heartofdakota.com

Hello! We are using Beyond LHFHG and really enjoying it. My question is for people also using Singapore math. We've hit a roadblock and want to get some feedback from others. . . we are still in primary mathematics 1A and are currently on exercise 42. . . . the home instructor's guide says that by this point on, the student should have the addition and subtraction facts memorized (up to 10). . . . my daughter is having trouble with this . . she understands concept behind addition & substraction, but doesn't have them memorized. I'm just trying to drill her each day but wondered how long I should wait before moving on in the curriculum. I've been doing the math activities from the BLHFHG and she gets it, it's just lacking the memorized facts. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

kwhite,

We're glad to have you here! I'll just move this post over to the Main Board where more moms will see it. All new posts begin on the Main Board.

As far as your question goes, we don't schedule the Home Instructor's Guides for use within our HOD guides because they are actually written by Sonlight and are Sonlight's version of a homeschool helper for Singapore math. While you can easily use the Home Instructor's Guides if desired, at HOD we encourage you to use the hands-on activities in our guides instead (as it sounds like you're already doing) and also encourage using Singapore the way it was originally written with textbook/workbook as the main teaching tools. We do carry the Home Instructor's Guides for 5A/5B and 6A/6B but even at that level they are optional, and we encourage any use to be only if you hit a rough spot rather than to teach from daily.

Also as part of this perspective, we don't expect kiddos to have their facts memorized by the end of first or even mid-second grade, but rather see the acquiring of the facts as a process that happens through using Singapore math. Typically, if you're willing to wait a bit you'll see that your child may only have a few remaining facts to memorize by third grade. If you'd rather not wait, you can always drill your child on the facts to suit your family's goals. I've gotten less fixated on this through the years, and I have found with some patience on my part that my kiddos have learned/memorized most of their facts without my help. I'm sure more ladies will be along to share their thoughts on fact memorization too.

Blessings,
Carrie

I hit a similar wall around that part in the curriculum. I too have the HIG's and am using them for extra ideas and teaching methodologies specific to SM. I've found that if my child seems to understand the lesson as taught from the TB and can do the WB activities, then we continue moving through the curriculum. I did take one week where we practiced addition drills, and now we are slowly moving through the curriculum and doing a bit of drill each day. I just use free worksheets or create my own to practice addition, and I bought a small subtraction workbook for subtraction drill. One thing I found was that if we stayed stuck too long on one section trying to memorize math facts, she glazed over and didn't retain the info. By moving through the curriculum and getting to change it up every now and then, it keeps it fresh and avoids boredom. We started in August and are almost finished with 1A, so we are moving slowly but surely through the math with a bit of drill practice each day. I would only stop completely now if we hit a section and she was truly lost on something and we needed to back track.