Reviving an old thread because it's personally relevant. We used Singapore international standards editions for grades 1-2 math. We purchased the texts and Challenging Word Problems 2. To complete the text lessons and about 1/10th of the word problems took about 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week, in total for one year. IOW, not at all onerous; this was more about building the habit of being a diligent worker and learning how to learn.
I was a fan of Singapore for my son in the early years, as the method doesn't require repetition, and it moves to abstract reasoning more quickly than other methods.
For grades 3-4, we used the AOPS Beast Academy texts, one per year, as bedtime reading and mental math on weekends. With 30-45 minutes per night on weekends, you can easily keep pace with the content on a 1-course-per-year basis. For grade 3, DS initially needed to jot down some notes until he adapted to doing the problems in his head; for grade 4, he did it all as mental math. (For those who like portable learning, those books are terrific.) It wasn't a rare occasion that DS would insist on reading Beast Academy texts past his bedtime for fun. They're adorable.
For the above, I wanted DS to demonstrate about 90% mastery to move on, and to avoid perfectionism. IMO, it's healthy for 100 to be elusive.
The work DS' current teacher assigns him tends to run about +2-3 years in math, but feels too basic to DS. He probably spent about 30-40 minutes per week total on school-assigned math this past month. We now supplement with AOPS and play with some of the AMC problems in the evenings for 20-30 mins on weeknights for enjoyment. I find the AOPS classes are a bit dragged out, and an eager math student can comfortably complete the courses at double speed through self study on the schedule I described above.
Caveats/considerations:
1. DS' pace may slow down as he moves into the grade 11/12 sequence at AOPS, though, because the material will be less familiar.
2. I will also note that the time estimates may skew fast because he dictates and I scribe for him for his "bonus" math after the first few questions.
3. We don't cover every question in AOPS. Usually, he's able to solve the initial problems, so we skip most of the exercises and do only the challenge problems at the end of the chapters (the ones with the *s) if he seems comfortable with the material. On topics that require more work, he may do some of the exercises.
Reviewing this post, I realize I might as well get an AOPS tattoo!
