? about best math programs for AL's

[Kelly in IL]

Been homeschooling a DD Aspie for 9 years, but trying to shift gears for an advanced 7-year-old. Been using Singapore, but found Life of Fred yesterday on posts. What programs do you recommend to make sure you are challenging advanced young learners?
Thanks!

[Blessedfamily]

What level is s/he working at now? That makes a big difference in what I'd recommend.

LOF and Singapore are both highly regarded. My DD has used Singapore from the begininng (along with Miquon at first), and I am completely satisfied with the depth of learning she's had.

[Laura Corin]

Is your child more mathy or more verbal? I'd use Singapore for the first and LOF for the second.

Laura

[lgm]

:iagree:

I have a highly v-s mathy guy ...Singapore was good. Ed Zaccarro was fun. Books where the main character talks about math are ditched in favor of actual problems where he has to think and preferably gain insight.

At 7, good supplements were computer games: Zoombinis, Pit Droids, Zoo Tycoon, Cluefinders for PC.

Tying knots and braiding are also great fun.

[MissKNG]

I started using Singapore Earlybird Kinder for my dd and supplement with Critical Thinking Co Math Reasoning Level A. I like the SM a lot and found most of the manipulatives at home. I plan on continuing to use SM after we complete the K!

[Karin]

Is your child more mathy or more verbal? I'd use Singapore for the first and LOF for the second.

Laura


This is a good suggestion. However, if you have one like my eldest dd who is both mathy and verbal, you could do both or either. However, with an Aspie, if there is any way you can get him to see them first, that might help a lot. One of my visual learners hated Singapore Math, but the other one didn't. But both of them, who are both mathy, like LoF because they love stories, find it entertaining, etc.

I prefer to use more than one program, so I would suggest doing both if you can.

[MadSci Mama]

Is there any reason no one is recommending Saxon math???

[ELaurie]

Professor B Math. The link is in my signature line :001_smile:

[HeidiD]

Been homeschooling a DD Aspie for 9 years, but trying to shift gears for an advanced 7-year-old. Been using Singapore, but found Life of Fred yesterday on posts. What programs do you recommend to make sure you are challenging advanced young learners?
Thanks!

Something I accidentally discovered - using material written for kids with LD's is an extremely efficient approach to helping kids without LD's make rapid progress. I had some math books from EPS that were originally purchased for my dyslexic son, intended for 3rd/4th math level. My 6 yo had had no math instruction aside from watching the "Mathtacular" dvd that Sonlight sells, yet after dabbling around with the EPS books for the last couple of weeks, he's flying through Seton's 3rd grade math book (which he complains is boring and repetitive). The same for reading - no formal instruction whatsoever aside from Leap Frog videos, yet after picking up the leveled readers I had used for dyslexic son, he's devouring Hardy Boys (I'm not sure what age level they're written for, but definitely not beginner readers). So for an advanced 7 yo, I would think EPS books would be a good match, particularly the ones intended to develop mathematical thinking, and the word problem books.

Here's the link:
https://www.epsbooks.com/dynamic/catalog/subject.asp?subject=76S

[Kelly in IL]

thanks so much for all the help! Kelly

[Karin]

Is there any reason no one is recommending Saxon math???


I don't recommend it because it was a very poor fit for my middle dd as a student and for me as a teacher. My eldest did it for three years, self teaching. I find the word problems are not as strong in Saxon as they are in Singapore or MEP. Heuristically, I think SM is one if the strongest programs out there for math before LoF and others kick in. I haven't tried every program out there, of course, as there are far too many, but I've tried Saxon, Miquon, MUS, Singapore, MEP. (we use both MUS & SM, but now MEP is our summer math; it has some great things about it, too, but no textbook and I haven't used it as extensively as SM.) I bought and sold RightStart because it was too teacher intensive for me at that point, although it has many strong things about it. In addition, there was far too much review in Saxon for my eldest, so we had to skip a lot of problems. Since we went all year, we also skipped oodles of chapters at the beginning. She has a mind like a steel trap for arithmetic processes, so we'd have done that even with a summer break.

That said, there are certainly a number of Saxon fans on the K-8 forum. I don't think it's the strongest program for most dc who are gifted in math, despite my dd's adherence to it.