My sweet girls are having a heck of time with passing the Singapore math 6B test!!! It is hard, but I think they know the material-- they seem to be able to solve the problems fine on their own, but then they choke on the test or the test takes the problems one more level and they just can't make it. The test problems and a lot of the singapore math problems are intense story problems that I had a hard time solving without using Algebra. They are the type of questions found on the ACT or SAT, so I would really like for my girls to master the program. I'm sure a lot of it is the inconsistency of summer. But I think they need a change and #2 has a lot of Greek to finish by Sept. 1 when her dad will be teaching their Latin 1 class. They know he is a lot more strict than I am. I hope they do well. I think we really need to work on our test taking skills. I think this is an area I have overlooked as a teacher. We've got time to remedy the situation, but aaaaaahhhhh!! I was hoping to be all done!! Oh well!!
So these last couple weeks of summer, #2 has to finish 8 chapters of Greek which means she main not have time for much else, and #1 has started a Pre-algebra book we have. She likes it so far, it is mostly review, but I think she needs the practice to really hone her math skills.
Wish us luck!!!
Showing posts with label math. Show all posts
Showing posts with label math. Show all posts
Friday, August 19, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Review of the Week #13 -- Much Better!
This week went much better than last week. We accomplished a lot although we didn't get to everything -- but that's life. It makes such a difference to get a full night's sleep and be able to get up early and get the kids up early too. The oldest 2 have their checklists, and they just work through it until they're done.
We had a birthday party for the now 4 yr old born on Groundhog Day. We rode FrontRunner into Salt Lake where we took Trax and saw the stained glass in the Assembly Hall and peeked in the Tabernacle and then caught Trax back to the FrontRunner station and back to our station. All the kids thought it was great fun. The Birthday Boy especially liked it as he loves trains and wanted to ride one for his birthday. Success!
Also this week, we went to our new Math Study Group which was a success. #1 taught everybody how to simplify fractions and did a great job. Math has not been her favorite subject, but she really liked teaching. It seemed new for a couple of the kids in the group and review for others, but overall it was good. I hope everybody comes back. We'll find out in 2 weeks. Everybody got to play with friends this week and have late-overs so that helped too. We need fun to look forward to so we can get through our work.
So on to the review of the school week - We had group time 4 days this week and story time only once. We started the 13th article of faith, so I need to make a list of new scriptures for the upcoming weeks. I extended group time to one hour to include a bunch of memorization, scriptures, music, exercise and languages. We do about 10 minutes/ subject. It's not long, but it keeps it interesting and keeps everybody's attention.
The girls both finished their Singapore Math 6A workbooks. #1 was upset when her sister caught up to her, but she's O.K. now. I wnated to be sure they will both pass the test on the first try so I decided to have them do some review first. They'll take the test sometime this week. The percentage problems are really, really hard.
Here is an example of the type of problem they have to solve:
There are 50 men and 40 women at a party. How many percent more men than women are there? The answer is 25%.
So we need to make sure that's solid. The rest of the test is a bit of algebraic notation, speed, and ratios which I think they know, but we'll do some review problems just to be sure. I love those story problems-- the girls are really learning to think.
#3 learned long division and can do it pretty well. #4 is working on money. #3 is finally reading pretty well and is actually enjoying the treehouse books on his own --yay!! The phonics workbooks are going well for the boys too. #5 has a good time in "preschool" which has turned into time with someone assigned to play with him and make him happy. He has to start doing his chores more regularly because he's 4 now. He would tell us that he was too little to do his jobs "because I'm 3".
Anyway, it was a good week. I've got to make checklists for the boys this week because I just remembered a couple things we forgot- piano and reading to me. For next week- we need to add in science, make sure we have little kids story time daily and big kids storytime 3 times a week. It should happen this week because we'll hold school Mon- Thursday and go on a field trip on Friday. I'm excited. Homeschooling is fun when things run smoothly and everybody's happy. I'll need to get up soon and start cleaning, but I have to admit I like sleeping in and staying in bed as long as possible. Once I get up, I have to start feeding and cleaning!!
We had a birthday party for the now 4 yr old born on Groundhog Day. We rode FrontRunner into Salt Lake where we took Trax and saw the stained glass in the Assembly Hall and peeked in the Tabernacle and then caught Trax back to the FrontRunner station and back to our station. All the kids thought it was great fun. The Birthday Boy especially liked it as he loves trains and wanted to ride one for his birthday. Success!
Also this week, we went to our new Math Study Group which was a success. #1 taught everybody how to simplify fractions and did a great job. Math has not been her favorite subject, but she really liked teaching. It seemed new for a couple of the kids in the group and review for others, but overall it was good. I hope everybody comes back. We'll find out in 2 weeks. Everybody got to play with friends this week and have late-overs so that helped too. We need fun to look forward to so we can get through our work.
So on to the review of the school week - We had group time 4 days this week and story time only once. We started the 13th article of faith, so I need to make a list of new scriptures for the upcoming weeks. I extended group time to one hour to include a bunch of memorization, scriptures, music, exercise and languages. We do about 10 minutes/ subject. It's not long, but it keeps it interesting and keeps everybody's attention.
The girls both finished their Singapore Math 6A workbooks. #1 was upset when her sister caught up to her, but she's O.K. now. I wnated to be sure they will both pass the test on the first try so I decided to have them do some review first. They'll take the test sometime this week. The percentage problems are really, really hard.
Here is an example of the type of problem they have to solve:
There are 50 men and 40 women at a party. How many percent more men than women are there? The answer is 25%.
So we need to make sure that's solid. The rest of the test is a bit of algebraic notation, speed, and ratios which I think they know, but we'll do some review problems just to be sure. I love those story problems-- the girls are really learning to think.
#3 learned long division and can do it pretty well. #4 is working on money. #3 is finally reading pretty well and is actually enjoying the treehouse books on his own --yay!! The phonics workbooks are going well for the boys too. #5 has a good time in "preschool" which has turned into time with someone assigned to play with him and make him happy. He has to start doing his chores more regularly because he's 4 now. He would tell us that he was too little to do his jobs "because I'm 3".
Anyway, it was a good week. I've got to make checklists for the boys this week because I just remembered a couple things we forgot- piano and reading to me. For next week- we need to add in science, make sure we have little kids story time daily and big kids storytime 3 times a week. It should happen this week because we'll hold school Mon- Thursday and go on a field trip on Friday. I'm excited. Homeschooling is fun when things run smoothly and everybody's happy. I'll need to get up soon and start cleaning, but I have to admit I like sleeping in and staying in bed as long as possible. Once I get up, I have to start feeding and cleaning!!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Math Study Group
The following is an email I sent out to some homeschool yahoo groups I am a part of. I think it will be really great if it works out. I hope!!
I am starting a math study group for pre-algebra and algebra. I would expect that most of the kids in the club have already learned the concepts we'll go over, but it's not completely necessary. It will be more of a review/ practice session to make the math fun and keep it fresh in their minds. This is for boys and girls, ages probably about 10-14. (See below for topic list)
I propose that each kid will take a turn presenting the concept for the week-- teaching the other kids the concept and demonstrating how to solve problems to illustrate the skill. This should take from 10- 20 min. Then the group would do some practice problems and maybe even play a game that will help solidify the concept for another 15 min. Then we would finish up by assigning random problems to individuals or groups to solve. We may even try finding as many different ways to solve the problems as we can. I anticipate the total time to be from 45 min. to an hour.
We learn things better when we have to teach them to someone else and I don't think you can have too much review for math, so I think this will be a very beneficial group.
I will schedule the local library when we figure out a time as we can reserve either the small study rooms or the bigger auditorium and the younger siblings can look at books while the older ones are participating in the math club.
To make this successful we need at least 3 kids and probably no more than 8. So let me know if this interests you and what your availability is. I will post the meeting times and subjects for each group in the calendar section of the UTacademicHS yahoo group once we get it set up so that people can just come for a specific topic if they want.
The following is a list of what we'll start with- meeting 2x per month:
Simplifying Fractions
Adding and Subtracting Fractions
Multiplying Fractions
Converting between Fractions and Decimals
Percentages
Ratios and Proportions
Probability and Chance
Order of Operations
Area of a Quadrangle
Angles and Types of Triangles
Area of a Triangle
Radius, Diameter, and Circumference
Pi and the Area of a Circle
Bar Charts
Pie Charts
Coordinates
Line Graphs
Volume of a Cube
Variables
Equations and Solving for Variables
Exponents and Powers
Number Line and Positive\Negative Numbers
Coordinates and Lines
Slope of a Line
Functions
Writing Linear Equations with two points
Exponential Growth
Roots
Graphing Quadratic Equations
Solving Quadratic Equations
Adding and Subtracting Polynomials
Multiplying Polynomials
Factoring Polynomials
Pythagorean Theorem
I am starting a math study group for pre-algebra and algebra. I would expect that most of the kids in the club have already learned the concepts we'll go over, but it's not completely necessary. It will be more of a review/ practice session to make the math fun and keep it fresh in their minds. This is for boys and girls, ages probably about 10-14. (See below for topic list)
I propose that each kid will take a turn presenting the concept for the week-- teaching the other kids the concept and demonstrating how to solve problems to illustrate the skill. This should take from 10- 20 min. Then the group would do some practice problems and maybe even play a game that will help solidify the concept for another 15 min. Then we would finish up by assigning random problems to individuals or groups to solve. We may even try finding as many different ways to solve the problems as we can. I anticipate the total time to be from 45 min. to an hour.
We learn things better when we have to teach them to someone else and I don't think you can have too much review for math, so I think this will be a very beneficial group.
I will schedule the local library when we figure out a time as we can reserve either the small study rooms or the bigger auditorium and the younger siblings can look at books while the older ones are participating in the math club.
To make this successful we need at least 3 kids and probably no more than 8. So let me know if this interests you and what your availability is. I will post the meeting times and subjects for each group in the calendar section of the UTacademicHS yahoo group once we get it set up so that people can just come for a specific topic if they want.
The following is a list of what we'll start with- meeting 2x per month:
Simplifying Fractions
Adding and Subtracting Fractions
Multiplying Fractions
Converting between Fractions and Decimals
Percentages
Ratios and Proportions
Probability and Chance
Order of Operations
Area of a Quadrangle
Angles and Types of Triangles
Area of a Triangle
Radius, Diameter, and Circumference
Pi and the Area of a Circle
Bar Charts
Pie Charts
Coordinates
Line Graphs
Volume of a Cube
Variables
Equations and Solving for Variables
Exponents and Powers
Number Line and Positive\Negative Numbers
Coordinates and Lines
Slope of a Line
Functions
Writing Linear Equations with two points
Exponential Growth
Roots
Graphing Quadratic Equations
Solving Quadratic Equations
Adding and Subtracting Polynomials
Multiplying Polynomials
Factoring Polynomials
Pythagorean Theorem
Monday, November 8, 2010
Interesting articles about Singapore Math
http://www.thedailyriff.com/2010/10/singapore-math-demystified-why-we-should.php
Singapore Math story problems are awesome. They are hard, but the kids learn to do them from the beginning. They then practice the basic math skills by practicing story problems. Very good stuff. There are more links at the bottom of that page to other articles written by him.
Singapore Math story problems are awesome. They are hard, but the kids learn to do them from the beginning. They then practice the basic math skills by practicing story problems. Very good stuff. There are more links at the bottom of that page to other articles written by him.
Singapore Math-- should we switchover from Saxon?
This is a copy of a post from my other blog:
We love Singapore math. I started my first on Saxon and we both hated it for the constant repetition and it's sooooo dry. The Singapore books are like you're playing. If you did have your kids go back, they'd probably actually enjoy it it because there are so many codes and mazes and things to , so if they already know the concepts it would be a fun review and practice but you can have them take the placement tests on the Singapore site to see where they are.
I have posted a couple posts on our math experience on my blog if you want to read about it. My first daughter had a bit of a hard time transitioning and we took a loooong time on levels 1 and 2, finally by level 3 I decided we needed to really focus on math and get her caught up. Level 4 was tough, but now she's onto level 5 and whizzing through. I'll find out tomorrow how well when she takes her test which is the placement test on their site. I'm hoping she'll start Algebra by the end of this year, she'll be 6th grade age.
It was a tough transition I think mostly because she got a sour taste for math from the boring Saxon books, and she's more of an artsy imaginative kid not real math minded. The other kids who started with Singapore have just whizzed through with no problem. They slow down when we get to a harder section, but once they get it, they're off. They should be fully prepared to start Algebra when they finish level 6, and the story problems are amazing. I'm learning how to solve them without Algebra. Then we plan to use the Algebra and Geometry books from McDougall Littell. We haven't picked the Trig or Calculus books yet.
Also the US edition Singapore math books are the ones they were using in their schools when they were ranked #1 in the world for math. Tried and tested with excellent results. Love it!!! Good luck on your decision.
We love Singapore math. I started my first on Saxon and we both hated it for the constant repetition and it's sooooo dry. The Singapore books are like you're playing. If you did have your kids go back, they'd probably actually enjoy it it because there are so many codes and mazes and things to , so if they already know the concepts it would be a fun review and practice but you can have them take the placement tests on the Singapore site to see where they are.
I have posted a couple posts on our math experience on my blog if you want to read about it. My first daughter had a bit of a hard time transitioning and we took a loooong time on levels 1 and 2, finally by level 3 I decided we needed to really focus on math and get her caught up. Level 4 was tough, but now she's onto level 5 and whizzing through. I'll find out tomorrow how well when she takes her test which is the placement test on their site. I'm hoping she'll start Algebra by the end of this year, she'll be 6th grade age.
It was a tough transition I think mostly because she got a sour taste for math from the boring Saxon books, and she's more of an artsy imaginative kid not real math minded. The other kids who started with Singapore have just whizzed through with no problem. They slow down when we get to a harder section, but once they get it, they're off. They should be fully prepared to start Algebra when they finish level 6, and the story problems are amazing. I'm learning how to solve them without Algebra. Then we plan to use the Algebra and Geometry books from McDougall Littell. We haven't picked the Trig or Calculus books yet.
Also the US edition Singapore math books are the ones they were using in their schools when they were ranked #1 in the world for math. Tried and tested with excellent results. Love it!!! Good luck on your decision.
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