SIngapore Math
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 by Amy
Riley has requested that I do homeschooling with her LOL. Not really "homeschooling" per se, but "afterschooling" as they call it. When we were doing more organized learning activities at home, it was a bonding experience for us. Since I accidentally returned the Middle Ages and Knight books to the library and have yet to re-check them out, the lapbook we were planning on doing has been put on hold.
I decided to order Singapore Math workbooks and textbooks. Riley usually asks me to do math with her at home. I don't know why. Perhaps because she does a lot of reading and writing at school already. Anyway, the books were fairly cheap, $9 each, so $36 for a year worth of books (2 textbooks and 2 workbooks). They also sell manipulatives to be used in the lessons, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they all were Montessori-esque, many of which I already have. Additionally, that would mean the Montessori math and Singapore math should mesh pretty well, so Riley won't be getting one thing at home and another at school.
So, why Singapore, you ask? Because Singapore is consistently the #1 country in the ranking of math proficiency worldwide. Which is strange because Singapore schools devote fewer hours to math work than the US, their class sizes are enormous, and the instruction is teacher-centered, all things that make US schoolteachers start to twitch and break out in hives. But looking at the lessons, they are really great at making the child understand the concept, rather than memorize the concept. I think US schools waste so much time requiring memorization, and reiterating the same concepts over and over again because the kids are struggling to commit it to memory rather than truly understand. Memorizing is a slower process than understanding.
Wow, my second boring post in a row!
I'll post again later today about something more interesting...
I decided to order Singapore Math workbooks and textbooks. Riley usually asks me to do math with her at home. I don't know why. Perhaps because she does a lot of reading and writing at school already. Anyway, the books were fairly cheap, $9 each, so $36 for a year worth of books (2 textbooks and 2 workbooks). They also sell manipulatives to be used in the lessons, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they all were Montessori-esque, many of which I already have. Additionally, that would mean the Montessori math and Singapore math should mesh pretty well, so Riley won't be getting one thing at home and another at school.
So, why Singapore, you ask? Because Singapore is consistently the #1 country in the ranking of math proficiency worldwide. Which is strange because Singapore schools devote fewer hours to math work than the US, their class sizes are enormous, and the instruction is teacher-centered, all things that make US schoolteachers start to twitch and break out in hives. But looking at the lessons, they are really great at making the child understand the concept, rather than memorize the concept. I think US schools waste so much time requiring memorization, and reiterating the same concepts over and over again because the kids are struggling to commit it to memory rather than truly understand. Memorizing is a slower process than understanding.
Wow, my second boring post in a row!
I'll post again later today about something more interesting...
So after a few lessons, tell me how you like it. Abby's doing Saxon, which is, I believe, opposite of Singapore. Saxon is so rigid and Abby needs that and likes it. But everyone RAVES about Singapore, and I'm curious to know how it goes.