I have used Singapore Maths for 4 and a half years and we just love it. We were using Rod & Staff and I don’t want to disparage those who use it but we found it too dry and repetitive. My Maths-loving son was dying a slow death. I looked around on the internet, found some links through Sonlight and we went from there. Being able to print off sample pages and give him a taste of it made a big difference.
What do we like?
The colour/two-tone coursebooks. These books introduce the concept to your child and are not for writing in. You can either have your child read through this or sit together, go through it orally and then move on to the workbook exercises. Concepts are taught in a way which promotes understanding, rather than mechanically doing the set problems for the day. I actually like word problems now – perhaps I finally understand it all!
The colour/two-tone coursebooks. These books introduce the concept to your child and are not for writing in. You can either have your child read through this or sit together, go through it orally and then move on to the workbook exercises. Concepts are taught in a way which promotes understanding, rather than mechanically doing the set problems for the day. I actually like word problems now – perhaps I finally understand it all!
The workbooks are black & white and just get down to business. I found some colour student books in other courses to be too busy and confusing and like this approach. The workbooks are relatively inexpensive too, especially as you go up in levels. I have also bought the Home Instructors Guides for upper levels to help me with teaching concepts and to give me the answers all in the one book.
I bought them in bulk from Singapore and got the 3rd edition series, the most "tried & true". I cannot answer for the other series. I would say, however, that the Singapore levels are generally harder than our levels in Australia and from what I’ve read, in the US too. Perhaps the 1A book is not but it does progress quickly after that. You may like to look at the Earlybird series if your child is just starting out.
My gripes? Only two..
If your child is struggling with a concept, then you need to add more review in yourself. This may be one of the Singapore practice/ review books or using other means like flash cards, wrap-ups, tables songs etc. This is a small thing for us and I don’t think any program can teach every single concept thoroughly to your child. Other learning methods are helpful anyway!
No one series looks as good for high school as the Primary Mathematics 3rd ed has been. We really don’t know where to go next.
I remember talking to my husband about SM at the beginning. I told him it was the cheapest program I had seen, it was far more interesting than what we had used, my ds liked it and it had the best reputation internationally. He looked at my furrowed brow and said, "So…what’s the problem?" I was so fearful of making a mistake and really should not have been. It has worked out so well for us and even if it hadn’t, it is fairly cheap so you haven’t lost that much.
I looked at Singapore programs from the Sonlight site. They used to have articles comparing it to Saxon and also why they preferred the PM series over the newer ones. I couldn’t find them readily but maybe they are still there. Here’s some links to get you going:
http://www.singaporemath.com/Default.asp
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