Math curriculum help: after Singapore Primary?

[moominmamma]

In a nutshell I'm looking for something just like Singapore Primary Math for my kid who is very close to finishing the program. What we love about Singapore Primary:

1. Consumable workbooks. This kid loves workbooks. She loves to take them places: in the van, to bed, to a cozy corner in front of the wood stove, to motels, to the treehouse. She loves the sense of progress she gets from working through a sequential booklet. She loves not having to copy out problems in order to start working on them.

2. Plenty of space in said workbooks. Her handwriting isn't that refined. She likes having plenty of workspace in the workbooks to write her numbers large. She likes the unintimidating presentation of only a few problems per page.

3. Fast paced, low repetition. She usually gets stuff after one explanation and one or two short exercises. She is a quick learner with good retention and doesn't need much review or consolidation. Overwrought explanations make her crazy.

4. I like the emphasis on complex problem-solving and mental math. 

5. The fact that a variety of math topics are presented and extended in each level of the program. Don't take this personally, Americans, but I hate your country's practice of isolating a small portion of mathematical learning like alegbra and giving kids an exclusive diet of that for a year or even two straight. I think the lack of variety can be deadly for motivation, learning retention over long gaps this creates can be problematic, and opportunities for recognizing and exploring connections between different areas of mathematics are missed.

6. No fluff. She loves math and sees it in real life around her all the time. She doesn't need or like her math curriculum dressed up with colour, flash and glam. Sidebars, games, projects, activities, stories, these just confuse her and get in the way.

In the past, with my older kids, I've tried the following:

ALEKS

Teaching Textbooks

Singapore New Math Counts

CoolSchool (BC Canada on-line course)

MathPower (Canadian school curriculum)

Life of Fred

Khan Academy

Art of Problem Solving

None of these are going to work for her. They're either on-line (ALEKS, CoolSchool, Khan Academy), or are too slow-paced (TT), or are too fluffy and cluttered with extraneous stuff (TT, MP, LoF), or are too mature in their format and presentation (AoPS, NMC). 

Right now I'm interested in Key to Algebra (she's done some algebra, but not everything in this), and Challenge Math. But that's not a lot to keep her going for a couple of years until she's ready for something like Art of Problem Solving. Any thoughts?

Miranda

[Callimom]

Miranda,  Ryan worked through the challenge math over 2 years including doing the Real World Algebra and their various problem solving books following primary and challenge math. He'd work through a chapter every couple of days - not breakneck speed by any means but steady.  They aren't really meant to be consumable unfortunately but there is a bit of space on the sidebar to write stuff down.  We're looking at buying his Stats book and the Real Life investigations books because these have worked so well with Ryan.

I don't have any other suggestions sorry.  Good luck - I think hitting on the right math program is a bit of a challenge.

[AAK]

You only mention Math Counts from Singapore.  Have you looked at Discovering Mathematics (also from Singapore)?  It doesn't fit your "ideal" completely since the workbook doesn't have a lot of space.  But, other than that--the textbook has the same feel as the elementary textbooks, imo.  

Amy

[moominmamma]

Amy, thank you so much for your suggestion. I had heard years ago that NMC was "rigorous" but that the other Singapore secondary programs were "even more rigorous" and had assumed that meant more dense and intimidating-looking. So I chose NMC for my other kids, because they were quite young when they were ready to start it. 

But I just took a look at the Discovering Mathematics series and just as you said the textbook seems really friendly and uncluttered and to-the-point, in exactly the way that Singapore Primary is. The workbook isn't consumable with workspace inside it, which would make it less-than-ideal, but perhaps this will turn out to be a stumbling-block worth overcoming.

New Syllabus Math (one of the other Singapore programs) does have a consumable workbook, but I don't like the textbook presentation nearly as much, and the sequence and organization doesn't match up well between the two programs.

Oh well. This is all good information. Thanks for the leads!

miranda

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by Karenwith4 

Miranda,  Ryan worked through the challenge math over 2 years including doing the Real World Algebra and their various problem solving books following primary and challenge math. He'd work through a chapter every couple of days - not breakneck speed by any means but steady.  

It was your recommendation that got me interested in these in the first place. It's reassuring to hear that there's enough with the different books to make them last a couple of years. By then she'd be 10 and hopefully ready for more conventional high school type curriculum.

Miranda

[mom2ponygirl]

The Challenge Math books are great fun.  We also really liked Creative Problem Solving by Lenchner from artofproblemsolving site.  It doesn't have room to work in the book though.  The key to series is fine for learning a skill, but they lack any fun problem solving like Singapore, Challenge Math, or Creative Problem Solving.