Post
by mamanlait » Fri Oct 01, 2010 11:07 am
Sara,
I wish I had 2A available so I could see what you are doing...but, I'm wondering if it is supposed to be done mentally, orally, or written. What does the review appear to be wanting the child to accomplish? I'll answer this assuming the aim is to have your child be competent with mental math equations.
It takes a lot of practice to achieve a level of confidence with mental math and perhaps the aim is to solidify mental math confidence kn the review?. I remember at that level when we were learning mental math...and it took a lot of energy for my dd to find the answer without pen and paper, I would keep the day's work for math with me on errands/or out in the kitchen and occasionally ask a problem throughout the day until we finished everything...for example, during lunch I'd say, "who can tell me what 99+45 is?". After her storytime, I'd ask to more problems, etc. If 15 sounds like a lot at your child's current level, then 15 at the next level will be even harder. So, my advice is let your child get really good at answering them (until they are able to do 15 in 20 minutes!) before jumping to the next concept. Think SIMMER with Singapore...not running a race. Singapore really builds on itself. It surely is like no other math curriculum when it comes to mental math.
Hth
Amy
Currently:
dd 16 AH1 -bits & pieces (previously used Bigger, Preparing, CtC, RtR, Rev, MMtM, WG, WH)
dd 12 REV (previously used LHTH, LHfHG, Beyond, Bigger, Preparing, CtC, & RtR)
It also helps her to understand things like: you can't subtract a big number from a small one when written out vertically...or how to set up a division problem in a box. Mental problems she does orally to me. I find that those pages are essential to reviewing new concepts and letting topics simmer. If I didn't use them, we'd be done with Singapore waaay early each year and probably without sufficient practice. Now, we have used other programs in the past that had a lot of review and we'd skip many pages or problems during the course of a year because she had mastered the concept. But with Singapore, if anything, I've wanted MORE review (not less). I really don't think it's a program you want to rush through. 
When there are that many problems in the top section and I feel that they have the concept down, I will usually just have them do one column as opposed to all 3. Sometimes I let them choose which column and sometimes I choose for them depending on whether it looks like one column is harder than another. Since I have two students in the same guide, I often times do one column on the white board together, then assign one additional column to each of them. You could do one or more columns together on the white board and then have him do one alone or something like that. I know many programs require this many problems everyday, but for my dc, I feel it is overkill so we don't do them all. 