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I am starting LHFHG with my oldest in the fall. He will technically be in "first" grade. I ordered the Singapore 1A/1B for him, but we didn't do any formal math this year we just did some math concept work with Five In A Row. Will he be okay starting in 1A or is it imperative to start with Essential Math? TIA

I don't know that I would use the word "imperative" to start with Essentials but I think it really depends on your child. If your child don't have a good math foundation, they will probably find 1B very challenging. I also think, that if your child isn't very mathy, then waiting to use 1A/1B until second grade would be wise. Level 1A/1B isn't necessarily meant to be completed in 1st grade. The level numbers do not correspond with the grade. Level 6A/6B is prealgebra.

So to answer your question, I think it is up to you. If you think your son received a strong enough background with Five in a Row last year in K, then you may be fine moving to 1A/1B a good fit. If not, then I would just do Essentials. The unfortunate part I have discovered is that sometimes you don't know until you try it. I know for my oldest, she is doing 4A/4B in Singapore in 5th grade. My youngest is gifted and she is starting 2nd grade next year but does most stuff at the 3rd/4th grade level and she will be starting Singapore 2A very soon. My son is very normal and average in his abilities - he starts 3rd grade next year and will start 2B.

On the Singapore website, I think they say (if you didn't place them by using the placement test) that for the typical 1st grader, they recommend Essentials. But if you are starting the curriculum in 2nd grade, they recommend for a standard leveled student to complete level 1B/2A for the year. If the second grader was advanced, you would complete 2A/2B. And completing 1A/1B for 2nd grade doesn't put them behind either. HOD moves to Foerester's Algebra after Singapore and waiting until kids are at least 8th grade to start is wise because it is honors level. So for me, my goal is just to finish Singapore by 8th grade. Currently, all of my kids are track to complete Singapore by 7th grade so I will just either add No-Nonse Algebra for a year or I may purchase some of the Singapore Challenging Word Problem books (not sold by HOD) to fill the time - especially for my youngest because she is so far ahead.

I know my answer was clear as mud but hopefully the additional info I typed can help you make a decision that is best for your son.

After starting my first child in 1a/1b when he was technically a 2nd grader, and starting my 2nd child (Kindergarten) in Essentials, I would HIGHLY recommend doing Essentials first. Some of it will be easy, (in fact most of book A will) but the foundation it lays for 1a/1b is crucial. I actually used the Kindergarten Essentials hands on to explain the math concepts to my son in 1a/1b since he had such a hard time with it. He is doing much better now, but we did stop and do the Essentials hands on for awhile so he could really get it. I started him in Essentials and we ended up skipping to 1a/1b since I thought he understood it well enough, but now I know I should have stuck with it and let him finish. He might find math easy instead of challenging if I had kept going with Essentials. My daughter is flying through Essentials faster than the schedule, but I can see how much of a difference it will make for her (and me!) next year when she moves on to 1a/1b. Better the kids think math is "easy" and go quicker than constantly be frustrated because it is too much to grasp. In Essentials, they explain at the basic level how to do the addition and subtraction that they will be doing in 1a/1b. That foundation, I discovered, is really helpful before starting 1a/1b. That is my two cents.

After doing the Rod & Staff book "Counting with Numbers" with my 4 year old (who is almost 5) I looked over the Essentials and we decided to skip book A. But a lot of what is covered in book A was in the R&S book. So it would have been immediate review and I don't think it was needed. I did notice a couple of things in there though that would be good, introduction of weighing and measuring for example. R&S barely touched on that. Now in B she is doing less and more, lots of good practice with that. It is easy right now but I think she needs some time to grow.

1A/1B ramps up quickly. We are doing multiplication and division now in 1B. It starts off very basic as review but I think you really need a solid foundation and understanding of addition and subtraction at least in order to start it. And again, weights and measures are touched on in 1A/1B but they are also practiced in Essentials.

Also the hands-on activities for Essentials are in LHFHG and if you wanted to add hands-on activities for 1A/1B you should really buy the Beyond guide, the activities Carrie has written in there are great!

As Sara Irene mentioned, if Essentials is a little too basic at first you can always go through more than one lesson a day and he will think he's a genius!

One thing to remember is that SM is intended to being 1A at 7 years old. So if he's an older 1st grader he'd probably be fine, however if he's a younger first grader then it would be tricky for him. My personal suggestion no matter what age he is is to get both the K and 1A/B books and let him go at his own pace.

Right now My 5 year old is going through the Essentials. She's getting it with no trouble. I'm allowing her to do however much she wants provided she tells me what she has to do on the page... meaning that she looks at the page and then tells me what she thinks must be done. I "teach" one lesson per day most of the time. However, I also limit her to 15-20 minutes of work so that she doesn't just go through the book in a week.

It gets hard enough soon enough, and letting them go through the K books at a faster pace gives them that background, but doesn't feel too babyish.

There's also the placement test on the Singapore website, you could use that as a guide of where he is at skill-wise. That is the most important thing for his placement.

I would go through the Essentials at a quick pace. Usually kids like to do some things that are "easy" and feel successful. It would give them a great background. Sometimes the page required a little more thinking than I thought it would for my guy who was a little older.