singapore math assistance please

[mamamoon]

hello there~
this is my first year using singapore, and we are just using the textbook-2A.
i think it is great, but the problem we are having is when we come to the exercise or review parts, the problems are written side by side (to save space?) 237+62=
there is no room to work the problems and this seems to really stress my daugter out.
so i get a piece of paper and re-write the problems the numbers on top of eachother. you know~
237
+63
------
is this what you all are doing? please help.
are the workbooks laid out any differently???
thanks~
:)
lisa

[Jen3boys]

The textbooks aren't meant to be written in. I think, to get the most out of Singapore, you should at least use the workbooks also. Those are consumable and have space to work the problems. HTH!

[KarenNC]

We are in 3A. The textbook problems that are written horizontally are usually designed to be worked together as examples or with mental math strategies. Nothing wrong with having her rewrite the problems vertically if it helps her understand---we frequently do the same thing, especially to be sure of place value. Some of the workbook problems are horizontal, some vertical. We always do the reviews on a separate sheet of paper.

The basic idea is that the textbook is used to explain and demonstrate, working with the child, while the workbook exercises then allow the child to practice on her own and show that she understands the process. That works for us for some things, for others I still have to work with her on the workbook problems. I use the reviews as tests, requiring her to do them independently to see if the concepts are solidified.

[SS in MD]

We've gone thru' Singapore twice 2A - 6B, as other posters have said, textbooks are meant to be discussed together and problems worked on a piece of paper. This helps in number alignment, sums practice, place value etc. As you get further into the SM books you'll also start using mental math (which are fun to even do as games around the dinner table!) and use the paper & pencil less! We also use the HIGs to help with teaching strategies. HTH

[sjp]

we use all the books in each group, but i do have my son answer the problems in the textbook. he usually does it in his head because i just taught him that even if the problem is written horizontally instead of vertically, he can still carry the numbers across. it really doesn't make any difference which way they write it. or sometimes he just writes it out vertically in whatever blank space he can find on the page, that is allowed too!

[mamamoon]

thanks, this is helpful.
lisa

[Zanyan]

We use the textbook to learn the concepts, and the methods for solving problems. We rewrite the textbook problems on the whiteboard, and the kids solve them there. Once the kids get how to solve the problems, they complete the corresponding lesson in the workbook.

I love the workbooks because they give the kids so much room to solve problems. Other math books we've used have been so busy on the page. My kids love how uncluttered the Singapore workbook pages are. The workbooks are very inexpensive, and I think students get the most out of the program by using both resources.

Mental math is also an important aspect of the Singapore method, but I've always let my kids rewrite the problems in whatever format they needed to to solve them most efficiently.

[MomOfOneFunOne]

I second the mental math strategies for those problems. I let my daughter have the option of solving any way she chooses. she does them mentally or on paper as she prefers but if she misses a problem that she did mentally, she has to write it out on paper.

My daughter doesn't have the neatest handwriting and sometimes she misses problems b/c she didn't write neatly. I have solved this problem by using graph paper but I now, I wish I'd done it from the beginning. Just want to toss that out there if you need it.

Okay, I don't check it wrong if she doesn't write neatly. Sometimes b/c she didn't write neatly, she scrunches the tens into the ones collumn or it looks like the number she carried is over the hundreds instead of the tens . . . something like that.

right . . . is should just stop typing now.

[WendyK]

I second the mental math strategies for those problems. I let my daughter have the option of solving any way she chooses. she does them mentally or on paper as she prefers but if she misses a problem that she did mentally, she has to write it out on paper.

My daughter doesn't have the neatest handwriting and sometimes she misses problems b/c she didn't write neatly. I have solved this problem by using graph paper but I now, I wish I'd done it from the beginning. Just want to toss that out there if you need it.

Okay, I don't check it wrong if she doesn't write neatly. Sometimes b/c she didn't write neatly, she scrunches the tens into the ones collumn or it looks like the number she carried is over the hundreds instead of the tens . . . something like that.

right . . . is should just stop typing now. what a great idea, my son has terrible handwriting as well