DadDude,

My fingers have been ITCHING to click on the "Buy all 225 Kindle files" button ever since Sonya posted that link! Lousy formatting of ebooks irks me, so the nice formatting is the main selling point for me. Glad to see that I am not the only one rationalizing away... Heheh  

Thanks for the heads-up, Manda!

 

You're welcome, nadia!

This is my understanding of the different "Singapore math" curricula. It is a little confusing so please bear with me.

When you say "Singapore math," you are actually talking about a certain methodology of teaching mathematics developed by the Singapore Ministry of Education back in 1980. There used to be only one textbook package which was written and published by the Education Ministry called "Primary Mathematics" based on this methodology. The textbooks on the SingaporeMath.com website called Primary Mathematics US Ed and Primary Mathematics Standards Ed are based on this original version of Singapore Math but are adapted and written specifically for the US market. Math In Focus is another US edition based on Primary Mathematics.

In 2001, the original Singapore math syllabus was completely revised by the Singapore education ministry "to reflect recent developments in mathematics education and to meet the challenges of the 21st century." They are now calling the original syllabus "Old Singapore Math" and the new syllabus "New Singapore Math." And, there are now several textbook packages written and published by Singapore's textbook publishers based on the New Singapore Math syllabus:

1. New Syllabus Primary Mathematics
2. My Pals Are Here! Maths
3. Discover Maths

All the primary schools in Singapore are now using one of these New Singapore Math textbook/workbook packages and all of these are approved by Singapore's education department. I believe there is a fourth brand, called Shaping Maths but I am not sure if it is approved by the education ministry. Here is a website that may help you choose the package you would like to use: http://www.sgbox.com/studyskill13.html#comparison

Hope this helps! 

By the way, the My Pals Are Here publishers also have a line of science textbooks called My Pals Are Here! Science which have good reviews on homeschooling sites so it is on my shortlist of options as supplements to our science curriculum later on when we start tackling Science in a more formal manner.

Hi Nee! Thanks Yes we started with 3a as it's the only copy I have (courtesy of a friend). It's actually our dilemma how to get the next levels :/

Nadia0801,

I just sent you a PM with the contact details for the Philippine distributor of Singapore Math and My Pals are Here Science and Math.

Hope it helps!

 

That is SO awesome, Manda! Just what I was looking for. Loads of karma to you!!! 

I would have to agree with Sonya regarding the use of manipulatives. But this is mostly because I have a daughter who insists on knowing WHY? for everything I teach her. When she was barely 2, she wanted to know why 8+5=13. We were doing Jones Geniuses then and she was not contented with the explanation that because that's what the dot matrix says. I had to demonstrate it several times using the abacus, M&Ms, toy animals, etc. before she was satisfied. When she was 3 and I had just started teaching her the times tables, she HAD to know why 6x8=48. For algebra, if I had simply told her that the x's must be grouped together and the constants together and any of them that goes over to the other side will change their sign, she will definitely not let it go at that. It was much easier for me to demonstrate, using lego people and a balance similar to that used in HoE, that because there is an equal sign in the middle, whatever you do to one side you should also do to the other to keep the equation "balanced" and equal. After only a couple of demonstrations, she was able to make the mental jump from concrete --> pictorial --> abstract by herself and was able to start solving pretty complex algebra equations without manipulatives. The use of manipulatives did not hamper her progress in any way, but instead helped her to become more engaged in the learning process because she understood the why for everything I was telling her right from the beginning.

 

P.S. It does get pretty exhausting trying to answer all the why's though!

[this is just an example]

Hmm... these are my thoughts regarding doing Singapore math and soroban simultaneously... When we are doing Singapore math, I do not let Ella use anzan to solve the problems. I insist that she solve the equations the Singapore math way. In my humble opinion, the strength of the Singapore math program is due, in a large part, to the way it teaches mental math and the number sense the child develops from using its mental math techniques. For me, it would defeat the purpose of using the program if I let her do the exercises any other way. Although it is definitely much easier for Ella to do the exercises using anzan (as she is much more proficient in it), and sometimes it is a struggle for me to insist that she do it the Singapore way, but I persist because my goal in using SM (and MEP and all the other programs that I use with her, for that matter) is for her to develop a deeper understanding of numbers and their relationships to each other than what soroban/anzan can provide. I have seen a few older students at her school who, (this is just an example), would have no idea that 79 is NOT the answer to 87+92, just because they forgot to move a 100-bead up and their abacus says that that is the answer, whereas, Ella would say right away that, wait a minute, that can't be right because the sum of 87 and 92 should be bigger than either of those numbers, EVEN IF she had made a mistake in manipulating the beads and forgot to add that 100-bead. I think there is definitely a danger for a child who is very good at soroban and anzan to just rely on manipulating the beads without realizing or understanding what those beads represent - similar to the abacus salesman somebody brought up in a previous thread. I think this is also what some parents were referring to when they raised concerns about the mechanized aspect of learning soroban in a thread a while back. I am NOT saying that this is going to happen to every child who is learning the soroban; certainly, there are some naturally mathematically-adept children who will not fall into this trap, but for me I wanted to ENSURE that Ella does not.

Anyway, just my 2 cents'... 

We started with the Kumon workbooks (Tracing, Mazes, Cutting, Pasting) at 2 years and a few months old. We didn't do it regularly or anything and it took us almost a year to finish them. Then we started the Pre-K workbook of HWT when she was around 3 years 4 months, again taking our time and just doing it whenever she felt like it, maybe once a week or every 2 weeks.  At the same time, we did a lot of pre-writing fine motor skills practice using play-doh, beads, chopsticks, etc. We only started "formal" handwriting lessons at 3 years 10-11 months, at her insistent request. She has since mastered manuscript and has pretty neat (and fast) handwriting for her age. I plan to start cursive in a few weeks.

I understand where the teacher is coming from. Suzuki violin places GREAT emphasis on the production of a beautiful tone, and even 2 and 3-year-old beginners are not exempt. That is why a lot of their students are not even taught to read notes until Book 2 or 3. However, if you are not going to make learning violin and note-reading part of the same lesson, I don't see how it can hurt. Even if he already knows how to read music, if you don't introduce it during violin practice and lessons, he will still need to rely on his ears to hear whether he is producing a good tone or not.

Just my (inexpert) 2 cents' worth...

One thing about the teacher's abacus, TmT. The beads are quite difficult to manipulate for kids. The abacus is designed for hanging up on walls of classrooms and thus there is quite a bit of friction between the individual beads and the rods so that the beads will not fall down by gravity when the teacher is demonstrating a certain number or operation. There were several times during abacus class when Ella was called by the teacher to solve an equation using the teacher's abacus, and she had to use both hands and quite a bit of effort to move the beads. She was around 3.5 at that time but quite strong for her age. I don't know if this was a problem only with that particular teacher's abacus in her school (maybe it's old) or if all of them are designed like that. Thought you might like to check first. Or ask Tom about it.

Yes, we are using both Wink and Memory Magic, among other RB programs. We started Wink when Ella was 3.5 or so, and Memory Magic a little after that. I didn't have to adapt it much as she was already able to follow the instructions and play the games at that point. The recommended age for Wink is 4 and I have heard Wennie of RB kids say that it is not advisable to start any earlier than 3.5 to 4 as the Wink activities are designed for older kids and adults who have bridged over to the left brain already, and if used too early, especially Memory Train or Linking Memory, will actually cause the child to bridge and shorten the period of their right-brain absorbent state. The activities in Memory Magic are pretty similar to some components of Wink, so I would imagine the age recommendation applies for MM as well.

Excellent video, Skylark!

We have several versions of Swan Lake performed by the different ballet companies, as Ella is very much in love with everything about the ballet and the opera, but I must say, I think this is the best of them! Ella has requested to watch it almost daily ever since I downloaded it. She also loves reading about all the other ballet and opera stories (we must have collected more than a dozen books already) as well as listening to audiobooks and music CDs of the recordings, but Swan Lake is definitely her all-time favorite!

Thanks for sharing! 

Hi DadDude,

I know this is an old thread; I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to compile this list and sharing it with us. It was really helpful, particularly for me as I am not a native English speaker and did not grow up in an English environment so a lot of what you would consider classics for kids I would not even have thought of reading to my daughter. It was also through your list that I was introduced to the excellent Usborne Illustrated series of books, which have become all-time favorites in our house. We have now read through almost everything on your list (and then some!), and Ella seems to have roughly the same taste in books as H. So I was wondering if you have an updated list of what you and H have been reading since you wrote this, and if you would share it with us again.

Thanks again!

Ella made a couple of interesting structures over the last few days that made me think of this thread. 

The first pic is an "Egyptian mummy inside a sarcophagus." She continued adding to her creation with a mix of Duplo, Lego, Megabloks, and Zoob until she had a pretty good depiction of life in ancient Egypt, which was unfortunately destroyed by an over-eager younger cousin before I had time to take a picture of the whole thing.

The second pic looks like a pile of geometric solids to ME, but, according to her, is actually "an Ice Age dwelling built by Homo sapiens sapiens using mammoth bones and skin with 2 mammoth-hunters beside it." And check out their tools in the foreground too - there is a "harpoon made from a long wooden stick and blade from mammoth bone which is used for hunting seals", as well as a "chopper - it's the round piece of rock with sharp edges used for crushing nuts."

Oooookay! 

 (Words in quotation marks are hers.)

Arvi,

We don't do our right brain activities as a whole block for 1.5 hours a day. We split it up into many sessions throughout the day, and that is just my estimate of the total amount of time we spend on them for the day. I would typically squeeze in short RB activities in between her "school work" (handwriting, spelling, math, etc) to balance out the left-brain tendencies of her lessons. She also likes these short RB interludes since she treats them as playing, fun, and games. I think they refresh her mind and sort of resets her attention span.

I also did not have a lot of time to do research, prepare materials, or plan our curriculum until recently, when I took a long sabbatical from work. It was a very difficult choice for me to make given the nature of my career, but I felt I had to make it, because I couldn't do everything I wanted to do for Ella in the short time (2-3 hours at most) that I had with her after coming home from work. I am very fortunate in that my hubby fully supported my decision and that we are financially able to do it. Which is why I am now doing everything I can to collate materials, finish preparing stuff, and plan curricula in advance before I use up my leave and have to go back to work full-time.

As for my "research" into RB education, I really have not done much of it myself, heheh, because another forum member, Shen-Li, has done it all for us and has very generously shared all her knowledge in her blog. If you haven't come across her wonderful, very well-organized blog chock-full of RB research, list of resources/materials, and suggestions for home activities for busy moms, you really should go over and read it. Really! She is probably a hundred times more knowledgeable about this topic than anybody else on this forum!

Here is a quick link to her page on RB education: http://www.figur8.net/articles/right-brain-education/

As for the specific RB activities that we do, here is a list. We don't do all of them everyday, but I do try to rotate the activities around so she doesn't tire of them.

1. Eye Exercises and Photoeyeplay
2. Rapid Flashing
3. Linking Memory
4. Space Memory or Memory Grid
5. Photographic Memory (both visual and auditory) and Observation Training
6. Mental Imaging - we do this both as a purely imaging activity and as part of our "school work," specifically anzan and geography. She loves visualizing and imagining the sights, sounds, and smells of all the places we are learning about in geography.
7. Mandalas
8. Tangrams
9. Puzzles and Building Toys
10. RB Ipad Apps

The only things I haven't done much of are Magic Eye and ESP Games because, surprisingly, I've found that we currently have more than enough RB activities and it is really quite easy to do an hour or so's worth of them - and I am not even counting reading, listening to classical music, and perfect pitch activities!

Hope this helps!