Singapore Math Kindergarten A & B Review

By Umm Abdurahman,

Previously I wrote about setting the foundations of mathematics for your child and about starting with a syllabus. After hearing so much about Singapore math we purchased a few levels and gave it a go. Now that my son has finished the kindergarten level, I would like to post my review for the books.   

The pros

1.      The breadth of subjects covered in the books is diverse. The first book covers numbers up to 10, shapes, patterns, length and size, weight, capacity and comparing sets. The second book covers comparing numbers, numbers up to 100, number bonds, addition, subtraction, time, and money.  I feel it is a great first step for a kindergarten level student.

2.      One of the most appealing aspects was the apparent ease of the program. I think from both a teacher and a child’s perspective working through the syllabus is a breeze. It took us around three months to finish the kindergarten books, as they were so easy and enjoyable to work through.

3.      The books were fun and exciting.

4.      The building of concepts was gradual.

5.      My son does not like to review too much, once he gets something he wants to move on. The Singapore textbooks provided just enough practice for him to do this.

6.      You do not need to buy either the activity book or the teacher’s book for this level.  The textbook is sufficient with enough practice to grasp the concepts without need of the activity book.  As for the teachers book instructions are written at the bottom of the page for each exercise within the textbook, therefore you don’t need it and can save money. 

The cons

1.      The textbooks were fairly effortless to teach save a few chapters, and even though I purchased both the activity books as well, I believe the textbooks at this level are more than sufficient.  The activity books did not add much benefit with regards to additional practice, so you can do without them.

2.      Although it was rare, some sections of the books I felt I could teach better than the approach offered.  From book A the unit teaching measurements of length and size asked the students to measure things according to cubes, e.g. the red shoe is as long as four cubes. For me I felt this was unnecessary and thought it would be much more beneficial if I taught my son to measure the relative sizes of objects using a ruler.  This worked well. 

3.      As for book B the unit on time was not very valuable. It covered telling the time by the hour, days of the week, year and some calendar work. The drills on telling the time my son liked but the other exercises I did not see much purpose to them.

  

4.      There is a small section which covers counting by tens and fives in the chapter “numbers up to 100’’ in book B. One of the things that I felt weakened this section is that they don’t explain the concept of multiplication, even though that is what it appeared to be.  I took some time out and decided to teach my son what multiplication was about so that if I asked him what six six’s were, he knew what it meant and could work it out. I don’t think this section was appropriate for this book.

Overall

I am extremely happy with the syllabus as a whole. The progress he has made so far is very evident. My son now applies a quantitative approach to many aspects in his daily affairs because he now understands and comprehends the relevance of mathematics in everyday life. When we started my son could barely write legible numbers, and had very little knowledge of math. Now he is able to count and write any number from one up to 100, he can carry out simple addition and subtraction equations. He understands the concept of multiplication and can answer simple equations.  I would definitely recommend the books and feel that it was a worthwhile buy.

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How to use an abacus

Why I want to teach math with an Abacus?

I am a bit of an old fashioned type of guy, and I guess it carries into my homeschooling style and this is a perfect case in point.   For me the Abacus is a fun way to start teaching math, specifically counting, as it is simple, colorful, and hands on.   The abacus can be used to teach addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, pattern, and more.  It incorporates the physical participation of the child and makes the concept of numbers easier to visualize and understand.

History of the Abacus

An abacus is an old counting tool dating back to the period 2700–2300 BC in Mesopotamia.  Today, abaci are often constructed as a bamboo frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beans or stones moved in grooves in sand or on tablets of wood, stone, or metal. The abacus was in use centuries before the adoption of the written modern numeral system and is still widely used by merchants, traders and clerks in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere.  In this post we’ll be discussing how to use a modern abacus shown at the top of the article and not one of the older versions shown to the side.

How we make it work

As soon as your child can speak and differentiate between more than three objects than I think you’re more than ready to start. 

First Step Start counting from 1-10 

1.       Demonstrate  Start counting  from 1 to 3 and just do it for your child.  Every time you count a number placing your finger on the bead and sliding it to the opposite side, while saying the number out loud.  Repeat this a few times before asking your child to do the same.

2.       Let them try it on their own.  You should make sure that your child follows the same pattern as you so that you build up consistency.  Make sure he/she slides the bead in the same direction as you, one bead at a time, while saying the number out loud.  If at any point he/she starts to make mistakes, just demonstrate it again and ask him/her to repeat.  There’s no harm in coaching by saying the beginning sound of each number if he/she forgets.  

3.       Move up Gradually.  Once you he/she can count up to three, go to four, once four is easy go up to five, and continue until you’ve reached ten.  This may be very easy for you, especially if you’ve been doing some of the things we mentioned previously regarding counting things in the house, the steps of the staircase and so on, but don’t rush it.  The numbers one through nine will be the foundation for everything he/she will count after this.

Step two Counting from 11-20.  This is the hardest part regardless of what language you are teaching as in most languages 11 and 12 just don’t seem to follow the pattern.  In English even those learning it as a foreign language ask “why don’t we say one teen, and two teen.  Be patient with them getting over this hump as it is all downhill after 20.

1.       Teach them eleven and twelve.   Try counting it out with them without the abacus.  After they are running around the house saying eleven and twelve enough times, try it out on the abacus using the same method mentioned above, then once they have got it, have them start from one and count all the way up to 12. Make sure they go one bead at a time maintinging the same direction and saying the number out loud and don't forget to demonstrate each time. 

2.       Teach 13 to 20.  I found this to be the hardest part of teaching counting.  I was stuck on this for a few months, trying and then giving up, then coming back to try again.  The best thing to do is demonstrate as much as possible.   Remember to “help” by sounding out the beginning of each number if they need help.   Add a number at a time just as you did with one through ten.  If you feel they get stuck try starting at ten or fifteen rather than returning all the way back to one.  Just remember to not have too high expectations, move at their pace and do not discourage them. 

Step Three Teaching from twenty to one hundred  This is the easiest part as the numbers all follow the same pattern.  So once your child learns how to count from twenty to thirty, he has learned how to count all the way to one hundred, so long as he/she can remember the tens. 

1.       Teach them to count by 10’s.  Show them by sliding all of the beads 10 at a time to one side, counting out loud saying ten, twenty, thirty, and so on up to one hundred.

2.       Adding the ones placement Teach them to add one through nine at the end of the twenties.  Saying out loud and demonstrating for them twenty one, twenty two, all the way through to thirty. 

3.        Let them try After demonstrating for them twenty one to thirty, let them try it out, give them help when needed and repeat as many times until they are able to do it themselves. Then move on to teaching the thirties.

4.       Review In-between each set of tens, go back and count by tens.  In other words, once you’ve reached thirty, go back and count for them while sliding the beads by tens, ten, twenty, thirty, until you’ve reach one hundred.  This will remind them of the tens placement as they move along. This will serve as reinforcement for them so they don't get stuck at 59 going to 60, or 69 going to 70.

5.       Keep it easy As you’re teaching the tens you can try to have your child start from one and count all the way up to fifty, but if they find this difficult or hard at any point, or for example if he/she is having difficulties in their sixties, then start them at fifty and let them work their way up.

Sometimes the abacus can get a little bit redundant for the child and they may need a break.  Here are some ideas of how to keep things lively and fun. 

1.       Celebrate every new number like a grand slam in the ninth inning of the world series.  Jump up and down, clap, yell for joy, get your other children in on the celebration.  Kids love to be praised.

2.       Don’t call it anything but play.   I noticed my son receives studying a lot better when we refer to it as “playing”.  So don’t ask your child to come study numbers or math, tell him/her we’re going to “play” abacus.

3.       Bring out some m&m’s.   I love this exercise.  If my son does well, I am happy, if my son does not do so well, I eat the remaining m&m’s.  Every once in a while I will lay out a bag of m&m’s on the table and line them up in a row.  For every m&m my son counts, he gets to eat.  The rest go to me. 

We hope this was beneficial and not too confusing without a visual example.  In the future God willing we hope to post a video tutorial to make the process easier to follow. 

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Teaching your Child Math; Where to Start

By Umm Abdurahman

We all realize and understand the value of Math in everyday life. For this reason, all parents want their children to have a strong foundation in mathematics. However for many children math is one of their weaker and less enjoyed subjects. Whenever a child has a difficulty with a subject, the parents must go back and ask why, because if a child does not ‘get it’ then the fault is not that of the child, rather with the syllabus or the parent. So how do we teach our child math in a way that is enjoyable and effective? We hope to give you some ideas of things that we have tried with our children, in hopes that you may benefit.

Early mathematics in the home

Because mathematics is such a practical subject, and can be applied to almost all aspects of life, you can start as soon your child can talk. Teach your child to count by going up the stairs and counting the steps, or picking up blocks and counting them. Try to count items with your child as often as you can and with as many different items as you can. Teach him/her about classifying and sorting. Go pick fruit with your child and ask him/her to group them by size or color. Teach your child to identify shapes with a shape sorter. Counting books are another great resource and young children love them. My youngest son’s favorite book is a counting book. Also invest in an abacus, as it is an excellent visual and physical way to learn counting. Provide your child with puzzles because they encourage logical thinking. Teach your child about patterns by creating patterns with different colored Legos on the floor. The possibilities are endless, all of which will help lay a foundation for your child to move forward in his/her study of math.

The next step

Once your child has grasped most of these basic mathematical concepts, like us, you may want to start using a formal guide to continue teaching mathematics. There are many free resources available and several homeschooling curriculums for you to pick from.  One of the first things we tried was The MEP math program, which you can download from here.

Pros:

·         It is free

·         You can download each level as you need it

·         It starts from kindergarten and goes right through to high school

Cons:

·         It can be a lot of printing out, and in color this can cost quite a bit.

·         Can be redundant in the early levels.

·         For my son, I found he just didn’t enjoy the curriculum, and he was quickly bored with it. For this reason when I found he dreaded doing it, I decided to stop with it and went on to try Singapore math after hearing so many positive things about it.

As soon as we got the Singapore Math books my son seemed very excited and I let him glance through the pages before starting it. 

Pros;

·         The layout of the books is very appealing and friendly

·         Repetition is not too excessive but just enough for the child to get it.

·         It is very thorough and lays sound foundations in mathematics.

·         It’s FUN! I was sold on the curriculum when I found my son saying    at the end of each lesson: “I love math, math is important” or insisting that we start with math before any other subject for the day.

Cons;

·         It can be pricey for all the books, however from my experience and from what other parents have said it is not necessary to buy all the books. For example, the teachers Manuals you can really do without, especially as they are the most costly.

If you are looking for a math syllabus that your child can really excel with, I think Singapore is a great choice. I really feel it has had a profound effect on my son and have been very pleased with the results so far and would recommend it without hesitation. If you have any suggestions about what you have used, please share so that we may all benefit.

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