful fireworks innovation. But this year the sideshow was very distracting -- a grass fire in the fairgrounds. There was a new type of fireworks -- a waterfall sort of a thing, that trailed glowing white streamers down to the ground. I don't know if that's what set the fire off, but suddenly it was there, and it was growing very quickly. That's how grass fires are in the west, even if you've had quite a bit of rain, as we have this spring. But the firemen got it out in short order, even though it had grown very quickly. Tomorrow it's back to real life, and work. Good night! -- CarolynJohnston - 05 Jul 2005
Hi Catherine, I used Singapore math books 2B, 3A, 3B and half of 4A before having my daughter take the ITBS test. She completed the 2B placement exam but took 3 times as much time to complete it as was recommended. I thought better to start her slightly below her level to build confidence, learn the rod diagrams, and build speed and fluency with her facts and basic procedures. We also used Intensive Practice books 2B, 3A, 3B, and part of 4A (not every problem though) I made the decison to use Singapore because through my research 2 titles kept appearing over and over: Saxon ansd Singapore. Saxon is expensive and did not seem to be a good fit for my youngest daughter. Singapore seemed to be the best one to try first, since I wouldn't be out a lot of money if it flopped! Not very scientific or glamorous but the truth. Once I worked with the program and saw the children's response to it I was sold. I am average in my math ability and studied through Trig in college. I think at first Singapore can be intimidating, but after working with it, it is fairly straight forward. I used the Instructor Guide for 2B and have not really used it since. I try to work out all the rod diagrams, and boy am I getting good at them. Jenny, at the Singapore Forum board, is a great help if I am hopelessly stuck. All problems at this level can be solved without using algebra and Jenny is very helpful for teaching people how to set up the rod diagrams. (singaporemath.com) I also am learning much along with my daughters. I think Saxon is also a great program and a few of my homeschooling friends' kids are doing very well with it. I am going to look into the Russian Math program too. Thanks! - Lone Ranger -- KtmGuest - 05 Jul 2005
Saxon is expensive and did not seem to be a good fit for my youngest daughter. Be sure to bookmark the Homeschool Super Center. Their prices are much lower than those on the Saxon web site. I'm thinking the Homeschool Supercenter price for the 3-book Saxon package may not be terrifically higher than the Singapore price for one year (if you include the 2 textbooks, 2 workbooks, & 2? intensive practice books). -- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005
I am average in my math ability and studied through Trig in college. I think at first Singapore can be intimidating, but after working with it, it is fairly straight forward. Wow. That is incredibly encouraging. I felt absolutely intimidated, looking at Singapore Math...but I guess I also was concerned that it didn't have a track record yet here in the U.S. I could see that kids were doing great with the curriculum in Singapore, but Singapore parents typically get on waiting lists for top-level math tutors, and take two-day seminars on how to help their kids with math. I probably put 'too much' thought into it (for 'thought,' substitute angst and obsession!) -- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005
The funny thing is, this weekend I got out my Kindergarton Saxon Math book along with my Singapore Math grade 1 books....and I decided to use PRIMARY MATHEMATICS for Andrew. He's my 10-year old autistic son. -- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005
What are the 'rod diagrams'? And.....you don't happen to feel like setting up a 'How To Use Singapore Math To Turn Your Child Into A Math Whiz' page, by any chance????? -- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005
Clarification: A note on algebra and geometry books for high school. Dolciani is good, but there are others as good also. Foerster has been recommended, so should be checked out. The problem with Dolciani is she tends to be a bit TOO formal at times. But still she gives a good rigorous treatment of algebra with lots of problems. Geometry by Moise Downs is good but not the only good text around. Adkins/Weeks has a good geometry text as does Jacobs. M-D is my favorite but that shouldn't be taken as the last word by any means! -- BarryGarelick - 05 Jul 2005
Barry--we need to get all these books posted-- No rest for the weary. I think I'll do a quick-and-dirty entry over on Recommended Reading. BTW, I've been meaning to mention that BASIC ALGEBRA, which appears to be a re-write of Dolciani by Brown, looks fantastic. I believe teachers use it for LD kids. I think it might be a terrific introduction to algebra in maybe the 7th grade. -- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005
What do you think of Jacobs? -- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005
I'm not totally familiar with Jacobs but I've heard good thing about it, specifically from Wu, the Berkeley mathematician who is himself a geometer. -- BarryGarelick - 05 Jul 2005
Rod diagrams are another term for bar models! Honestly, the only thing I did with the Singapore program was to follow it. This is what a day at our kitchen table looked like: First a warm up. At first this consisted of basic facts practice. Usually a worksheet of facts isolated by family (ie: just 9's in multiplication) until enough families were learned to combine them. The text presented them this way as well. Eventually we did our multiplication and division randomly mixed and often multiplication facts presented as missing factors 9 X ___=72. Sometimes the children practiced on a hand held device called "Math Shark" or used flash cards. After the children mastered their multiplication and division facts the warm up was several problems from the series that were difficult for them. These problems came from prior days' instruction and I often changed the story slightly and always changed the numbers. We would repeat "types" of problems each day until these problems became routine and easy to solve. Also, once they learned to compute equivalent fractions and reduce fractions to lowest terms I would have them do a warm up of these types of problems until I saw mastery of the procedure. This part of our lesson took about 5-10 minutes. The second phase of our Kitchen Table Math consisted of 1 or 2 pages of Intensive Practice from a book one level below the text. For example we are working in book 4A but are working in Intensive Practice book 3B. I found this was a great way to provide extra review and also not overdosing on the topic currently being studied in the text. Also parts of IP are quite challenging and having extra skills did not hurt. This part took about 15 minutes. The third part was the actual lesson in the text. The children worked orally and on white boards. They completed most of the practice exercises. Sometimes if I saw they had mastery, they only completed a few. We also completed every word problem using bar modeling if appropriate. This took 10-20 minutes. The final section of our lesson consisted of the children completing the corresponding workbook page(s) independently usually taking 5-20 minutes. I reviewed their work and had the children correct errors immediately. That's it! -- LoneRanger - 05 Jul 2005
These problems came from prior days' instruction and I often changed the story slightly and always changed the numbers. We would repeat "types" of problems each day until these problems became routine and easy to solve. I think this is incredibly important. I'm wondering about doing the same thing with MATH OLYMPIADS.
on Math Olympiads, see also: MathOlympiadProblem
Math Olympiad 2005
-- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005
I've had Christopher start back at the beginning on the bar models. We're doing 3A, both the textbook & the workbook. (I have to look at INTENSIVE PRACTICE again. I got it out, looked at it, then promptly forgot what I'd seen....) -- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005
Happy July 4th 2005
notes from Lone Ranger on homeschooling her daughters using Singapore Math:
Just a quick note that I didn't know where to put on this forum. I started homeschooling my daughter in August 2004. She had been in public school since kindergarten and was a rising 4th grader when we started homeschooling. She had suffered through 3 years of "Math Their Way" and then 1 year of "Everyday Math" before I woke up to the fact that she was not learning math well. Her third grade test scores showed her to be working at the 50% in math. Well, after one year of homeschooling using only Singapore Math Levels 2B- half of 4A and supplementing with Singapore Math's Intensive Practice her total math score on the Iowa Test of Basic skills is now at the 99%!! More importantly her confidence, fluency, and ability to work through difficult problems have gone through the ceiling as well. Happy 4th of July
We are taking home educating one year at a time. This coming year we will home educate again using Singapore Math. I am quite impressed with the program. At first glance it looks rather simplistic and lacking in review. However, I have found it to be very systematic in its presentation and its ability to build understanding is amazing. This is not your inch deep mile wide program at all. The review is there but usually disguised in word problems. Our school system is in terrible distress and using constuctivist math and science, whole language, and very little basics. The private schools are full and all but one have selected curricula I cannot tolerate. So for now it's home schooling. I'd love to hear what other people are using for high school level math. I keep hearing about the following titles: Jacobs Algebra and Video Text. What are good programs? Lone Ranger I used Singapore math books 2B, 3A, 3B and half of 4A before having my daughter take the ITBS test. She completed the 2B placement exam but took 3 times as much time to complete it as was recommended. I thought better to start her slightly below her level to build confidence, learn the rod diagrams, and build speed and fluency with her facts and basic procedures. We also used Intensive Practice books 2B, 3A, 3B, and part of 4A (not every problem though) I made the decison to use Singapore because through my research 2 titles kept appearing over and over: Saxon and Singapore. Saxon is expensive and did not seem to be a good fit for my youngest daughter. Singapore seemed to be the best one to try first, since I wouldn't be out a lot of money if it flopped! Not very scientific or glamorous but the truth. Once I worked with the program and saw the children's response to it I was sold. I am average in my math ability and studied through Trig in college. I think at first Singapore can be intimidating, but after working with it, it is fairly straightforward. I used the Instructor Guide for 2B and have not really used it since. I try to work out all the rod diagrams, and boy am I getting good at them. Jenny, at the Singapore Forum board, is a great help if I am hopelessly stuck. All problems at this level can be solved without using algebra and Jenny is very helpful for teaching people how to set up the rod diagrams. (singaporemath.com) I also am learning much along with my daughters. I think Saxon is also a great program and a few of my homeschooling friends' kids are doing very well with it. I am going to look into the Russian Math program too.
Rod diagrams are another term for bar models! Honestly, the only thing I did with the Singapore program was to follow it. This is what a day at our kitchen table looked like: First a warm up. At first this consisted of basic facts practice. Usually a worksheet of facts isolated by family (ie: just 9's in multiplication) until enough families were learned to combine them. The text presented them this way as well. Eventually we did our multiplication and division randomly mixed and often multiplication facts presented as missing factors 9 X ___=72. Sometimes the children practiced on a hand held device called "Math Shark" or used flash cards. After the children mastered their multiplication and division facts the warm up was several problems from the series that were difficult for them. These problems came from prior days' instruction and I often changed the story slightly and always changed the numbers. We would repeat "types" of problems each day until these problems became routine and easy to solve. Also, once they learned to compute equivalent fractions and reduce fractions to lowest terms I would have them do a warm up of these types of problems until I saw mastery of the procedure. This part of our lesson took about 5-10 minutes. The second phase of our Kitchen Table Math consisted of 1 or 2 pages of Intensive Practice from a book one level below the text. For example we are working in book 4A but are working in Intensive Practice book 3B. I found this was a great way to provide extra review and also not overdosing on the topic currently being studied in the text. Also parts of IP are quite challenging and having extra skills did not hurt. This part took about 15 minutes. The third part was the actual lesson in the text. The children worked orally and on white boards. They completed most of the practice exercises. Sometimes if I saw they had mastery, they only completed a few. We also completed every word problem using bar modeling if appropriate. This took 10-20 minutes. The final section of our lesson consisted of the children completing the corresponding workbook page(s) independently usually taking 5-20 minutes. I reviewed their work and had the children correct errors immediately. That's it!
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Just a quick note that I didn't know where to put on this forum. I started homeschooling my daughter in August 2004. She had been in public school since kindergarten and was a rising 4th grader when we started homeschooling. She had suffered through 3 years of "Math Their Way" and then 1 year of "Everyday Math" before I woke up to the fact that she was not learning math well. Her third grade test scores showed her to be working at the 50% in math. Well, after one year of homeschooling using only Singapore Math Levels 2B- half of 4A and supplementing with Singapore Math's Intensive Practice her total math score on the Iowa Test of Basic skills is now at the 99%!! More importantly her confidence, fluency, and ability to work through difficult problems have gone through the ceiling as well. Happy 4th of July - Lone Ranger -- KtmGuest - 04 Jul 2005
Hey Lone Ranger, Congratulations on your daughter's achievement -- and on catching the problem in time! Most people wise up too late to fix the problem. So are you going to continue homeschooling and using the Singapore curriculum the whole way through? -- CarolynJohnston - 04 Jul 2005
We are taking home educating one year at a time. This coming year we will home educate again using Singapore Math. I am quite impressed with the program. At first glance it looks rather simplistic and lacking in review. However, I have found it to be very systematic in its presentation and its ability to build understanding is amazing. This is not your inch deep mile wide program at all. The review is there but usually disguised in word problems. Our school system is in terrible distress and using constuctivist math and science, whole language, and very little basics. The private schools are full and all but one have selected curricula I cannot tolerate. So for now it's home schooling. I'd love to hear what other people are using for high school level math. I keep hearing about the following titles: Jacobs Algebra and Video Text. What are good programs? Lone Ranger -- KtmGuest - 04 Jul 2005
I have to know everything! First of all, I'm interested in how you made the decision to use Singapore Math. Are you mathematically talented? Working in a math-related field? In other words, did you feel at all concerned that you wouldn't be able to handle SINGAPORE MATH yourself. By this I don't mean that you wouldn't be able to do the math in 2B & 4....my concern was that SINGAPORE MATH was obviously meant to be taught be well-trained teachers, and I just didn't have the confidence in either my ability to teach math per se or in my own knowledge of math, to take the 'risk.' I had the added problem that Christopher was failing outright, of course. (Although in fact his state math score at the end of 4th grade was a 4, believe it or not. He was flunking math, and testing 'advanced' on state tests. This is why I say Don't trust the tests!) Anyway, when I put those 3 things together, I opted for the 'safe' choice of SAXON MATH. -- CatherineJohnson - 04 Jul 2005
I'm also interested in why you used books from 2 and from 4--content reasons? (In the sense of missed content?) -- CatherineJohnson - 04 Jul 2005
I WANT TO HEAR EVERYTHING!!!!! -- CatherineJohnson - 04 Jul 2005
What do you think about using the INTENSIVE PRACTICE books entirely as a supplement to a regular math class in a regular school.....I think you've recommended this before, but I'm curious if you have more specific thoughts. -- CatherineJohnson - 04 Jul 2005
THE high school book to look at is Dolciani. I'll check to see if I've got it posted yet. (Check Barry's article on the 'Recommended Reading' page. He talks about Dolciani; that's how I found out about her. I've got the book; it looks incredible.) THE geometry book is the SMSG book by Nosie & Downs. If I haven't posted them yet, I will. (I've also got a review by Barry I need to get up.) I have heard good things about Jacobs myself, and plan to order the book and read/work through it. But I don't know anyone who's used it. We'll get Barry & David Klein to chime in-- -- CatherineJohnson - 04 Jul 2005
I've never heard of 'Video Text,' I don't think. -- CatherineJohnson - 04 Jul 2005
btw, the Russian Math book is unbelievable. It's brilliant. To me, it makes Singapore Math look like an over-achieving strivers; the Russian book is the real thing. (I have no idea whether others would agree with that impression, but it's powerful, and I'd be interested in what you think.) I've essentially decided that Christopher will do the Russian Math book next summer, before we move on to Dolciani (assuming we do Dolciani, and assuming I'm still needing to homeschool-on-the-side.) -- CatherineJohnson - 04 Jul 2005
I should probably add that I also found the teacher manual for SINGAPORE MATH pretty tough to work with (not impossible, but it was going to take time that I really didn't have). So one part of my decision was based in the fact that we had to make huge progress very, very quickly. As enormous as the SAXON books are, you can march through them, which is what we did. -- CatherineJohnson - 04 Jul 2005
Happy July 4th, everyone! We are just now getting in from our fireworks, which we go to in a town near here with friends every year. It was as impressive as usual; every year there is some new and wonderful fireworks innovation. But this year the sideshow was very distracting -- a grass fire in the fairgrounds. There was a new type of fireworks -- a waterfall sort of a thing, that trailed glowing white streamers down to the ground. I don't know if that's what set the fire off, but suddenly it was there, and it was growing very quickly. That's how grass fires are in the west, even if you've had quite a bit of rain, as we have this spring. But the firemen got it out in short order, even though it had grown very quickly. Tomorrow it's back to real life, and work. Good night! -- CarolynJohnston - 05 Jul 2005
Hi Catherine, I used Singapore math books 2B, 3A, 3B and half of 4A before having my daughter take the ITBS test. She completed the 2B placement exam but took 3 times as much time to complete it as was recommended. I thought better to start her slightly below her level to build confidence, learn the rod diagrams, and build speed and fluency with her facts and basic procedures. We also used Intensive Practice books 2B, 3A, 3B, and part of 4A (not every problem though) I made the decison to use Singapore because through my research 2 titles kept appearing over and over: Saxon ansd Singapore. Saxon is expensive and did not seem to be a good fit for my youngest daughter. Singapore seemed to be the best one to try first, since I wouldn't be out a lot of money if it flopped! Not very scientific or glamorous but the truth. Once I worked with the program and saw the children's response to it I was sold. I am average in my math ability and studied through Trig in college. I think at first Singapore can be intimidating, but after working with it, it is fairly straight forward. I used the Instructor Guide for 2B and have not really used it since. I try to work out all the rod diagrams, and boy am I getting good at them. Jenny, at the Singapore Forum board, is a great help if I am hopelessly stuck. All problems at this level can be solved without using algebra and Jenny is very helpful for teaching people how to set up the rod diagrams. (singaporemath.com) I also am learning much along with my daughters. I think Saxon is also a great program and a few of my homeschooling friends' kids are doing very well with it. I am going to look into the Russian Math program too. Thanks! - Lone Ranger -- KtmGuest - 05 Jul 2005
Saxon is expensive and did not seem to be a good fit for my youngest daughter. Be sure to bookmark the Homeschool Super Center. Their prices are much lower than those on the Saxon web site. I'm thinking the Homeschool Supercenter price for the 3-book Saxon package may not be terrifically higher than the Singapore price for one year (if you include the 2 textbooks, 2 workbooks, & 2? intensive practice books). -- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005
I am average in my math ability and studied through Trig in college. I think at first Singapore can be intimidating, but after working with it, it is fairly straight forward. Wow. That is incredibly encouraging. I felt absolutely intimidated, looking at Singapore Math...but I guess I also was concerned that it didn't have a track record yet here in the U.S. I could see that kids were doing great with the curriculum in Singapore, but Singapore parents typically get on waiting lists for top-level math tutors, and take two-day seminars on how to help their kids with math. I probably put 'too much' thought into it (for 'thought,' substitute angst and obsession!) -- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005
The funny thing is, this weekend I got out my Kindergarton Saxon Math book along with my Singapore Math grade 1 books....and I decided to use PRIMARY MATHEMATICS for Andrew. He's my 10-year old autistic son. -- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005
What are the 'rod diagrams'? And.....you don't happen to feel like setting up a 'How To Use Singapore Math To Turn Your Child Into A Math Whiz' page, by any chance????? -- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005
Clarification: A note on algebra and geometry books for high school. Dolciani is good, but there are others as good also. Foerster has been recommended, so should be checked out. The problem with Dolciani is she tends to be a bit TOO formal at times. But still she gives a good rigorous treatment of algebra with lots of problems. Geometry by Moise Downs is good but not the only good text around. Adkins/Weeks has a good geometry text as does Jacobs. M-D is my favorite but that shouldn't be taken as the last word by any means! -- BarryGarelick - 05 Jul 2005
Barry--we need to get all these books posted-- No rest for the weary. I think I'll do a quick-and-dirty entry over on Recommended Reading. BTW, I've been meaning to mention that BASIC ALGEBRA, which appears to be a re-write of Dolciani by Brown, looks fantastic. I believe teachers use it for LD kids. I think it might be a terrific introduction to algebra in maybe the 7th grade. -- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005
What do you think of Jacobs? -- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005
I'm not totally familiar with Jacobs but I've heard good thing about it, specifically from Wu, the Berkeley mathematician who is himself a geometer. -- BarryGarelick - 05 Jul 2005
Rod diagrams are another term for bar models! Honestly, the only thing I did with the Singapore program was to follow it. This is what a day at our kitchen table looked like: First a warm up. At first this consisted of basic facts practice. Usually a worksheet of facts isolated by family (ie: just 9's in multiplication) until enough families were learned to combine them. The text presented them this way as well. Eventually we did our multiplication and division randomly mixed and often multiplication facts presented as missing factors 9 X ___=72. Sometimes the children practiced on a hand held device called "Math Shark" or used flash cards. After the children mastered their multiplication and division facts the warm up was several problems from the series that were difficult for them. These problems came from prior days' instruction and I often changed the story slightly and always changed the numbers. We would repeat "types" of problems each day until these problems became routine and easy to solve. Also, once they learned to compute equivalent fractions and reduce fractions to lowest terms I would have them do a warm up of these types of problems until I saw mastery of the procedure. This part of our lesson took about 5-10 minutes. The second phase of our Kitchen Table Math consisted of 1 or 2 pages of Intensive Practice from a book one level below the text. For example we are working in book 4A but are working in Intensive Practice book 3B. I found this was a great way to provide extra review and also not overdosing on the topic currently being studied in the text. Also parts of IP are quite challenging and having extra skills did not hurt. This part took about 15 minutes. The third part was the actual lesson in the text. The children worked orally and on white boards. They completed most of the practice exercises. Sometimes if I saw they had mastery, they only completed a few. We also completed every word problem using bar modeling if appropriate. This took 10-20 minutes. The final section of our lesson consisted of the children completing the corresponding workbook page(s) independently usually taking 5-20 minutes. I reviewed their work and had the children correct errors immediately. That's it! -- LoneRanger - 05 Jul 2005
These problems came from prior days' instruction and I often changed the story slightly and always changed the numbers. We would repeat "types" of problems each day until these problems became routine and easy to solve. I think this is incredibly important. I'm wondering about doing the same thing with MATH OLYMPIADS.
on Math Olympiads, see also: MathOlympiadProblem
Math Olympiad 2005
-- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005
I've had Christopher start back at the beginning on the bar models. We're doing 3A, both the textbook & the workbook. (I have to look at INTENSIVE PRACTICE again. I got it out, looked at it, then promptly forgot what I'd seen....) -- CatherineJohnson - 05 Jul 2005
| WebLogForm | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Happy July 4th 2005 |
| TopicType: | WebLog |
| SubjectArea: | AboutCurricula, FromTheKitchenTable, ParentsTeachingKids, RussianMathematics, SaxonMath, SingaporeMath |
| LogDate: | 200507041034 |