Book Review: Singapore Math Primary 1A

My Background:

Let me begin this review by stating that math was not my favorite subject growing up. In fact, I hated it in elementary school. If math had been a breakable object, I would have smashed it to bits. If it had been a person, well, you get the drift. I struggled with math from about 3rd grade on. In my senior year of high school, I was in AP Biology, AP English, AP French, AP Government, AP Economics and Algebra II. All my other friends were in Calculus and had taken Algebra II their sophomore year. I obviously wasn't stupid; but I was math-handicapped. Fast-forward to college. I decided to be a captain of industry and changed my major to Marketing for a while and was required to take Trig and Calculus. Not only was it a requirement, but I had to make decent grades too. Thanks to a fabulous teacher (who didn't have my old transcripts in front of him) and a new-found confidence and determination, I discovered that I wasn't bad at math at all. I made a B in Trig and an A in Calculus.



As a homeschooling mom, I have learned a lot from my own personal experience. Whatever your experience was with school growing up, there have to be lessons you took away from it. Both types of teachers shaped how I teach. My university professor's teaching style showed me that even the most complex of subjects can be broken down and taught effectively. My third grade teachers' evil grin and method of sending me to the Principal's office when I couldn't stand up and recite my times-tables showed me a good example of how to create a mental block. I learned from both experiences.



My Experience With the Book:

At the beginning of the year, my first grader was to stay the course from last year: a spiraling method of math learning that she responded very well to in Kindergarten. By early October, I knew things weren't going well and I ordered a new curriculum that was a complete departure from what she had previously been doing. Enter: Singapore Math.



You have heard about Singapore Math before but may not know what it is and what it does. First and foremost, it was designed by The Ministry of Education of Singapore. I never thought I'd be using a curriculum from an Asian government in our studies, however, the statistics were impressive. Children in Singapore perform exceedingly well in math when compared to the rest of the world. I don't think other subjects could be taught in this way; but for math it works well and our own educational establishment could take a few tips from our Asian counterparts.



Unlike spiraling methods, you hardly ever repeat a lesson. There are some short flash-card drills to help in mastering some math facts (like simple addition and subtraction problems) but overall there is very little repetition. This seems a bit scary if you're used to the constant spiraling reviews in systems like Abeka. However, after completing Singapore Math 1A, I can tell you that it works.



The focus of the curriculum is mastery of the material. After my own experience, I understood the importance of truly grasping the operation behind the problems. Every method of learning that the units employ is to aide the child in mastering that step. I have to admit, some of the methods seemed foreign even to me, a grown up, who's been adding and subtracting for a while now! However, they make so much sense that I'm mad I didn't learn math this way as well. When you learn math in this way, it is easy to tell if your child is grasping the material. Your child will either get all the problems right or all the problems wrong. If the problems are wrong, we erase the answers and try the approach again. Once, it was simply a case of tired brain cells. We put the book down, came back three days later, and it was a piece of cake. That is the beauty of homeshooling.



After two months of struggle in the early fall before beginning Singapore Math, my 1st grader is now able to tackle problems like 18-7 or 20-10 with ease. We started Singapore Math 1A in November, right before the holidays, and are just finishing it. That means that we will be doing 1B from now through the summer; but this might be a great thing as far as retention goes.



My Recommendation:

I highly recommend Singapore Math. I am so pleased that we didn't wait to introduce it next year. I think starting on level 2 or 3 might be a real challenge. In fact, with an older student, I would go ahead and start back with level 1 and work quickly to catch up to grade level. Still, if your child is struggling in math, the extra work would be well worth it. Concepts my child is learning now will be applied in 4th grade. That means these are pretty important concepts and having a real understanding of them is key.



I also recommend purchasing the complete homeschooling pack, which includes the textbook, workbook and teacher's manual. The teacher's manual is the curriculum - you couldn't just get the workbook and get by. If you have more than one child, you only need to purchase additional workbooks later. The schedule in the front of the teacher's manual is a great guide but it moves pretty fast. You may need to evaluate your own child's abilities and slow it down a bit. Sometimes our math lessons take over an hour and they are pretty taxing. If you have the time, some of these lessons would be better tackled over 2 or 3 days.


Visit the official website to purchase Singapore Math.
How well do you like your math curriculum? What works for your family?