DadDude, that's a nice review of the various programs out there.
But Singapore Math is the only one that's labeled "advanced and highly conceptual"...what does that mean compared to all the others?
Why is it more advanced than all the others? Does that mean it's harder to learn or teach, or that it will prepare kids more?
And what good are all the other programs if they don't prepare you for advanced, highly conceptual math?
I want to know which one of these programs is going to prepare a child to at least be able to approach some challenging subjects, like computer science, statistics, finance, genetics, physics, etc. if they happen to be interested in them.
Sorry if this sounds too detailed, but math education is probably my hottest button issue and the one I am most anxious about because of the notoriously bad math scores in this country, which is why I started this thread.
Yeah, I don't know exactly what it might mean to call "Kindergarten Math A" advanced. ;-) But generally some comments complain that if you switch from another kind of math to Singapore, you actually have to go back a few years.
Some of the comments also seem to imply that it's harder to learn, but we haven't had much trouble with it yet. But then, we haven't gotten past Kindergarten!
Two of the heavy hitters, I gather, are Saxon and Singapore, and these represent two different approaches. Saxon is about repetition and repeatedly coming back to the same material at slightly higher levels (the "spiral" method). Singapore is about exploring a single topic through many different approaches, so that the student thoroughly understands how math works, not just how to do the problems.
Students using either program tend to test very well, I understand. If Saxon students do very well, then probably it is because there is something to their claim that one does ultimately learn math deeply through repetitive drilling and the "spiral" method.
I'm interested in the other methods, mentioned here in this thread, however, especially at this still-early age...
Digg
