Math w/ LHTH??

[laurabelle1317]

Oh okay. Thanks for the clarification!

To Everyone:
Do you like the HOD math activities...well enough that you'd suggest purchasing the next guide just in order to have the math activities

Laura

[Mommamo]

I've loved the math activities. They are definitely worth it. However, you still might want to think about waiting and doing a more informal math program first. This is coming from someone who did start their 4 yo in a formal math program, and she definitely WAS ready. But now, I wish I'd just waited. I'm holding off my 4 yo until he starts LHFHG, which will be at about 5 1/2 or 6. He'll be using LHFHG as 1st grade, probably, and I'm just going to do an informal math program until then.

But if you are going to go with the Singapore and use it with LHTH, I think I would definitely get LHFHG to have the activities. Again though, just keep in mind that you'll always be in two guides, since you'll need the next one to have the activities. The activities do stop though after the regular 2A/2B so at that point you'd just use the appendix listed in the guide you're in.

[erdrmom]

My littlest is finishing LHTH in the next month or so. He has always wanted "more" school than he gets from LHTH. More writing and math, like his big sister has with her school. I added the Spectrum Preschool Basic Skills and Math Skills books for him. We didn't start at the beginning and work through the books, I would pick and choose activities that corresponded with the lessons. Like we would work on the color pages during the week of that color (toward the end of the guide). That has worked well for us, not adding much to the day, and giving him the workbook feel that he wants without having me write a math program for him. At that age, I think you want to mainly focus on counting and number recognition more than anything else. Everything else is covered well in Singapore EB, 1A/1B, etc.

As far as starting with Singapore now, I would recommend waiting. It makes it so much smoother to do the math as written in the guides. My oldest is pretty much a math whiz, and she has been known to do all the lessons in a topic (without my permission), rather than what is the assignment for the day. This puts us ahead in math every year. While it's not impossible to do two guides for math, I would recommend staying within the recommendation if you can. It makes it easier on you and the math gets harder quick enough and there is no need to rush it.

I spoke with Carrie about the EB2A/2B guides at the convention in Arlington (Hi Carrie!) and she mentioned that Singapore is printing them for HOD. If I am not mistaken, I believe she doesn't even recommend the EB1A/1B books to be used at all. I don't think they carry them, so I don't know if you can even find them anymore.

Hope that helps.

[laurabelle1317]

Yeah, it doesn't look like the EBs 1A/1B are available anywhere anymore.

I am wondering what is the difference between the old versions of the Early Birds and the new version A and B though. The new versions don't seem to have as many lessons but thats all I can really tell while not actually looking at them.

I think we are going to start with LHTH in June as planned, going half speed since we are starting in the summer. I will also be working on phonics and handwriting with him. And then just doing fun math activities here and there. My husband really wants to make sure he has a good phonics base to start off with, more so than math or handwriting which he thinks those things will come with time. But my husband also wants to make sure that he isn't going to continue bad handwriting habits, which we are starting to see form. His handwriting is still mostly good for his age, but its gotten a bit worse and sloppy over time. So I think we won't focus on math much right now...just do fun stuff and follow his lead. He's only 4 so I don't want to do too much too soon and all at once anyway. Don't wnt either one of us to get burned out or frustrated! And of course he still just needs lots of play time with his lil sis!

[Mommamo]

I don't have time to find the thread right now, but if I remember right, among other things, the new Earlybird books kind of jump around. So A isn't just from what Earlybird 1A/1B had, it's a mix of things, if that makes sense. I'm not exactly sure about that though.

[Kathleen]

To Everyone:
Do you like the HOD math activities...well enough that you'd suggest purchasing the next guide just in order to have the math activities

Definitely!!! I think they do an incredible job of making the math very real to the child. (And they're fun!) One of my oldest's favorites was when we played a card game with multiplication where we each flipped 2 cards and mulitiplied and the winner got to keep all the cards (like "war"). We played that a bunch! This past year my daughter has learned to really make sense of adding and subtracting with all our activities and can tell her own story problems for us to solve. She loves it when I say that we're going to have "snack math". But they're not just fun...they're very purposeful.

If you don't opt to use HOD's activities in the guides, then you'll need to purchase the Singapore textbooks for those levels (an additional $18 per level). They're reasonably priced, but I think the HOD activities are way more valuable and I'd rather put my $ towards something I'm going to use anyway the following year.

Kathleen