I've spent a little time with Singapore this week
. It seems to me that in order to achieve mastery of concepts a student needs more practice than is contained in the workbook alone. I realize there is some practice with the hands on component but the workbooks really contain very little. Singapore has designed the program with many components (i.e. extra practice, word problems, intensive practice) that seem to be designed to use together in a customized fashion. In my experience (very limited!!!!!!
) kids just do not retain without reviewing, practicing, etc. Since HOD does not recommend HIGs (as an option) until the later grades and does not recommend the Singapore extras how are your kiddos doing with retention and application as the years go by? Are you using the "extras"? Are you finding that the concepts are sticking with such limited practice? How are you doing math facts practice? I believe that it is important for them to understand the concepts first but at some point the recall of their math facts does help them to move forward with more challenging math. It generally needs to be reviewed and practiced. Is there more workbook work as the years go by?? I only own earlybird and 1A/1B at this point. I may pick up 2A and 2B just to "see". The samples just do not reveal enough and make it look simplistic. Yet, when we take the placement tests they're challenging!!! Part of that is due to scope and sequence between curricula but even with that consideration Singapore is more than meets the eye I think!
HOD is so good at guiding us along the path that I guess I'm looking for more with math. It seems too easy and too simple for such a challenging math program. Is there more expected from the teaching Mom when it comes to using Singapore?? In other homeschool circles the families using Singapore generally use several components and believe that Singapore is best taught using more than just the workbooks. Help! I'm just not confident that it is enough math if we follow HOD's lay out and I would love to hear from more long term users HOW you're using Singapore over the years and what your results have been.
Thanks so much! I'd read threads if you know of any that would be helpful. I'll go back and re-read the whys behind HOD's choices as well. Each time I read I glean a little more.
My dc do work on the math wrap-ups for extra practice in math facts, but again that's usually just used to fill in time gaps and keep their brains from turning into mush over long breaks 
. It sounds like each of us has a comfort level in how we go about teaching math and we are also teaching math to unique little people. So, if I use Singapore a la HOD that will be my starting point. I'll take each kiddo on a case by case basis and supplement the teaching or learning as needed. Math Mammoth (my oldest uses this) and Singapore are quite similar in their methodology. It would be simple to use MM materials as "extra practice" alongside Singapore if the need arises.