For those who combine math curricula

[Mamabyrd]

How do you make sure you are not overloading your student? How long does it take to do math if you use more than one program? Do you just go in order or do you try and match topics? I've already purchased Horizons 3 for next year but now I am intrigued by Singapore. My dd is good at math and I think she would benefit from using Singapore. I'm not sure how to combine the two, however. I don't want to overwhelm my child with a huge number of problems to do either. Any thoughts? Thanks...

[Mom2GirlsTX]

and combine it with MUS, however Singapore is my main math program. I first started using Singapore when dd began to loathe Saxon. I don't feel it overwhelms my daughters to do both, we just make sure we do about 45 minutes a day...if one program takes longer, we cut time off the other. Sometimes we do one 3 days a week and the other 2 days a week. I think Singapore is such a great program, you can easily work 20 minutes in it a few times a week and still "get" the program.

[Sue in St Pete]

We use MUS and supplement with Singapore's Challenging Word Problems. We work on math 3x per week. We do 3 CWP on the same day as MUS. It's extra work, but MUS is not time consuming.

I figured out 3CWP/day this way: There were 290 total problems. MUS takes 30 weeks, that's roughly 10 CWP per week to finish it around the same time as MUS. Since we do MUS 3x per week, that's roughly 3CWP/day.

[asher]

We've only recently started supplementing our MUS with Singapore. We finished MUS Alpha and started on Singapore 1A. It's not been overwhelming at all. In fact, it's been very refreshing to have another way for ds to see how math works. After 1A, we'll start MUS Beta & see how it will go from there. :) I love Singapore, too :)

[Pongo]

I do MUS Delta/Singapore 3a for my son and I did BJU/Singapore for my dd, Singapore being our basal curriculum. She (dd-4th) is working her way through Lial's BCM ( we just started a few weeks ago) and then she will go into NEM1 ( I do not plan on supplementing then). I just use my basal curriculum to introduce topics and then I use the other to "supplement" it. This is much easier done with BJU than with MUS. I tend to flow between the MUS & Singapore than stick to definitive topics. We do math for 45 minutes daily. My ker is doing Singapore 1B and BJU 1. I like the variety.

[Ali in OR]

We use Singapore as our main program and supplement with Horizons. We do both programs in order and do not try to line up topics. I do cross out a lot of the Horizons to keep the work load under control and just supplement topics of my choosing. For instance, Horizons usually has 2 or 3 rows each of addition and subtraction problems. This is review for dd--I cross out most of the problems and just have her do 2 or 3 so she doesn't forget how to do them. I don't time how long math takes dd, but I'm guessing we're in the 20-30 minute range total for most days, 5 days a week.

[Virginia Heather]

We use Horizons and Singapore-- my boys do a lesson in each text daily. I don't worry about lining them up...

I feel these two programs complement one another nicely-- in fact, I struggled with which one to choose when ds was in first grade. After reading several posts on this board about using 2 programs, I decided to give it a shot. Now, 3 years later, I'm extremely pleased with my boys' progress-- i figure I get the best of both worlds!

[Victoria]

I also combined Horizons 3 with Singapore. We did Horizons daily and Singapore two or three times a week. I think Horizons 3 moves as a faster pace than Horizons 2, so the addition of Singapore didn't overwhelm him.

[langfam]

We do Horizons with Singapore too. It hasn't been a problem. Not overwhelming at all. If there are lots of addition or subtraction type problems in Horizons. I might have him do just one row of them.

[Reya]

My DS completed Singapore's EB Kindy more than a year ago, but I decided I like RightStart so much that I want it to be our primary program. I have an accelerated DS, so now that we're doing school for real (Kindergarten), we do 2 RS lessons from RS A per day. We'll go straight into RS B (first grade) at the same rate, but when we finish, I'm going to have him do Singapore 1A and 1B over the course of about two weeks, just working from the textbook. (See? Totally evil.) Singapore approaches things a bit differently from RS, though there are many similarities, and I like some of the different approaches, so I think it can be beneficial. After that, I'll start adding Challenging Word Problems to RS C.

I don't feel guilty about adding more because we typically spend only 30 min a day on math, and he's going at such a clip that we'll probably be starting fourth grade math for first grade. We're on lesson 58 now of A and zooming right along, so we'll probably finish A in about two weeks. Even with the parts of B I want him to do in review, we'll get it done in a fairly leisurely 5 weeks.

I'm going to be doing the same for the four-y-o I'm also teaching. With him, I'm going at a rate of about 4 lessons per week on Level A, but even at that kind of rate, he'll be into second grade work at the start of K. So we have lots of time for using Singapore on the side!

[HootOwl]

Do use use the corresponding grade levels for each? Would you use Singapore 2A and 2B for Horizons 2?

Thanks!

[mcconnellboys]

We use MUS and Singapore and math generally takes about 20-30 minutes.

[Cinder]

I like using two different programs. Singapore seems to help him think "mathematically" while R&S provides drill and review. Ds can often complete 2 Singapore exercises at once but revisions usually get 2 days. I don't assign him every R&S lesson either. I pick and choose, skipping some of the more basic review lessons. He's doing level 5 in both programs, but my older ds did Abeka math at one level higher than Singapore. Not that I found anything wrong w/Abeka vs R&S. It just worked out that way. He'd already completed Abeka 1 when I discovered Singapore so we just continued in Abeka2 while starting Singapore 1. The only reason we switched to R&S math was we were switching to R&S grammar and it's just easier to order from one company than two. :D

Cinder

[mom2moon2]

We're combining RS level B (1st grade) and Math Mammoth grade 1 here. I guess you can combine two programs easily if the scope and sequence of the two programs are pretty inline and they complement each other. IMHO, there's no point in combining program just because one has more drill than the others, or if the topics are not line up as it can turn to be just extra busy works.

RS and MM really complement each other.
RS concept: manipulative (mainly abacus) --> abstract (vizualization of abacus, mental math). No counting.
MM concept: similar to S-pore, i.e. pictorial --> semi pictorial --> abstract.
Both are strong in concept. I find that the pictorial stage of MM reinforces the concept from RS. Also, MM gives additional strategy. I guess I can easily do the same with S-pore, i.e. RS + S-pore. But the scope and sequence of the two programs are just too different.

With MM and RS, I have a spread sheet to match the topic, so that each program serves its purpose and reinforce each other.

Dian

[sagira]

Right now for K we're only going to work on MCP, but I'm going to be combining MCP and Miquon for first year. I'll see how it goes. We'll be doing one day MCP, and one day Miquon. Or we can also do four days MCP Math and the last day Miquon. Not sure yet, but I definitely don't want to overwhelm my beginning Math person ;)

[angela in ohio]

Singapore makes a good supplement to a program like Horizons, imho.

It will really depend on your dc. If they take a very long time to do a math lesson, it might be too much. I always find that one program doesn't take us as much time as I would like to spend on math, though.

I used to correlate topics in the two programs I use, but now I use them separately and let it be built-in review, which sems to work much better.

[Heather in NC]

I use MUS, Singapore's CWP and LOF! Here is how it looks:

Monday- watch MUS DVD, do 3 worksheets
Tuesday- do three more worksheets from MUS
Wednesday- take MUS test and do 6 problems from CWP
Thursday- do one lesson in LOF

We don't always do ALL of the problems, though. Sometimes if he does two pages of MUS and shows mastery, I will let him skip the third page. Also, math is a significant portion of our day along with Latin so if we skip another subject to spend more time on math, that's OK with me.