Hands-on - Will Singapore have enough for my child?

[Lucy]

Hi Irma,

I am not sure what is the right decision for you but I do know after using another program that was quite hands-on that moving to Singapore was a good decision for us. I have also come to trust MFW's decision as I know that they looked at many programs before choosing Singapore.

I have found that Singapore does have quite a bit of hands-on activities in the book which can be done with your on manipulitives(there is a current disscussion about that on another thread). In the upper level books they actually have a few hands-on activities that they have the child do from the textbook.

I do not know anything about the program you are considering, but if you have 2 programs that teach in a similar way but one takes less time each day I would choose that one. You can always spend more time by doing another lesson for that day but it is hard if a lesson is taking along time to shorten it. Also consider that at age 7 you may not mind spending more time on math but your daughter may. What I mean by this is you do not want to burn her out because you can spend more time. Here attention to learn a concept each day may only be 20-30 mins. I hope that makes sense.

You also mentioned your K child. Will you be using MFW K? If so it will include math which is very hands-on and you will not need another program.

I hope these thoughts are helpful as you think about what is best for your family.
Lucy

[TurnOurHearts]

I'll just tag on a couple of thoughts:

My son is a very visual learner & Singapore has been great for him. He literally begs to do more math each day. Better to have begging for more, saying no & anticipation for the next day's lesson than any level or form of dread, right? ;)

Also, if you can start with a program that is fun, short & inexpensive, why not start there? If something isn't working, you can certainly change, but I would be less likely to change if I'd invested a lot of money in another math program, KWIM?

HTH :)