The title is misleading. We're not having problems with the math itself, just figuring out where to go from here.
Last year, Casia finished the first year of a two-year program with her school. She was bused to the middle school with roughly 20 other kids; mostly 5th graders, but a couple of other 4th graders as well. The program was designed for kids advanced in math to complete 6th grade and half of 7th grade while in 5th grade and then finish the rest of 7th and all of 8th in 6th grade when they move to the middle school. So she was roughly halfway through 7th grade math at the end of the year.
I spent the summer looking at different curricula and figuring out which style would be best suited to Casia's needs. I decided to try Singapore Math. They recommend for U.S. students to do the level below the last grade level completed and I gave her the assessment. Both indicated starting at the 6th grade level. I purchased the textbook, workbook and the teacher's guide.
The pros: It was pretty inexpensive. It cost about $45 for curriculum designed for half a year. I also like the the heavy emphasis on word problems. And there are NO multiple choice question- ever. Multiple choice tests for Casia are not a good way to judge what she knows. She is an extremely good test taker and often manages to figure out the correct answer even on material with which she is unfamiliar. Much to her dismay, I avoid them like the plague.
The cons: It is a little tricky for me to figure out where the teacher's manual corresponds to the textbook and the workbook. They do have things labeled in bold in the manual, but you still have to search through the text. It may very well have been my deficient instruction reading skills, but it usually took me a couple minutes to pin point where they match up. It wasn't a big deal; just thought I'd mention it. The other problem is the pace. Again, I'm not sure that this is a shortcoming with Singapore. It is more likely just something we will continually be dealing with in regards Casia's schooling.
Casia completed the whole half-year instruction in three weeks. Now what?
I was looking into ordering the next few books, through 7 and maybe even 8, but when I looked at what they encompass it looks like a lot of review. I know that part of the reason we moved so quickly is that there were a couple of sections that involved review and we blazed through those. But even with the material that was new or that had been introduced before but never mastered, Casia still picked it up quickly. With one-on-one instruction we were able to zip through the sections covering multiple topics in a sitting. We spent no more than about 45-60 minutes a day doing math, some days we spent even less. And that includes the homework from the workbook that I assigned her.
I decided to look at what comes next. I looked at what Singapore has for Algebra and they recommend this book: Algebra by Gefland and Shen. They were out of stock with it and Amazon had a cheaper price. Plus I like to read all the reviews that Amazon has. I've ordered the book and think we're going to just dive into Algebra. I am thinking of also going back to a program Casia used to love called ALEKS. It's an online math course that lets you move at your own pace. I might combine the two having Casia review areas that she hasn't mastered and also move on to Algebra. I think she's ready and if I'm wrong, well, we'll figure it out from there. This is one of those times when I feel like I'm navigating unchartered waters. It's a little scary starting my 8 year-old on Algebra. Considering the pace she is moving at, it is also terrifying when I realize it is only a matter of a few years at most until she is ready for a college level math class. Yikes! I just can't even fathom that right now.
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