Several questions about 1st grade level

[Unregistered]

My 7 1/2 year old daughter is one of those smart but learning disabled kids. She thrived learning to read with the DISTAR book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." That style of teaching -- where every tiny foundation skill is carefully modeled and taught, and very clear and precise instructions and explanations are provided for both student and teaching parent -- was great for her (and me)! I know she'd thrive with DISTAR math, but it's not available in any sort of homeschool edition, so I'm looking to find a math program with at least some of the same good characteristics.
From looking at 1A and 1B sample pages, I'm thinking Singapore Math (with the Home Instructor Guides) might be our best bet, but I'd like to double-check some things. Here's what I need: Lots of modeling of procedures built into the program -- e.g. the teacher demonstrates the skill, then the child does it. All the foundational skills carefully taught instead of being left to "the child will figure that part out." Very precise language provided for the teaching parent to use, so as to be sure the child learns what's intended. Unnecessary jargon omitted, both in the HIG and in the explanations/instructions to the child. Instruction proceeds in small logical steps instead of sloppy leaps of faith -- so teaching parent and child always feel like they're on "solid ground" instead of "guessing and hoping."
How well does Singapore Math match up with these needs? (Maybe somebody familiar with DISTAR can comment?) These are the things that make all the difference in whether my child learns and loves her lessons, or fails and rebels against even trying!
Three final questions: First, I did access a placement test at my husband's office and my daughter did about 90% on Primary Math 1A. If I start her with Primary Math 1B text and workbook, will she have missed out on learning key things "the Singapore math way" and have difficulty because of this? Second, she's not at all "secure" in her basic addition facts (still has to count fingers or hashmarks for many facts) and with that in mind, would starting with 1A be better? Third, I'm concerned about the lack of review in Singapore Math, so I'm wondering about giving my daughter 2 to 4 problems from the appropriate Extra Practice book each day for review, along with her new lesson -- how does that sound?

[Jenny]

My immediate reaction to your post is that you have to be the teacher. Not the text, not the guide. The guide needs to supply enough information so that you can be the teacher. Which it does. Yes, the guide will tell the teacher to model the procedures, but you say "lots of modeling." How many times you have to model the procedure is left up to you. I am not familiar with Distar, but it is possible that the Primary Mathematics might put more of a burden on you as a teacher to determine how much to model a procedure. There is an assumption that each child is different, the curriculum cannot determine exactly what each child needs, only the teacher can, since it is the teacher that is working with the child, and is best able to determine how much repetition, how much challenge, how long to use manipulatives, when to go to the more abstract phases. You were lucky with the Distar reading. It fit. Maybe or maybe not the math would fit. With the Primary Mathematics, you have to resources to make it fit, but it really does assume a teacher. There are lots of math programs out there, lots are supposedly self-teaching or scripted, but it seems that one fits one child/parent, another is better for another. I think the Primary Mathematics has potential to work with many types of learners, but will be more successful with a parent who wants to and is able to be flexible. Sure, the HIG tells the parent to model a procedure, but it does not tell the parent how many times to model, and it does expect the parent to be flexible enough to make necessary adjustments according the the students' response. I have used "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." It did not work with my child, but that was because he was not developmentally ready for it. I tried many programs with him. He learned to read when he was 9. But once he learned, he was reading adult books within a few years. If I had used it when he was ready for it, he would have lost patience with its plodding ways. Though he always preferred audio books and learned better. From my memory of the program, though, I don't think this math is going to be the same. It is not all one place, with everything in some kind of work-text, there is a guide to give you the background to teach, a text for you to help your student with, a workbook for your student to do independently. And it does expect a teacher that can adjust what is being taught and can interact with the student to determine exactly what the student understands. Different components make it more flexible but if you like the work text approach, which ls more lockstep or all in one kind of approach, it is not that.

But, it seems to me, by the rest of your post, that you can and want to be flexible. You want to try starting 1B, and add in problems from Extra Practice. So, maybe it can work. The main approach is concrete to pictorial to abstract. The concrete you supply from ideas (not scripted lessons) in the guide. Or your own ideas, once you understand what concepts need to be taught. Then you go over the pictorial with the student. Then you guide them to the abstract. Sometimes in one lesson. There is more pictorial in the workbook at the lower levels. But you can supply concrete to do them. You kind of let your student judge when to dispense of the concrete - they should have access to the counters or blocks as needed. You do have to get them to the abstract though.

Your daughter needs to know the facts through 10 for addition and subtraction. The 1A book gives strategies for determining the facts through 20, using those facts. For example, 8 and 7 is 10 and 5 (take 2 off of the 5, but that on the 8, do this mentally, so she has to know that 2 more are needed to make 10, and that if you take 2 away from 7 the answer is 5 so you have 10 and 5. They also count up, mentally, for adding small numbers when it is quicker, easy to find 8 + 3 counting up, not so easy for 8 + 4 because you start losing track of how many you are counting up. so you use the other strategy, again, this is mentally, at least eventually, so the idea is not provide strategies where fingers are not needed. In 1B, then, your student will use this skill to find 28 + 7 and 30 and 5. Then 28 + 37 as 28 and 30 is 58, and 58 and 7 is 60 and 5. This will start to become time consuming if your student does not know facts to 10 easily, and be able to easily figure out 8 + 7. Just giving problem from Extra Practice may or may not get her there, if she continues to use fingers or hash marks, some kind of fact practice might work better. On the other hand, the more she does it, the more likely she will memorize the answer, which is the goal of fact practice. But you want her to understand the base-10 idea behind making a ten, even if she eventually memorizes that 8 and 7 is 15 from seeing it often enough. The Extra Practice in the Standards Edition will give some "Friendly Notes" that shows what is going on. So it may be sufficient for you to know what you need to work on with her, but you may have to do the concrete introduction yourself, which is easy enough to think of ways to do that. Like using a 10-cup egg carton or a drawn 10-frame with counters. It is likely that she already knows everything else in 1 and it would be an unnecessary expense to buy the whole kit and kaboodle just for the addition and subtraction strategies.

I suggest you look at the sample pages, if you have not already. Unfortunately, there are only 3 pages from each. Maybe print them out and see how the lesson is organized versus the pages on the textbook versus the pages in the workbook. It will not be like 100 easy lessons, but may be enough of what you want.

[Unregistered]

Thanks, Jenny, for your detailed reply! It was very helpful. After considering the additional information you gave me, I'm inclined to go ahead and start with 1A, skipping over things my daughter already knows well enough and focusing in on both things she doesn't already know (like the addition and subtraction strategies) and things she already knows but not the "Singapore way". We'd probably be skipping a great deal of 1A, but I don't mind spending the money for 1A in order to be sure we've got a really solid foundation for going on to 1B. (Also, my daughter sometimes likes to do "easy workbook stuff" and she might complete alot of 1A on her own for fun.)

About the addition and subtraction facts to 10 -- Will the HIG for 1A provide me with strategies for getting my daughter to fluency on these?

I know one parent who recommends Singapore Math (it was his article that brought me here to this website) also recommends "FlashMaster" (an electronic arithmetic toy, I gather) for learning math facts. Another parent, writing in this forum, recommended Right Start Games. Do you have any information or experience about these two options for fact practice? Or other options you think are really good?

Thanks again, I really appreciate your input!

[Jenny]

Yes, the HIG will provide you with strategies, particularly the one for the Standards edition. Both have game suggestions and there are mental math pages. However, you are free to use other approaches. Some children hate timed drills, some love them. Some parents don't really like sitting and playing games. One thing you can add is ainy computer or online game for math facts; there are some nice free ones in the internet. So Flashmaster or the Right Start games are good too. Maybe see what your child likes. I had one that hated flash cards, drills, and so on. We did something called Quarter Mile Math with him, a computer game. By the way, he never got good at math facts. He was OK with +/- to 10 and a lot of multiplication facts. He always used other strategies to figure out many of the +/- to 20, and I actually do too. I can't always remember 8 + 5 is 13, I guess my brain is old and tired. But I can easily, quickly remember that 8 needs 2 more to make 10 and 2 from 5 is 3 so it is 10 and 3.

This son who could never remember math facts, hated any kind of drill to tears and rebellion, was the one that initially helped me figure out challenging problems that some parents would ask for help here from me, or tell me of some alternate, more efficient approach, went through calc 3 at the community college and calculus based physics before graduating from high school, and is now a straight A student majoring in Engineering and taking a graduate course as a junior now. Just to put memorizing math facts into perspective.