‘The Greedy Triangle’ in the library and Alex fell in love! The book is for young children, and starts out with a young triangle who grows dissatisfied with his lot in life as slices of pie, supports for bridges, etc. He goes to a local ‘shapeshifter’, and asks for just one more side and one more angle: poof, he is a quadrilateral…he keeps going back, asking for just one more side, and one more angle: pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, etc, until eventually he has so many sides and angles that he resembles a circle…you get the idea, very cute. Here is the book: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_10?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+greedy+triangle&sprefix=The+greedy%2Cstripbooks%2C210
Keri, that storyline reminds me of the “Boring Square” of Peter Weatherall. It tackled the polygons so well - all in one song!
Arvi, I’d like to make some input re your question about memorizing math facts. We started with Singapore 3a so I don’t know that memorization of facts are a prerequisite in the earlier levels. If your LO is going to memorize facts, I would suggest she learns the number bonds of 5 and 10 by heart. These should be “memorized” as it is fundamental in all of soroban operations. In Cammie (and Ella’s) school, they are referred to as “small friends” for numbers bonds of 5 and “big friends” for bonds of 10.
We found that soroban and Singapore Math can complement each other very well. But instead of using memorized math facts to solve, I let Cammie compute everything using anzan though they are S’pore Math problems. We do this with word problems, linear problems, basically everything. I figured solving problems mentally would strengthen her visualization skills. This method serves us well. The downside is, she’s getting much less handwriting practice - which is not our focus right now.
Just wondering if anyone has seen or used this. Obviously we are not ready for it but thinking of ordering it. I found this on the Hoagies Gifted Website and it comes with rave reviews. The website is terrible. You have to wade through a mess to get to his material. Anyway opinions?
Hmm… these are my thoughts regarding doing Singapore math and soroban simultaneously… When we are doing Singapore math, I do not let Ella use anzan to solve the problems. I insist that she solve the equations the Singapore math way. In my humble opinion, the strength of the Singapore math program is due, in a large part, to the way it teaches mental math and the number sense the child develops from using its mental math techniques. For me, it would defeat the purpose of using the program if I let her do the exercises any other way. Although it is definitely much easier for Ella to do the exercises using anzan (as she is much more proficient in it), and sometimes it is a struggle for me to insist that she do it the Singapore way, but I persist because my goal in using SM (and MEP and all the other programs that I use with her, for that matter) is for her to develop a deeper understanding of numbers and their relationships to each other than what soroban/anzan can provide. I have seen a few older students at her school who, (this is just an example), would have no idea that 79 is NOT the answer to 87+92, just because they forgot to move a 100-bead up and their abacus says that that is the answer, whereas, Ella would say right away that, wait a minute, that can’t be right because the sum of 87 and 92 should be bigger than either of those numbers, EVEN IF she had made a mistake in manipulating the beads and forgot to add that 100-bead. I think there is definitely a danger for a child who is very good at soroban and anzan to just rely on manipulating the beads without realizing or understanding what those beads represent - similar to the abacus salesman somebody brought up in a previous thread. I think this is also what some parents were referring to when they raised concerns about the mechanized aspect of learning soroban in a thread a while back. I am NOT saying that this is going to happen to every child who is learning the soroban; certainly, there are some naturally mathematically-adept children who will not fall into this trap, but for me I wanted to ENSURE that Ella does not.
Aangeles and nadia, Karma to both of you. I appreciate your input. I was not aware that number bonds are the basis for Soroban as well. So I can proceed with the facts memorization/automization part now.
Aangeles, I understand your thoughts very well as I too think in the same line. I was worried if my son will have confusions later in life when introduced to two different mental math concepts ie., Singapore and Soroban. Happy to know that Ella can do in both the ways.
I totally agree with your thoughts aangeles. Mechanization with the soroban has it’s own pitfalls as discussed in the other thread. We’re doing a hybrid of the two programs because Cammie has a good number sense (thanks to Doman math and LM in her earlier years). I would not dare otherwise. We also do compare number quantities in SM and let her visualize it as a soroban quantity and let her decide which is greater, lesser, etc. It’s a method that works for us and it’s also true that it might cause problems without the right direction.
So Saxon…although I use it with my oldest I couldn’t imagine using it with my 2nd daughter. I think we would get to the smacking and screaming stage if I tried. It’s not a program for every kid that’s for sure. If you kid enjoys worksheets and drill give it a go, if not ski it and keep your sanity.
I definately think the US math education is moving far too slowly. I am seeing the Australian curriculum and can clearly see where the first 1.5 years can be moved to preschool! And we are still ahead of the US by about a year. Since my kids are working a year about their grade level, Saxon is quite easy to do at grade level. Hence they can do it quickly. So perhaps the idea of the age that they approach it has something to do with their success may have some validity. I also think that compressing ANY good math curriculum has more results than doing the same curriculum slowly. The more kids can pile learning on top of fresh learning the better. The new facts reinforce the older ones if they wernt learnt too long ago.
In order to make sure my kids can think for themselves I have my children check their work mentally. They calculate with whatever system but I have them either estimate an answer before hand or round the numbers and get a “close enough to” figure. If they are wrong in their calculations their estimate/ mental “educated guess” will be obviously different. Then they know to redo that calculation. This is a really important skill for school children to learn early. It often takes quite some practice before kids are good at estimating an answer accurately. More practice gets more accurate guesses.
I also make sure they can do word problems. Word problems can only be solved by kids who understand math.
Many thanks for pasting the link to Excellence in Education, the program used by the Imafidion children. I just clicked the home page, and I am completely shocked at the photos and stories of inner city children getting GCSEs at very young ages, as young as 6!!! This is a serious paradigm shift. This simply goes to show that with any child, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
A great inspiration to the parents on this forum: that our kids can be VERY OUTSTANDING academically, and they don’t have to be gifted nor come from wealthy homes. Here is the link to the home page again: http://excellenceineducation.org.uk/home/.
Thanks again, Sonya. This forum is the best on the planet!!!
In case there are those unfamiliar with the GSCE it is:
General Certificate of Secondary Education. Usually first taken in year 11 (15-16 years old) and provides people with basic qualifications to leave school and get a job. It is also an access qualification to AS (advanced subsidiary) levels, which in turn can be left on their own or lead to A (advanced) levels, which are often seen as a gateway to getting accepted into university.
The Imafidon children started early but other children did not. The thing I find interesting is that, in the US, most kids graduate at 18 and soon turn 19. This is clearly a 3-4 year extension beyond the rest of the world yet we know way less than most of the industrialized world. Hmmm. So if they can compress an education by 9 years with an early start or 6 years with a late start (say around 4) imagine what we could do just keeping our kids at home and filling them with knowledge till 16 and then sending them to school. Or even keeping them till 14 and then sending them. If you took ages 3-6 to really master math to the end of Algebra. the rest of your schooling years could be spent in application. All the really fun stuff about math.
Regarding Ella, she is bright, obviously and mom has worked with her but I have a four nearly five year old boy in daycare. He hasn’t been exposed to early learning. We are working on learning basic addition/subtraction. Because of the way his birthday falls he just started preschool. So he is 2 years from finishing kindergarten. He is bright enough that with 6 months solid work he could do basic Algebra. Especially if we used manipulatives. His presenting problems, that will be difficult to overcome, is laziness and lack of curiosity about learnibg things. He is much like the little DS girl I take care of. So you have to work hard to find a way to make it interesting. It is the lack of exposure till now that makes this hard work for him. My 2 year old is going to pass him in reading and math in the next 3-4 months. Yet this little boy is at least 2 grade levels ahead of his school peers. I do find this encouraging and not only is it possible, it is beginning to seem much like child abuse for not pushing the kids harder - pushing is not the right way to phrase it. How about - withholding the fundamentals of an education till a child is 5, when his/her mental alertness has started to wain from lack of stimulation and boredom, seems like child abuse. That is another thread altogether.
The US school year is only 180 days. I am not sure how that compares for the rest of the world. They also have a huge issue with their 3 months off and kids losing information.
Australia only breaks for 6 weeks most at one time and several shorter breaks I think they do close to a month more of schooling overall. They also spend less time remediaitng summer information loss. I graduated at 17 in Australia ans I was one of the middle aged in my class.
I plan to homeschool all year round. 7 days a week. Even if it is just a little math or reading each day. Holidays like Christmas and thanksgiving, (not vacations) most likely will be off. I want school or rather learning, to be a part of daily life. At this intended rate in one calendar year James will be doing the equivalent of close to 2 and a half US school years. I will also allow him to do K earlier than he is set for. He would be starting Kindergarten in September 2015 in the school system. Instead he is now currently doing K level math and reading. however accelerating information is not my primary goal. My primary goal is for James to learn more content. I think this will help him in the long run.
Thank you for the contact details Aangeles! You’re a treasure-trove of info and inspiration. I found their website and saw the available books. Is the “My Pals Are Here” series an adaption of Singapore Math or it is the same as the one in Sg Math website? I have “Math in Focus” from the Booksale and it claims it is Sg Math so I figured there are many adaptions?
This is my understanding of the different “Singapore math” curricula. It is a little confusing so please bear with me.
When you say “Singapore math,” you are actually talking about a certain methodology of teaching mathematics developed by the Singapore Ministry of Education back in 1980. There used to be only one textbook package which was written and published by the Education Ministry called “Primary Mathematics” based on this methodology. The textbooks on the SingaporeMath.com website called Primary Mathematics US Ed and Primary Mathematics Standards Ed are based on this original version of Singapore Math but are adapted and written specifically for the US market. Math In Focus is another US edition based on Primary Mathematics.
In 2001, the original Singapore math syllabus was completely revised by the Singapore education ministry “to reflect recent developments in mathematics education and to meet the challenges of the 21st century.” They are now calling the original syllabus “Old Singapore Math” and the new syllabus “New Singapore Math.” And, there are now several textbook packages written and published by Singapore’s textbook publishers based on the New Singapore Math syllabus:
New Syllabus Primary Mathematics
My Pals Are Here! Maths
Discover Maths
All the primary schools in Singapore are now using one of these New Singapore Math textbook/workbook packages and all of these are approved by Singapore’s education department. I believe there is a fourth brand, called Shaping Maths but I am not sure if it is approved by the education ministry. Here is a website that may help you choose the package you would like to use: http://www.sgbox.com/studyskill13.html#comparison
Hope this helps!
By the way, the My Pals Are Here publishers also have a line of science textbooks called My Pals Are Here! Science which have good reviews on homeschooling sites so it is on my shortlist of options as supplements to our science curriculum later on when we start tackling Science in a more formal manner.
Nadia0801 and Aangeles-
Have you guys seen the really fun math books about the adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat? We love the author, so ordered these as well, and Alex takes them everywhere…it is written in the Life of Fred style, with lots of fun topics and ideas…quite a bit is still a stretch for Alex, but she is desperate tonunderstand, so Penrose is her new hero (and mine because I never would have considered introducing some of the ideas yet!)
Here are some links if you haven’t come across them yet…the author is Theoni Pappas.
I agree, thanks for Penrose. I bought the two books for my son (age 6) and he loves them. He’s been reading them every night and talkinga bout magic rectangles and fractals. He calls him Penrosie. We also got the one with other mathematical short stories, googols. Anyway big hit over here at our house.
Nadia0801 and Linzy-
Glad the kiddos love them! Penrose has to travel everywhere with us! Alex is even getting a Penrose the Cat toy for her Bday. We have both the physical and ebook format just for sanity sake
Linzy-
If your son loves Penrose, the further Adventures of Penrose, and the Fractals, Googols book, take a look at the Life of Fred books: http://lifeoffredmath.com/lof2.php
Nadia0801:
These books are such a gem! If you can’t get them all, let me know! I can forward them to you from the US! They are well worth it. Alex has even been interested in learning Binary because of them!
This gave me an idea!! I would start a new post but I am falling asleep and I can’t even think where to start it. So I am writing here before I forget…
The YouTube video Bella wrote above made me think of a way to share books. Anyone who is interested could read a favourite picture book, or have their kids read, and we could make videos and share them in a thread.
