chinlau
- Reviewed on Tuesday, November 03, 2009
- Grades Used: 5th - 6th
- Dates used: 1999
I was a primary school teacher in Singapore. I've actually used them all from 1999 to 2003. They are easy to use, and they come with workbooks as well. Now, I run my own e-publishing company, www.1800-teacher.com (Singapore Education Worldwide). If you need extra materials, I've 350+ (and counting) free e-workbooks for download. You can also "Ask" math questions as well.
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kck
- Reviewed on Monday, November 02, 2009
- Grades Used: K, 2-5
- Dates used: fall 2008 to present
We have had a wonderful experience with Singapore. I think the way math is presented here leads very well into higher level math, logical thinking skills, and college math. That being said, I have a BS in math and computer science and have a highly gifted child (I just started Singapore this fall with my young 5 year old at the 2nd K level after skipping over most of the 1st K material). With my 3rd grader, he does very poorly with spiraling curriculum and doesn't need much practice for mastery. Some additional practice has been necessary for us to get our math facts down (mostly computer games). I've never bought a teacher's guide. Highly recommended for math gifted kids. This curriculum can be 6 to 12 months ahead of other elementary curriculum so see their website for placement tests.
The K curriculum has been wonderful (it's formatted a little differently from their later books). Lots of hands on suggestions and clear units so it's easy to tell what outcomes should be. My daughter is doing well with it so far, but I am doing some of it as hands on activities which seems to work better for her (with beads, cheerios, marbles, etc).
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l8-start
- Reviewed on Thursday, October 29, 2009
- Grades Used: 2nd
- Dates used: 2009
EXCELLENT!!!
This review is for Primary Math U.S. edition 1B and Primary Math Standards edition 2A.
I have to say as a parent with a minor in Math this is the BEST way to teach math. I love the way the lessons are short but effective and there is not a lot of useless information such as the history of math. I think that the history of math is very important but not at this age level. I have seen elementary texts that totally distract the kids from the math with all this extra information. We switched to the standards version after we completed the U.S. Edition 1A. The reason we did this is because the Standards edition offers more probability and data analysis, negative number, and coordinate graphing than the U.S. edition. It was just a personal preference. My friend uses the U.S. Edition and her kids are still blowing the doors off of the public school kids in math. I would have to agree with the previous poster that the teachers guide is really essential. I got it because I was too lazy to schedule math and it had a daily lesson plan in it, but I have really loved the teaching tips and activities...stuff I would not have thought of myself. Overall the cost is mid-range but well worth every penny, plus I have found that there is quite a market for these books and they resale well.
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anne3boys
- Reviewed on Friday, August 28, 2009
- Grades Used: 2nd-5th
- Dates used: 2006-2009
Singapore has been wonderful for us. I have two very different learners and they both are doing well. It seems to be the curriculum of choice among those I have asked in the last year in our area, including those who's parents are Notre Dame math professors.
I do recommend getting the Teacher's Guide. It has a wonderful schedule in the front and in the back are additional "Mental Math" practice sheets to go along with the lessons. We use these to practice math without scratch paper. I love the methods presented. My kids are learning to think about differently than I did with the simple do it and then do it again methods I grew up with. I don't find it to be much prep or help. I simply do the lesson with the child in their text book orally or with a white board and then they do the workbook. I wish I'd used this from the beginning. We started with Bob Jones Math from 2nd-3rd grade for my oldest and he is at a great disadvantage as far as his computational ability because of it. It had great pictures and he seemed to be doing well, but it sorely lacked the computational reinforcement that Singapore offers.
I would recommend getting the teacher's guide, text book, workbook AND the Intensive practice book for each level. When a unit is finished, if the student has mastered the work, you can push them with a page or two in the corresponding "Intensive Practice" book. If they haven't mastered it, you have more problems in the same subject area to work on. They books are cheap and worth the investment.
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