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Kimck, I'm so glad to know that you're a math parent! If I were going back to pure books, I think Singapore would be my first choice.

Since we're going to hit the ceiling on EPGY OE pretty soon, do you think it's feasible to leap from an online program like EPGY back into Singapore at the higher-elementary/middle school level? (Currently at 4th; hoping to use OE through 7th.) With programs like Rightstart, they say kids get confused if they don't come up the levels from the near-beginning.

Thanks for your advice!

Absolutely! In fact, I think it's a great idea if you're trying to buy a little time before you reach higher level math. I think Singapore (and especially their deeper workbooks) can really stretch a mathy kid. I know a GT mathy kid that just jumped in at 3B without using any curriculum previously. I'd just recommend checking out placement tests. Even if you have to go back a little further than you expect, a GT kid can really race and it's easy to compact and skip around. We did a short stint with EPGY too.

Good luck!

Singapore does use a certain approach to solving certain kinds of problems called the "Singapore Model Method" which is fairly simple but might be unfamiliar at first. Some of the CWP problems in the later grades lend themselves to solution using the method and might be more challenging if you don't know it.

Look at the Chapter 2 samples from CWP4 for an example:
http://www.singaporemath.com/Challenging_Word_Prob_for_Primary_Mathematics_4_p/pmcwp4.htm

Mark, is the Singapore Model Method presented in the textbooks and workbooks explicitly, or does one have to have absorbed it from the beginning?

All this feedback is very helpful-- thanks.
DeeDee

They start with the lines (which I assume is the Singapore model method) in third grade. Up until then it's number bonds. But I bet you can find enough descriptions of it on blogs to introduce the concept yourself.

ETA I just googled "singapore model method" and there are several sites teaching parents how to teach it on the very first page.

Like this
http://www.sleeplessinkl.com/2009/04/24/relearning-maths-using-the-singapore-model-method

My DS started Singapore Math last year with 5A and he had no problem at all with Singapore model. Check out www.thesingaporemaths.com. It shows how the model is used to solve word problem step by step.

I'll chime in here that my spouse and I (both scientists with terminal degrees and former Uni educators) love Singapore Math's approach to teaching elementary mathematics.

Seriously-- this is pedagogically the best thing going IMO. It teaches kids applied mathematics right from the get-go, setting them up perfectly to use math as a tool in physics, chemistry, biology, economics, and engineering disciplines later on. No drill-and-kill here, and it teaches terrific algebraic problem-solving skills in holistic way throughout the curriculum. LOVE that.

We used Primary Mathematics with our DD up to level 4 (I think)... both textbook and workbook (I'd have her do only ~ 1/4th of the problems and leave it at that if she had mastery), and also the CWP workbooks. She used to really look forward to doing the CWP problems. I used to use them as bribes to do the textbook/workbook material.

Nothing that our public schools are using even compares; this is my one serious, lasting regret about going to a public charter school. <sniff-sniff> Five years later and this is the first year that my daughter is actually excited about math again (honors geometry).

It's just a nice bonus that Singapore is inexpensive. A year's worth of materials used to run us just about $30 USD.

Hello there,
Yes, Singapore https://esingaporemath.com/signup has not really achieved anything that is recognized on the international stage. Ranking 1st in math, science and reading is meaningless when people are rote learners. To excel, one has to be trained in creativity.

I am Singaporean:) Just to add - the US version of Singapore Math is like 1-1.5 grades behind what's actually used in Singapore:)

I had that impression, actually! I've noticed that SM primary in the USA is about .5 to 1 year ahead of standard USA curricula, but that the people I know who were educated internationally in high-math-achieving communities (including Singapore) tend to have been more like 2 years ahead. We used Star Publishing's Discovering Math secondary math series when homeschooling our children, and I realized that students on that syllabus were expected to complete most of univariate calculus by the end of the equivalent of tenth grade, which would put them about three years ahead of the typical US student, and two years ahead of an advanced US math student. And I've had friends from other countries who observed that the extent of math which high school math teachers are required to have taken for teacher certification was equivalent to what they had completed by tenth grade in their home country.