Math w/ LHTH??

[laurabelle1317]

Does anyone have any ideas for additional math activities I could do with my son with LHTH. He is 4, so I am not necesarily looking for a formal math program right yet, though I don't want to hold him back either as he is interested in "doing math" and in addition, etc. I looked at Singapore K and I think that would be at his level right now if we wanted to do a formal math program...but since I only have the LHTH book, it doesn't have the math activities in it yet. That comes at the next level. So wondering if I should:

- wait to do Singapore once he is in Little Hearts
- find and do some other math program or math activities right now
- not worry about math for now, though he definitely shows interest, especially in addition right now
- buy the next HOD guide so that I can start Singapore and have the math activities in it?

Like I said, not totally sure I want to get an official math program right now or not anyway. We are starting LHTH in June (we are in FL, so totally cool with schooling in the summer). IF I start a math program of some start I'll wait more until the fall. I don't want us to do too much too soon and have either of us get burned out with too much as we first start homeschooling. He is only 4. We will probably be doing both LHTH and some handwriting to start off with. So I don't want start mat officially RIGHT now, but maybe in the fall?? I know that a lot of the math activities in LHTH are things he is already proficient in for the most part, from what I've checked so far.

Thoughts?

Thanks!
Laura

ETA: Looking at some of the math activies in Little Hearts (or at least just that first week) by the time he is in Little Hearts, he will be way beyond those beginning math activities. When in Little Hearts, he would probably be able to be in the next Singapore level, which I believe in the back of Little Hearts it has activities for that next level from what I hear. So...maybe start with Singapore in the fall while we are doing LHTH? And if so, buy the next HOD guide to have the listed activities for it, or not? Thanks for any insight and suggestions!

[Shimmer]

My oldest was 4 then turned 5 in November for this school year with LHTH. We used Singapore Earlybird 2A/2B with the activities and schedule in LHFHG. There are activities suggested in the Singapore books, but Carrie's activities really takes it a step farther and makes it even easier to grasp in my opinion. It's also a lot of fun! Having the next guide was definately worth it for me. You can also go slower if you don't want to do it daily yet. HTH

[laurabelle1317]

So you skipped the 1A and 1B altogether? Went straight to level 2?

[Mommamo]

You could certainly buy LHFHG and use the activities in that this year. But the schedule for the next level is in the back of LHFHG, for the actual activities you'd need to buy Beyond. So you'd always be using two guides, one for your main thing, one for the math. That's sort of what we've done. We've jumped back and forth between RightStart and Singapore so when we've done Singapore we're in two guides. But it can be done.

If you just want some fun math to do with your little guy, check out your library. There are tons of "living" math books for that age child. We've been reading a lot of math related books lately and my 4 year old is picking up a lot just doing that. During big sis's math time, he is off playing, so he really is only getting his math that way. We also like using Janice VanCleave's Play and Find Out About Math. I cannot tell you how many times we've checked it out from the library. At some point I'm going to have to buy it!! I seriously check it out about 7 times a year! But anyway, they're awesome, gentle, experiental math lessons. Carrie's math lessons in LHTH are great, and I think this is a great supplement to those. At this age I think it helps so much for them to experience the concepts, and then when they get the labels it makes so much more sense to them at that point and LHTH definitely seems to do that.

Anyway, just my experiences. I hope something in there helped. LOL Let me know if you are interested in the names of some of the books we've been reading and I'll see if I can find some for you.

And oh-Singapore Earlybird 2A/2B is what is scheduled in LHFHG. Then the next level is the regular 1A/1B, which is different from Earlybird, just so you know. It's kind of confusing.

[laurabelle1317]

I am confused. On the Singapore website I only see an Early Bird A & B (not an early bird 1A/1B and early bird 2A/2B). And then I see the regular 1A/1B and so on.

[laurabelle1317]

Okay, I found it the early bird level 2.

So Shimmer, you skipped early bird level 1 and just went to early bird level 2. I think my son could do some of that, but we may still start with level 1 maybe. I'll have to look into it more. Then when we do LHFHG he should certainly be ready for early bird level 2 if we haven't gotten there yet.

Thanks for the help and clarification eveyone! I still welcome more info and ideas though...as I will still be thinking about what to do.

[laurabelle1317]

Ack. To add to the confusion, here is what I see on the Singapore website:

Earlybird 1A/1B (out of stock, replaced by standards edition) http://www.singaporemath.com/Earlybird_ ... ebus1a.htm
Earlybird 2A/2B (out of stock, replaced by standards edition) http://www.singaporemath.com/Earlybird_ ... ebus2a.htm
Early Bird A & B (standards edition) http://www.singaporemath.com/Earlybird_ ... bstdta.htm

So I think the early birds 1A/1B and 2A/2B no longer exist and have been replaced by Early Bird A & B? IFthat is the case, then that will also mess up the LHFHG math lesson plans?? And if they no longer exist, that could be why I couldn't find them by perusing ths Singapore site. I had to do a google search to find them.

[eachlee]

Hi,
We're doing LHTH here right now with my 4 y/o who is also really enjoying numbers. While I think he's ready for the earlybird singapore math, I want to hold off. (Just my personal opinion, I think he'll have many years of a formal math program and I rather let him have fun with number for now without the pressure of doing assigned workbook pages...) I have some preschool/kinder level workbooks that use numbers like connect the dots and color by number and he enjoys those.

We often take the LHTH math activities a little further than the guide suggests, since he enjoys numbers so much. Spending more like 1/2 an hour on math 'play' when the rest of the lessons are finished.

Also, Singapore used to have a 2 year earlybird program with earlybird 1a/b and 2a/b each lasting a year, but they have switched to now only a one year program titled 'earlybird a and earlybird b'. HOD uses the older books earlybird 2a and b, which are out of print, but still available to HOD.

Hope that you will enjoy LHTH as much as we do.

[laurabelle1317]

Makes me wonder if I should hurry up and buy the Early Bird 1A/1B and 2A/2B now before they are not available even from HOD anymore!

Hmm....definitely need to look more into this soon! I'm going to want those if they are going to go with the HOD guides. But I guess eventually they will have to update the HOD guides?

[eachlee]

As far as I know, the singapore math company will continue to print the earlybird math books for HOD, there was a thread about that a while ago... but I don't know how to find and link it up... Carrie posted something to that effect anyway. You don't need the earlybird 1a/b only earlybird 2a and 2b. The math that isn't for K is not going oop or being restructured (as far as I know) so you don't need to stock up on the books for grade 1.

[MelInKansas]

Hmmm... I thought the Standards edition(s) had the same numbers as the old ones, and were barely changed (meaning the pages in LHFHG or BLHFHG would still be fine for the most part). Now this makes me think I should hurry up and order because we'll be doing LHFHG this year.

To answer the original question, I have two thoughts.
1) LHTH has some simple math activities included, and you could easily make these more challenging if your son is really into numbers. Just look at your week beforehand and try to think of ways to make those games/activities a little harder for him. That's what I would do.
2) Get a totally different workbook at his level to work on, then kind of "review" by doing the one that goes with LHFHG next year. I don't have any specific suggestions on that.

[Kathleen]

Laura,

You certainly could add in the math from LHFHG to your day in LHTH...but I wouldn't. Now, with my oldest, I totally would have been tempted to just like you. But having made it a ways down the road with my oldest, I can see how things get much more difficult plenty soon and there's really no reason to rush to jump in. While I certainly believe that your son could handle what's in the Earlybird 2A/2B books....do you want him to have to know all the multiplication facts (through 9's) in 1st grade?? That would feel a bit heavy in my opinion and can easily be avoided by just waiting to dive in until next year. Even a child who "gets" math is still going to enjoy the activities in LHFHG as a 5 yo. My 3yo this year has joined in on the math activities with us (not the paper and pencil things though ). And he enjoys them, and understands them. He talks about math all the time in real life and you can tell that it's really a strength of his. We're a math loving family, too. It's always been my favorite subject and come easily for me. My husband loves it too, although science is his favorite. Anyway, it appears that all of our kids are strong in math as well, and I'm definitely waiting with my 3 yo who can do ALL the actvities in LHFHG well to do the Singapore Earlybird 2A/2B until he's 5. I've seen a ways down the road and I don't want him in over his head too soon. He'll enjoy it a lot more if he gets to continue to love math and take it easy while he's young, and then when we get there he'll still feel like he's good at math...not that it's too hard.

Just so you know, too, in Singapore they start with 1A when kids are 7. (The K level stuff is only created for the US.) So, if you're there at 6, you're definitely not "behind". And the program is created to pick up the pace quickly!

Kathleen

[Shimmer]

Okay, I found it the early bird level 2.

So Shimmer, you skipped early bird level 1 and just went to early bird level 2. I think my son could do some of that, but we may still start with level 1 maybe. I'll have to look into it more. Then when we do LHFHG he should certainly be ready for early bird level 2 if we haven't gotten there yet.

Thanks for the help and clarification eveyone! I still welcome more info and ideas though...as I will still be thinking about what to do.

I buy Singapore from HOD as it's too confusing to make sure you get the right level otherwise. In the materials listings for LHFHG you can still purchase Singapore Earlybird 2A/2B as HOD has it stock for sometime yet. It's OOP (out of print) otherwise so I think it's the only place that particular level that the LHFGH guide uses. If HOD doesn't have it at some point, I'm sure a different math program will be substituted.

We didn't do Earlybird 1, just started with Earlybird 2 with the LHFGH guide. I'll probably buy ahead for my younger two since we liked it so well.

I beefed up LHTH for my oldest to be stronger in Reading, LA, and Math as that is what she was ready for and we've had a great year. Next year she will be in LHFHG with Emerging Readers from Beyond, Singapore 1 from Beyond, and more LA. One of the beauties of homeschooling is going at your child's pace so if some of the later math takes a little longer to click because she'll be younger than the target age, that's fine. We'll work on it when we get there and continue to go at her pace. That's what I'm doing away so HTH.

[laurabelle1317]

Shimmer - it is my understanding that with LHFHG you can choose to buy EB 2A/2B or Primary 1A/1B. And while in the main part of the guide it has activities for the EB, apparently in the appendix it has the activities for the Primary 1A/1B. So since the next level is in the appendix, the next guide wouldn't have to be purchased just for the math activities, unless of course they are even beyond the math that is in the appendix of that book.

[Shimmer]

Not quite. The schedule of what pages to do in Singapore 1A/1B are in the appendix of LHFHG, but Carries' activities are not there, just the page numbers for the Singapore books. Singapore Earlybird 2A/2B had activities in them already and I would imagine that would still be the case in 1A/1B. But if you want Carrie's activities, you'll have to to get the Beyond guide.