comments, comparisons? I'd love some guidance here please, any input would be most welcome!

best advice is probably to ask around before committing to either one. We loved Singapore, personally, but it isn't for everyone.

I haven't got any experience with Math-U-See.

HK what did you like about it? What worked for you etc? I am trying to draw up a comparison list on the two. Singapore is a LOT cheaper than MUS, so I really need to know what I am comparing here kwim?

For Singapore math, it is way too slow for math kid. DS worked on it only for 3 days or so when he was 8-yr-old and lost interest in the tedious drills. "Life of Fred" series are better if your kid love to be inspired by reading funny stories and get the math facts quickly.

Thanks Erich - I will look into Life of Fred. Do you know who the publisher is?

Well, with all due respect, I'm not sure that three days is enough time to know whether or not Singapore is a great program or not, particularly with a child who has not been accustomed to that pedagogical approach. Like I said, it doesn't work for everyone, surely, but I've known a lot of fairly mathy kids for whom it DOES work well.

The nice thing is that it's pretty low cost to try-- so you haven't lost much if it doesn't seem to be a very good fit. One caution, though, is that it assumes MASTERY of previous concepts, so starting with 3A can be difficult for students who haven't done 1 and 2 via Singapore as well. It may be useful (if you're ordering anyway) to pick up earlier (inexpensive, softcover) textbooks so that you can run through a quickie review.

What I like about it is from a pedagogical standpoint-- it's solid in terms of teaching about math as a set of USEFUL TOOLS. It introduces higher concepts appropriately-- when kids have a good foundation for understanding them-- and spends VERY little (if any) time 'spiraling' or delving very shallowly into concepts only to abandon them illogically. It's a mastery-type curriculum, and it's also based on the kind of thinking about numeracy and mathematics which is the basis of later applications-- in discrete mathematics, in stats, in calculus, and in advanced mathematics.

We didn't use Singapore blindly, by any means-- but it does prevent the kinds of conceptual gaps that can otherwise develop without something intended as a complete curriculum.

We didn't use ALL of the workbook problems, by any means. Often just 10-15% of them were plenty of "practice." We DID find that the "challenging word problems" workbooks were a must.

We also allowed DD to work more-or-less self-paced during the two years that we used Elementary Mathematics. I've never been as happy with a math curriculum since, and we've seen several in the six years since. My daughter found everything up until Geometry a breeze on the basis of what she learned in that two years with Singapore Math.

As noted, I really can't comment on MUS or LoF, not having used either in any meaningful way. My DD is a reader, so those approaches SEEM like they should have worked well for her, but she seems to need a more systematic approach to learning mathematics in order to build a full conceptual framework with internal connections between ideas.

thanks for the detailed feedback HK! that helps a lot

Currently I have several different maths programs/books/curriculae here that the boys use as they feel like it, with an online maths program to track for gaps etc. For now it works well, but they are still so young. I am looking at these to choose something that will take us onwards, whereas now I feel we are seriously just covering basics over and over to ensure there are no gaps. This is probably normal since Aiden was deschooling for most of last year and has this year skipped right up to 2nd and 3rd grade stuff here and in his once weekly program.

So far I have
Jump maths (canadian workbooks - awesome awesome!)
a range of local books for maths
Dreambox learning for online maths

I am sure we are covered for basics, but I guess one always second guesses oneself and continually searches for better hey?

I think I have become a bit of a Math curricula expert at this point. Things I have tried:
Math-U-See
Saxon
Singapore
EPGY
Kumon
Life of Fred
Mathmaster.org
Schoolhouse rock (multiplication songs)
They all seem to have their high and low points. I for a time I used both Math-U-See together with Singapore and found that this made things somewhat complete : )The two things that I use and still really like about Math-U-See - especially for kids of that age are the manipulatives and the CD song book (I would note that about half of the CD songs have quite a religious tone - but I was OK with that, and you can skip to the non-religious side of the CD if you want). My daughter learned all of her skip counting songs early and I think that helped things quite a bit when it came time for multiplication. I found that I needed manipulatives with Singapore to break down more difficult concepts, but that just might be my kid. The thing that is great about any of these curricula is that you can choose exactly what you think you need and leave the rest. Saxon does a really great job with the non-calculation based stuff (time and money, shapes, graphs etc but it is a fortune - I was able to pick mine up for a steal at a used curriculum fair).... if you ever need any extra practice of any concept - mathmaster.org is free and most amazing. Schoolhouse rock songs can be found for free on the Pandora "Schoolhouse rock" station - nothing like "figure 8...is double 4, figure 4 is half of 8...." ...love that one. Good luck!

That's a great point-- one thing that we liked particularly well about Singapore was the complete lack of manipulatives.

That's definitely an individual quirk of my DD, though-- she loathed manipulatives, and the little that we tried of Saxon (and later, Calvert) just about made her want to scream in frustration at the seeming pointlessness of moving blocks/rods around.

Schoolhouse Rock vids are also on Youtube. Those are just plain awesome.

I bought a couple of Singapore books at some point to try with DD when she was in K, and found that we couldn't dip in and out of them without fully committing to the program. Also, it's totally personal preference, and I don't know if my kids would care, but I don't like the nonlinear, highly pictorial style of the pages. Just not my thing.

I think I have 1b and 2a. I just looked at these again the other day for DS, so they're fresh in my mind. I had heard so much about them and they didn't click for me. However, we didn't really try it per se.

Madoosa, came upon this old thread while googling for Singapore math. I am wondering if you tried it and what your opinion is. I am considering it for dd4. Also how accurate was the placement test? Dd completed the 1a and 1b placement tests but I am a little hesitant to start her at 2a in case there are any big gaps. Thanks.

I have used Singapore, Math U See, RightStart, Saxon, Life of Fred, and probably some others that I can't remember right now.

If you're worried about gaps, I would start in 1A and move through the material quickly. One of the great things about Singapore is that it's easy to accelerate. Keep in mind that it's important to teach the material the Singapore "way" if you want to get the most out of the program. You can either get the Home Instructor Guides or read the book Elementary Mathematics for Teachers for help with that.

I will add...

We sometime use Singapore Maths books for my DS8 (we started when he was 7), but not from the company "Singapore Math Inc.". We have the current maths books used in the public school system in Singapore. I hope that hasn't confused you your cause, but I wanted to go to the source! They weren't as easy to get as I had expected. I wonder how different they are at the moment?

We find the maths book with explanations and some problems are enough (we don't use the workbooks). The colourful pages are a big bonus.

He also finds the Beast Academy fun to read, again no workbooks. Unfortunate, it doesn't go further but your younger guys might like it.

In the end we went with neither. I decided to give them both another year with only their SEMAS (Japanese abacus) class and Dreambox.com.

Although having said that I am getting some Life of Fred books since both older boys are obsessed with Algebra. It really will be supplemental right now - I am just letting them play with numbers and the concepts that fascinate them. From next year we will start to do more formalised things as I think they will be reaching the end of Dreambox by then...