When I pulled dd from public school, at the end of 2nd grade, to homeschool, I purchased a standard 3rd grade math curriculum (Mammoth Math), and fast learned that she was crashing and burning with it. It was torture for both of us! So, after learning she is a visual learner I found Singapore Math. In reviews for Singapore Math I read complaints from parents who started Singapore Math in the middle of the Primary levels, that because they hadn't learned the foundation of the math concepts taught in the lower level books they struggled to figure out the methods in the middle level books. I decided to start my daughter in book one (although she was 3rd grade). She soared through book one, and adapted to the concepts quickly. In book 2 she was challenged and we just finished book two by the end of this school year. So...we completed levels one and two in one school year, and will start books 3 with our new school year (4th grade for her) . I have no idea how quickly she will progress through level 3. She may always be a year behind in math, until she develops the skills to emotionally cope. She is enjoying Singapore math and I am impressed how the concepts taught really help her do math. However...I am starting to wonder what to do when we are done with Singapore Math Primary levels. For those of you who used Singapore all through the Primary levels, what did you do for secondary and high school math? Was the transition difficult? I wonder if I need to try to incorporate something like Teaching Textbooks or the like along with Singapore, so she can easily transition into a different secondary math program. I also see that Singapore Math has secondary level books. Anybody use those with success?
My son went from Singapore 5B to Art of Problem Solving Pre-Algebra. The AOPS curriculum is a mental workout and it probably close to the level of the Challenging Word Problems Book.
Ds14 uses Singapore New Elementary Math, which is the old version of Singapore's secondary series. The new series, Discovering Mathematics, is apparently a little more teacher-friendly and not quite as intimidating. I'm considering it for Ds9, or I might just have him use NEM. Ds14 really enjoys math, so he's also used several AoPS textbooks and taken one of their online courses. Ds12 is not as strong in math, and would likely struggle with NEM. After he finished Primary Math 5B, I switched him Lial's Basic College Math (which is a light pre-algebra). He'll start Lial's Introductory Algebra in the fall.
