Kumon, Singapore Math or Something else

[westwoodmom04]

I am leaning towards starting some math supplementation for my dd this summer/fall. She is in the g&t group at school, but with the common core starting next year, her school is postponing the really accelerated math for this cohort of kids under 5th grade (she will be in third next year). In second grade, they covered regrouping, multiplication, division, and some fractions. I would not be taking her to centers; just having her do workbooks at home when we had time and energy. They use Scott Foresman at school. What is more challenging for this age group, Kumon or Singapore math or something else?

[Simon]

Its not totally clear to me if you want to just review/reinforce ideas from last year or let her work ahead? I would add in Life of Fred (LoF) for both reinforcing and introducing new concepts and then additional work books for drilling. We enjoyed Singapore math, but we used it at the K level. We have Kumon for this summer and they look like good quality but also a lot smaller in terms of breadth/depth of coverage. I'm only using the Kumon because thy were given to us. I'd spend my money on Singapore, Math Mammoth or Math U See. Or maybe the Miquon books.

LoF introduces math in a different (fun) way but is not a comprehensive math program. I think its a good supplement though.

[gymnbomb]

Not workbooks, but here are a few online options that may be useful supplements. Some are good lessons, others are best for topics that have at least been introduced.

- http://www.ixl.com (math for K-middle school)
- http://www.tutor.com/resources/ (most subjects for elementary-high school)
- http://www.purplemath.com/modules/index.htm (pre-algebra, algebra, some trigonometry)

[westwoodmom04]

Its not totally clear to me if you want to just review/reinforce ideas from last year or let her work ahead? I would add in Life of Fred (LoF) for both reinforcing and introducing new concepts and then additional work books for drilling. We enjoyed Singapore math, but we used it at the K level. We have Kumon for this summer and they look like good quality but also a lot smaller in terms of breadth/depth of coverage. I'm only using the Kumon because thy were given to us. I'd spend my money on Singapore, Math Mammoth or Math U See. Or maybe the Miquon books.

LoF introduces math in a different (fun) way but is not a comprehensive math program. I think its a good supplement though.

She has totally mastered what they have learned so far, so I'd like to challenge her. Only I'm not sure what the next level of concepts would be, maybe I should just buy materials for two years ahead?

[Reader]

We use Singapore for homeschooling my mathematically inclined kids. I've heard good things about Beast Academy for 3rd grade made by Art of Problem Solving, and we have liked the advanced Art of Problem Solving books like Algebra I, Geometry. I've also heard good things about Life of Fred, mentioned above. Critical Thinking Company makes some fun challenging logic puzzle workbooks. IIRC, Singapore has pre-tests on their website to determine what level you should order.

[squimp]

We are using Singapore Math since it looks a lot like our disctrict's math program. I looked at the books on Amazon and it is really clear that they just finished one year's curriculum so I bought the one for the year after.

[brittone2]

In the early years, we use Singapore and Miquon together.

Once my kids get past a certain point, we've been sticking with Singapore. My eldest is wrapping up 5B, so we've worked through most of the primary program and have been very happy with it.

We use Beast Academy for fun. Most of level 3 didn't come out until my DS1 was past most of the topics, but there are some great thinking problems in there, so we play around with it and he enjoys looking through the books on his own. DD is using them for certain topics as well in addition to Singapore. We'll be using some of the other Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) curricula as the kids get older. We are testing the waters with the pre-alg program a bit this year. We have a few Life of Fred books that we use as a supplement here and there (decimals and percents, pre-alg, etc. We never used the younger kid books). Primary Grade Challenge Math might be one to look at for supplementing with as well.

I'd probably do a lot of math games, play with manipulatives, etc. Set is a great game if you haven't played with that one yet.

My mathy DS1 (just finished 3rd grade) likes studying things like cryptology/cryptography, and he had fun doing the Khan Academy section on that and working through probability problems related to cryptography.

My kids also like math literature like Sir Cumference, What's Your Angle, Pythagoras?, and the Theoni Pappas books.

If you want a full curriculum, we have really enjoyed Singapore. It is rigorous and solid. The Challenging Word Problems book from Singapore is fantastic to add into things if you are using the Singapore text/worbook.

Kumon is largely drill, IME, including the workbooks, unless I haven't looked at other parts of their program. I don't know that you'd get the type of depth you might be looking for with a mathy kid.

[westwoodmom04]

Thanks for all the great suggestions!

[egoldber]

If it were me, I would not do a math curriculum. If you do that and they won't accelerate her in school, it's just setting her up to be bored. I would try some of the math books that extend and really teach the concepts in depth.

I would suggest:

Zaccaro's Primary Grade Challenge Math
Life of Fred elementary series
Art of Problem Solving early series
the Singapore Challenging Word Problem books and also their Math Express SpeedMaths books

[asnmdirteha]

I am leaning towards starting some math supplementation for my dd this summer/fall. She is in the g&t group at school, but with the common core starting next year, her school is postponing the really accelerated math for this cohort of kids under 5th grade (she will be in third next year). In second grade, they covered regrouping, multiplication, division, and some fractions. I would not be taking her to centers; just having her do workbooks at home when we had time and energy. They use Scott Foresman at school. What is more challenging for this age group, Kumon or Singapore math or something else?

A website I really enjoyed using is called Beestar. I've been using it for a few years now with my after school students and my daughter. The website is really easy to access and I like how I can analyze their learning. My students/kid love that they can see themselves on the honor roll -- it really provides them that confidence that they need. The worksheets are also intriguing keeping them entertained. I also love that I can use the website to target any weaknesses that they may have.