Singapore Math Surprise and questions! ?

[momofone]

I have had a hard time "understanding" the Singapore math book. Just call me old school, I guess, LOL!
Therefore, it's been hard for me to trust it completely. I haven't ditched it or anything, just a different animal for me, kwim? Background: Jacob is 8 years, going into Beyond next year for all but Lang. (we'll do English 2 and Science, bad math history!)

Today, I had a surprise! We have just been practicing math some here lately, no formal schooling or anything.
I had out his addition the fun way flash cards, since he liked this at first. He had tears, of course, not wanting to do any math at all. (Some of this is due to being spoiled, some just a hatred toward math in general)

So, after running through the cards, I got out the Singapore 1B book and did a lesson using Beyond and a page from the workbook. Before long, he was laughing ridiculously!! I was using my fingers to make "10" and he would say the correct answer, but then give a crazy answer and get all funny with it.
We had the same result last month when we were "experimenting" with Singapore! I don't think he was laughing then, but enjoying the lesson anyway.
O.k., I had seriously thought about using Rod and Staff, 2nd grade since he does not have facts down completely. I wonder now should I back up to 1A, since that's where he would test (because of like 13-9 and etc.) and just do Singapore math as written in "Beyond"??? I've been so confused, help!!
However, today with Singapore/Beyond was a very welcome surprise!!!

Tina

[lmercon]

I would encourage you to give Singapore another try. You may even want to back up and do 1A because that is where the groundwork of the Singapore-way of thinking is laid. It's all about how you think of numbers and their relationships and how to manipulate numbers mentally. I think it's great to start kids out thinking this way from the get-go instead of trying to teach them mental math as some separate unit when they are in the upper grades. I don't use the activities in Beyond because my ds is incredibly mathy and is in 2B already, but the suggestions look really fun and helpful. Give it a try. You may want to just slow down when things get tough.
hth,
Laura

[momofone]

Laura, I think you may be right! Singapore may be the only math that I can get ds to do over the summer.We don't have a strict schedule for math this summer, just a small amount every week.
I would like to know if anyone adds anything to the lessons? I think I saw on another post that flashcards were used some.

Gosh! It would be wonderful if I could get this to work!!!
Thanks, Laura!
Tina

[Carrie]

Tina,

I agree with Laura that it would be good to go through 1A and 1B along with the hands-on activities in the Beyond guide. A steady, stystematic pace of bite-sized pieces would be great for your son's learning and hopefully over time would dispel his hatred for math.

At this point, I'd probably only add flashcard practice once or twice a week, doing all of the 0's together first, and then once those are down moving to doing all the 1's. Then, move on to the 2's and so on.

I wouldn't add anything else to Singapore and just give the Singapore method of math time to work. We've not found the need to add anything else and our kiddos continue to do very well in math.

Blessings,
Carrie