Singapore Math Grade 1 — Dimensions Math or Primary Mathematics?

Name: Singapore Math Grade 1 — Dimensions Math or Primary Mathematics?
Uploaded: 2024-06-19T01:24:53+00:00
Duration: 23 min 23 s

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If you've been considering using Singapore math in your homeschool, you might be wondering
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which option should I choose? I'm going to help you with that. Today I'm going to show you
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the difference between two popular homeschool options, Singapore dimensions and primary mathematics
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and share why this curriculum is one of my top picks for homeschooling families
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homeschool. I'm Sarah and thank you so much for tuning in. I love sharing tips, reviews
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and encouragement with homeschool moms, both here and on my blog, blessed homeschool.com
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Okay, so you want to learn a bit about Singapore math, probably to help you decide if you should
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use it with your kids or to help you decide between the Singapore primary mathematics curriculum
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or their dimensions math. If you're here just to know which of the two I prefer, we can go
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ahead and get that out of the way. But I think you should still watch this video because there are
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differences between the programs and I really just want to give you all the info you need to
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help you make a good decision for your kids. Backing up a bit, I want to share that I'm a former
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high school math teacher and I think that this curriculum and the Singapore approach is truly
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one of the best methods out there. The way math is taught through this method is really how I
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always desired to teach my kids math, but was often met with time constraint, standardized testing
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obligations, and honestly the struggle of teaching kids who maybe didn't have that depth
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of knowledge or confidence in math to build on. Now, as a homeschool mom with elementary aged kids
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I know I want them to learn to think mathematically instead of only doing rote memorization. I want
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them to know that math is important and that learning it is achievable. I want them to become
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confident, successful problem solvers because they have a depth of knowledge of the concepts
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they're learning. I want to prepare them for future math courses as they continue their education
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When I responded to God's call to homeschool my kids, I bombarded my best friend with questions
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and she recommended Singapore math to me. At the time, I didn't have as much choice
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between programs as I do now because this was all that was available. So I started
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using primary mathematics one with my son and we used this through first grade
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and half about half of second grade. While we were working through the second grade
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books, Singapore math came out with their new dimensions math program. Dimensions
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math was kind of like a sequel to primary mathematics and I was drawn to the new
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format and the way the concepts are explained. So So I actually finished out our second grade year with Dimensions and I bought the Dimensions
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kindergarten books for my girls that year. That year we were using my father's world first grade curriculum and I chose to forego their
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math recommendation and use Singapore math instead. Now they actually recommend Dimensions Math through sixth grade as well and it's worked
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into their curriculum calendar which I think is great. So I've used both primary math and Dimensions Math in our early years of homeschooling
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and my youngest son will be starting with Dimensions 1A. when he gets to first grade. All right, let's get down to what exactly Singapore math is
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What makes it so unique and what the difference is between these two options
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Singapore math in general refers to the math curriculum that was developed and used in Singapore
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and it has consistently helped kids achieve high levels of success in math
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This curriculum puts a big emphasis on problem solving, mental math, and helping kids actually understand why math works
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and actively think about the processes that they are doing. It emphasizes why something works over how to do it
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This is a big contrast to how math is often traditionally taught
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where kids see an example worked out and then solve a bunch of problems just like it
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but with different numbers. Singapore math is going to push your kids thinking because they can't rely on that replication process
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Throughout any of their programs, you'll find their concrete, pictorial, abstract approach
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along with a focus on mental math and drawing models, which has shown to help kids transition better
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to algebra and more complex math. problems in later years. And what the concrete pictorial abstract approach means is
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that kids will be learning math by first using concrete objects or manipulatives
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such as math cubes, place value mats, geometric figures, etc. Then they'll see
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concepts represented by pictures and model drawings before moving on to more
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abstract problems involving numbers and math symbols. This approach is really great especially for visual and auditory learners. You'll find five
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different versions of Singapore math when you go to their website. There are four primary
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mathematics editions now that were written to serve different needs of students in the US and then
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you have dimensions math typically i found that homeschoolers are either using the primary u.s edition
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primary 2020 edition or dimensions according to their website all of them follow the same approach
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and a similar sequence of topics except for primary 2022 side note to be honest i haven't explored
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primary 2022 much at this time but the company recommends this version if you have a student
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who really tends to struggle with math and thinking abstractly. The reason being is that it contains more scripted lessons
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and a holistic approach that includes journaling, steam activities, and self-reflection. They also recommend primary 2022 edition
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if you're coming to Singapore in grade four or five and wanna make sure you haven't missed any concepts
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So let's talk for a minute about primary mathematics. This was the original curriculum that kind of made a name
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for Singapore math over here in the US in 1998. It's practically the same as the original Singapore program
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but it uses US measurements and currency It been updated over the last few years to align with US state standards and also reflects updates to teaching and learning Singapore mathematics This is available for the first through sixth grade So when you purchase primary mathematics for your home school you will want to buy the home instructors guide and then you want to buy a workbook and a textbook for each child 1A would essentially be the first semester of first grade So for a full year program
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you would need both 1A and 1B materials. So home instructors guide, workbook and textbook
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Right now, this would be just around 100 bucks for a full year math curriculum from their
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website. There's also an additional grade one practice book, which I did not buy, but these
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just provide extra practice problems that are similar in difficulty level to the textbook and
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workbook. Now through the textbook and workbook, your kids will really work on
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mathematical reasoning skills and there's not a big focus on practicing procedure. So if
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you're finding your kids to need more help with a certain procedure you're covering, you'll need to find supplemental materials for this, which I did do on
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multiple occasions. Not a big deal, but you do need a watch for how well your child
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is understanding the concepts you teach and take time to offer them additional
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practice as needed rather than just plugging along and checking off boxes on your
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lesson plans. They've got a great outline in the home instructors guide that details what pages you need to complete for each lesson
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So I didn't even really plan out my days. When it was time for math, each day I would just simply pick up where we left off and we do what we
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could each day. The week's suggestions are helpful, though, as a general guide
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I really don't recommend going through this curriculum without the home instructor guide
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It helped me understand the concepts that I was teaching my kids, gave me suggestions on
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how to introduce new concepts with concrete examples and suggested extra reinforcement
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and practice activities. Let me give you a quick peek at what the lessons and activities look like
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with primary mathematics. Okay, so let's take a look at the home instructors guide, and we're going to
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look at Unit 3, which is addition. So the first page of this unit is really for the instructor
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It goes over what kids will be learning, gives you tips on how to teach it, and it goes over any
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materials that you might need. You would definitely want to take a few minutes to read through this
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before beginning the unit. Right, when we flip the page, we head into the first lesson for this part
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You'll see that it gives me the textbook pages and the workbook exercises that go along with this
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It tells me exactly what I need to do for the concrete part of the lesson
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So on this day, we would be illustrating addition situations with some sort of counters
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It's pretty scripted, which I liked. It's really helpful. Then when we get through the concrete examples
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we will go to the textbook to see this represented in pictures
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So let's take a look. Okay, so for this lesson, there is just one page, page 24
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And again, it is pretty scripted. It tells you exactly what to say and how to explain this to your kids
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Okay, so there's the page that we would be doing for this lesson. Now for the workbook, once we get through the lesson
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it tells us we're going to be doing exercises 12 and 13. So here we still have pictures, but we're going to be writing down numbers as we work through these problems
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All right, so there's your concrete pictorial abstract. You start with the counters
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You move into more pictures, and then you get into using numbers and more abstract thinking
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Okay, let's go back to the home instructor guide and kind of just look through the rest of the lesson to give you a good idea of what this looks like
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Okay, so the next lesson, we're going to be doing relating edition stories to an addition equation
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So again, it looks like we start off with some counters, and it tells us our textbook and workbook pages
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This one, we actually have reinforcement. So if you need some extra practice with things, it gives you suggestion for that
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And then in part two of our addition unit, we move on to adding with number bonds
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And you can see we're starting to get into where they do need to memorize their addition facts
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for this and it gives you some suggestions to help your kids do this. This is where we spent a little
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bit more time to really make sure we had those math facts down. Right and then other methods of
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addition for part three. Now when you get into memorizing the addition facts, which is an important
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concept, you're really kind of on our own for this. There's not a lot of repetition in this program
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meaning it's not built into your textbook or workbook. So I remember finding some extra number bond
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printables and addition facts, practice games to add on to this as we are working on memorizing
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our addition facts. So for example here, we're moving to page 33 in the textbook where we've got
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other methods of addition. So this is the textbook. It is consumable. You'll see that we were
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writing in our textbook. Completing edition sentence. and then we get into subtraction
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So just so you can kind of compare, this would be for our workbook
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It says we had exercise 18. Let me flip to that. Okay, so in the workbook we had counting on to add
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adding one and adding two and three to each number, and that was it for this one, for that lesson
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for that lesson. When we move on to the next one, learning edition facts for 10, doubles plus one
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That's where we move into workbook exercise 19. A little bit extra practice, but not a lot of extra
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work for these. Now they do give some reinforcement examples again, so different games
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different ideas for things that you can do with kids And they also have mental math sheets included I think they were in the index of this book I probably tore them out but sheets that you could use to practice with your kids on addition facts subtraction facts that type of thing
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But it is kind of up to you to plan some additional games for some of the concepts if your kids need more practice with them
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So now, hopefully you've got a good feel for what primary mathematics is, what it looks like, and what it might be like to teach it
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Let's talk about the Dimensions Math program. Dimensions Math is kind of a new and improved Singapore math, a natural evolution of primary mathematics that also includes video lesson subscription
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It includes more activities and more differentiation for students. It's available for pre-K through the eighth grade and it has just about the same scope and sequence of primary mathematics
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but it's designed to be more comprehensive with more content and resources so parents don't have to supplement as much
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The creators also wanted it to provide a more engaging student experience, so think lots of
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of activities and games and a better overall design of the book. Let's take a look now at what's
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included with the dimensions program. All right, this is also structured into 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc. So remember
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for example, essentially for a full year of math, you would need both 1A and 1B materials
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So if you order the set from their website, you would get a textbook, you would get a workbook
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a home instructor's guide, optional tests, and you also get home instructor printouts
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Let's take a look at a similar lesson from dimensions so we can compare the two programs
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So if we open to the table of contents, you'll see a pretty similar setup here. It's broken
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down into weeks and what they're suggesting for that week, followed by the pages that you'll
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need to do in the textbook and the workbook. Chapter three is addition and I'm noticing that there
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are about nine days of work recommended and there were about six days recommended in the primary
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mathematics schedule. So let's take a look at how the lessons are structured and see how they
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compare. All right, we've got objectives for this chapter. There's a list of materials that
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are needed. And then we have some different notes for this chapter that you're going to want to
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read over and familiarize yourself with. There's also a list here of extra activities and games
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in case you want to include them. All right. So there is a chapter opener here with a corresponding
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textbook page. And this kind of just introduces the chapter. So if I flip open there to page 33
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That's our page for our chapter opener. And then we're going to get into lesson one, edition as putting together
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And these pages correspond to our textbook as well. Okay, so you're going to notice that in your dimensions mass, lessons are structured in a very consistent way
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They're split into sections of think, learn, do, and then activities and workbook
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Okay, so if we look at this lesson right here, this is in our
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textbook we've got a think section a learn section do a couple more examples here
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and then at the bottom it tells us what workbook page we're going to do okay so in
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the think section you're going to get a concrete or real world situation that you and
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your kids will represent with hands-on manipulative all right so when we look at this
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first example I already like how it's getting the student engaged and having
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to model the problem on their own rather than me simply making the model and then telling them
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about it. Okay, and then in the learn portion, you teach the new concept with manipulatives or pictures
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in the textbook. So, and again, this matches up really well. So if you've got learn here
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it matches up with exactly what the kids are seeing in their textbook. And then in due
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your kids are going to work through the textbook problems for practice as you watch to kind of
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make sure that they understand. So I'm already noticing just a bit more practice in here than in
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primary mathematics. Now there's no activities listed for this section. Sometimes there's activities
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There is just a little bit of reinforcement. But if activities are listed, they are optional and you can
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use those for additional practice. And lastly, you're going to pull out that workbook to complete the
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activity is there. So here it says we need page 31. Okay, so here is our workbook page for addition
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The workbooks are differentiated and they have three different sections. So there's a basic section and
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this is going to review concepts from the entire lesson. Practice, this is just what it says. It gives you
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practice and these tend to progress in difficulty. And then some lessons are going to have challenge
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sections. This one doesn't, but the lessons that do have challenged parts. These are optional and they're
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either going to build on lesson ideas that you've covered or they're going to push kids to problem
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solve in a different way. Another thing that I like about dimensions is that they have practice
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and review built into the curriculum. So you come back and practice concepts from chapter lessons
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Again with problems that are going to increase in difficulty throughout this practice session So this example of one of the lessons it actually just goes back and reviews and does some practice And then after that you have a whole other section where you would spend time reviewing
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And this is going to just be great to go back and make sure kids are really grasping concepts
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They haven't forgotten anything. And just one more chance to practice before moving into the next chapter
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And then finally, with Dimensions Math, you also can get the test in home. home instructor printouts, these are available in dimensions math, but not primary mathematics
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The tests, actually there's two tests per unit. There's test A and there's a test B. Okay
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so for example, in our first chapter, there's test A and then we have a test B. Okay, so these
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tests are differentiated. A focuses on key concepts and problem solving skills, and then test
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B is going to be more application and critical thinking, and they're going to be more challenging
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Now, you don't necessarily have to assign grades with these if you don't want to, but they're
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good to use to see if your student is remembering concepts and if they've mastered them
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You could also use these tests over the summer after you've completed the school year just
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for review purposes. And then with the printouts, you have everything that you might need that the book
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is going to suggest to you. You've got mental math sheets that are a great resource to help
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practice that mental math. That's really important in Singapore math. So let's just flip through
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some of these. We've got addition fat cards. And these are all things that when I was using primary
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mathematics, I either had to print out or I had to find extra worksheets and things on them to use
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So they've just got a lot of extra practice and things that you're going to have on hand
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whenever the book is suggesting them to you. All right. So some of these, I mean, you're going to have to decide
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They do come with the kit. Some of these you could, you know, buy flashcards with, but it's great to have it all in
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one spot. These are your mental math sheets. You've got a lot of them here that you could use with your kids to practice their addition
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and subtraction skills. I always remember doing mad minute tests to practice addition and subtraction
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So you could do something fun like that or use them however you see fit. So there you have it
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A look at both programs. Some similarities and definitely some differences. And overall, it will come down to your personal preference
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I think that both are good, but you may have to be willing to supplement extra practice
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or challenge problems with primary math if needed. Dimensions is definitely more detailed
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It gives you more options for practice, reinforcement, and challenge for kids who need it
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also really like the reviews built into the curriculum. Also I almost forgot Dimensions also has an
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optional video subscription that you can purchase called Dimensions Math at home. These videos give
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lesson instructions for the entire course and your kids would use them alongside the textbooks
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and the workbooks. This is definitely not a required purchase, but it might be a helpful option
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if you want some assistance in teaching the lessons. As you're considering Singapore Math as a
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possible curriculum option, let me quickly review what I think are some of the pros and cons. First
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The pros. Kids do more than just memorized processes in Singapore math. They are taught in ways that
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they build deep conceptual understandings about why math works, which will help them as they work
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towards higher level math in later years. Singapore math encourages mastery of topics, and while there
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is less repetition of previously taught concepts, I think that as kids truly understand what they're
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doing and learn how to think critically, this may become less necessary. They are continually building
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on previously learned skills, and the reviews and assessments provided in dimensioning
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math also help kids recall previously taught concepts as needed. The home instructor's guide is so easy to follow
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and I love how the sections are clearly outlined so you know exactly what to do. The printouts included in
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dimensions math are really helpful so I don't have to print out or search for extra handouts online. It's
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cost effective. The dimensions math program is slightly pricier than primary mathematics, but you get
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more included. For an entire year's math curriculum, you're looking at around $160 for dimensions math
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Okay, now for just a few cons. First, I wouldn't say it's necessarily
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open and go. I don't think it takes too much prep, but you do want to read through the lesson
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introductions and make sure you understand what you're going to be teaching. The more comfortable
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you are with math, the less prep you may need, but if it's not your strong point, you might
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even want to work through some of the problems so you can best teach them to your kids. Secondly
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it's a different way of approaching math. And if you prefer a more traditional style, Singapore
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math might not be for you. Finally, I think that if you have multiple kids, it might be challenging
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to work through a math program like this with each one at different levels. For example, we use this
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through second grade and although I really love it when we added another baby and I had
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three elementary age kids that needed a math curriculum we switched to an online
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option for them the Dimensions Math at Home video subscription may be a good
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option for you if you would like to outsource the teaching but definitely
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consider your daily schedule and your other curriculum choices and activities when you're deciding whether or not this will work for you I do plan on
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using Dimensions math with my youngest one though for as long as we're able to manage it with our schedule I hope this video has given you a better understanding
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of what Singapore math is and how primary mathematics and Dimensions math compare
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If you're searching for a math curriculum that will help your kids build a deep understanding
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of concepts and build better problem solving skills, I don't think you can go wrong with either
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of these. Dimensions math is my personal favorite of the two, but you have the freedom and flexibility
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to choose, which is best for your kids in your homeschool. Thank you so much for watching
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Hit that like button if you found this video helpful and please subscribe so you don't miss out
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on more reviews, tips, and encouragement for your homeschool. See you next time
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Singapore Math Grade 1 — Dimensions Math or Primary Mathematics?

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