Singapore - What if we finish the Math year early? or late?

[Julie in MN]

I had the girls take the Singapore placement tests to know what to order. The three oldest that are doing Singapore are/will be done before the school year is over. Should I just go ahead a order the new one and let them keep going ? Or should I do another placement test first to see if they are really ready? Or do something else, like review work? We "do math" 45 minutes each day, except Fridays, I have them drill math facts.

Thanks for reading this and taking the time to give me some advice.
Carol

Carol,
If you are done with the current books, I would move into the next books. There will always be spots where you need to spend more time, and spots where you race ahead. The beauty of homeschool is that you can go at your child's pace, not the textbook's pace!
Julie

[Lucy]

Carol,

I agree with Julie. You can move into the next book without testing them again. The testing is for initial placement. It is not unusual to start at a lower level. Going on to the next book is fine too since it will continue to use and review all that was done in the previous book.

Lucy

[Carol Skinner]

Thanks for your help.

I will be ordering the next sets for the girls. Just wanted to see what others have done and are doing. I wasn't expecting them to get through it so quickly, but the colorful workbooks are more fun to do, i guess.

Thanks, again,
Carol

[dhudson]

I need some help trying to decide what to do . . . my 4th grade dd will be finishing Singapore Primary Math Level 4B by the end of our 3rd quarter. Should I continue and order 5A?

I could slow down the pace if I added the supplements. Recently, I rarely have to do all the teaching problems in the Textbook because she understands it and dives right into the Workbook; so I don't think that she needs the Extra Practice book. I think she is ready to progress to double digit multiplication. On the other hand, do I want her advancing too much?

Another idea I was toying with is maybe trying logic and deductive reasoning using Mind Benders and Think-a-Minutes.

Thank you in advance,
Sue

I think I would move on but make sure you are taking lots of time to do math facts.

[Julie in MN]

I agree with Dawn. My son spent some extra time on fractions in the earlier years, and it is really paying off with Algebra. Those basic facts can't be learned too well, IMHO!

Also, I wouldn't skip through the textbook. The textbook is where she "sees" math problems approached from different angles. My son also didn't think he needed to hear about bar diagrams and other methods. However, somewhere in level 5, you will get to problems where you just *can't* solve them without using some of the Singapore techniques. Even if she hasn't used them for her workbook at all, she will at least have been exposed to them a little. And so will mom.

Julie

[Poohbee]

DD is 7.5 years old and in week 21 of Adv. We're poised to finish 2A and get roughly 20 lessons into 2B by the end of our school year. DD has coped very well with the lessons, with the exception of a full week of practice lessons, about 20 problems per day, that made her "hate math" by the end of that week. Thankfully, we finished practice and began measuring and suddenly she loved math again. So far, she's been able to quickly grasp all the concepts we've introduced.

My question is this: should we continue at this pace and get into 2B by end of March, or should I slow the pace to four days of lessons and one drill day so that we simply finish at the end of 2A?
What would you do??
Many thanks!

With my middle dd, she was ready for more math in 1st grade, so we went through the 1st grade rotation once and then moved into Singapore 1A and only finished part of the book. She finished Singapore 1A, 1B, and part of 2A in 2nd grade. She finished 2A and just moved into 2B in 3rd grade.

So, if I were you, I would just keep moving on. I love being "ahead" in our math books so that I can have a little wiggle room to spend extra time on hard topics or multiplication drill without feeling we're falling behind. (We're behind where you are, but for us, my middle dd is a bit ahead of where my eldest dd was at that age). It certainly doesn't hurt to just keep moving through the lessons and the math books, and then you can afford to take some time off if you want to or just camp out on a topic that is harder in later years. I don't think you need to feel like you need to race ahead or anything. Just keep moving forward at a comfortable pace. Just one suggestion for you.

[Mom2theteam]

I would keep moving at the pace that is comfortable for your child and not worry about it in relation to the school year.

We are in the same exact spot. We are just about to finish week 21 in Adv and my son is doing Singapore 2A. We had to stop and get his math facts memorized better, so we are just about to hit subtraction with borrowing tomorrow. (But, we did the length and weight units while reviewing the math facts to keep moving.) He has a math brain and just gets it. But, he didn't have the facts memorized. Now that we are passed the fact hurtle, he is moving very quickly. Many times he skips the text and just does the workbook because once I teach him how to carry, he knows how to do it to the tens and hundreds and doesn't need another lesson on it. I suspect he will be onto 2B before the year is out...maybe April and our year ends the end of June. I'm totally fine with that. If he slows down, that is fine too. I'm just going at his pace and not worrying about where he is in the school year.

[kidswife]

Are you doing more than one "exercise" a day? I wouldn't do more than that. And one of the beautiful things about homeschooling, is that you don't have to be on a schedule unless you want to. Crying about math at age 7 is not a positive. There is a better way. I say, back off. Maybe take a break. Play with Math games every other day.
Singapore Math is known for being up to 2 years ahead of "regular" school, and it only goes up to level 6. I have my girls do only one exercise a day, 4 times a week, and I don't pay attention to grade levels or schedules. We get to it when we can, and I try not to stress when no math is done for a whole week (like last week, for us!)

They are functioning quite well ;-)

Remember that schedules and timelines are tools for you. You are the master and it is the slave. You are not a slave to the Master Schedule.

[Cyndi (AZ)]

If I were in the same place with my dd, I would do as you suggested and do four Singapore lessons per week and focus one day on drilling. (The bonus is that you will never skip or forget to drill that way.) Finishing up a book at the end of the year is nice, instead of hanging in the middle. That being said, you are free to do it however you want - there is no "right way."

[MuzzaBunny]

Thank you SO much for your replies! I think we're going to slow a little wee bit, do Friday as a drill day and a game of Dino Math Facts (super cute game that we found at a library used book sale - what a great resource for 1st and 2nd grade) and maybe some flash cards. Then, we'll only be a wee bit into 2B and we'll just do some simple reviewing over our lovely long summer break. DD has finally gotten a good hold of the three digit subtraction and is happy with math again. Yay!