Hi all, For preK, we used Early Bird Math (K) just the first half of the book A during the second half of the school year. DS did well with this. This year, he is in K at a Christian private school, and they are accelerated. For math they use Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (but I'm not sure which book, I only get the finished sheets in his folder). Anyway, I have been scouring the planet for something that will fit how he has learned, and take him off well in 1st at home next fall. Horizons seems too far ahead, Saxon seems slower more laborious (he HATES busy work so I want to keep to a minimum). I know it seems a lot of hs try this an that, but my DS has attention issues and I want to decide wisely and stick to something for the long term for consistency sake. I have in my possession the Singapore primary 1A and 1B. My question is this: how to schedule the lessons? I don't have the teacher's manual. Is this 1A + 1B meant for an entire school year? There are 10 units in each book, with appx 2-4 concepts per unit. Anyone who has used it, how did you pace it and did you find it was enough for a full year? THANKS
I've not used Singapore but 1 A and 1 B would be one school year, yes. With any curriculum, you can take the number of pages and divide by 180 (assuming that's how many days your school runs) to find out how many pages per day. I'm sure the TM tells you how to pace it and when to give tests (although you may choose not to test), as well as tell you how to present it.
I used this and have the manuals. I found that I did not use them as often as I thought. They have good ideas for teaching the lessons but my son understood these concepts very quickly and just wanted to get it done so we just talked about it and he he did it. Some days he did more than one lesson because he enjoyed it. WE took some days off and have been casual here at the end of the year and find that we will finish it on time. I loved it. Starting my 4th grader in it was a bit difficult but we have figured it out and will continue both next year.
Do you have the workbooks or the textbooks? I've used Singapore for both my boys in first and second grades, and never had the teachers manuals. As you work through the textbook, there should be little blue arrow boxes that tell you which workbook exercise to do after that lesson. Most exercises are 1-2 pages each for level 2, and I consider that the lesson for the day. I think the exercises are longer for level 1 because of the print size, but I don't have the used workbooks anymore. I usually go through the explanation in the textbook, and have him do the workbook exercises on his own. Doing all the practice problems in the textbook is overkill for him, and he gets frustrated that he can't write in there anyway, so I only go through a few so that he knows what he's doing before moving to the workbook. I've never done tests in Singapore, I can tell when they are getting things wrong and need more practice in a certain area. I think the set is a bit short for a school year if you are doing it consistently, but you could supplement with some online practice or some of their challenge workbooks. Or you could just move on to the next level. Another way you could break it up, is by doing the textbook lesson one day and the workbook exercise the next, etc...
You teach from the book to the first arrow. Then the child does the corresponding workbook pages. Next day, same thing. If it is a review page, like review 1B...they just do that page, nothing from the workbook. Same from the workbook. Only 1 review per day. This breaks down to 80-90 lessons per level. It works out perfectly for the year.
My students tried out Singapore Math and they really struggled with enjoying math at any level. It was really tedious and tiresome for them and I wanted to switch gears to get them excited for math again. I then used Beestar which fared better for the students. Strong curriculum and lots of engaging practice questions.
