All About Primary School Math Enrichment

[BlissMom]

Hi MMM


Only my opinion and based on personal experience - while the Kumon approach is limited, it serves the purpose of reinforcement through drill, discipline and better grasp of mathematical operators. These being fundamentally good attributes regardless and especially if child is young like P3 and below. Unless there's counter productive behaviour like as a result of Kumon the child builds a protest against Math or like my daughter just not suitable for drills, there's really no harm in letting the child continue.

Also, bear in mind at Pr 1 to 4, Math should be rather manageable - again this is only my opinion. Problem sums challenge really starts in P5 when the level of difficultY accelerates with multiple considerations all captured in 1 problem sum. So go easy with the child and personally, i won't opt for tuition UNLESS it is truly necessary. My son only had tuition when he was in late P5 and that's really because he needed it for specific subject and I had no time for him. Then, I worked till 8'ish every night

[hquek]

Hi all,


My son is going to K1 next year. I’m pondering if I should start him on any math enrichment classes at all.

Based on your experience, does starting them that young (ie K1) help them in their Math, or is it enough to rely on what the schools (ie kindy and primary sch) teach them?

Thanks much.

[ChiefKiasu]

hquek:

...Based on your experience, does starting them that young (ie K1) help them in their Math, or is it enough to rely on what the schools (ie kindy and primary sch) teach them?...

I will definitely recommend that you start them as young as K1. Either teach them yourself or send them to Math enrichment classes. Primary schools these days \"teach less and learn more\". You may save yourself some stress when your child is in P1.

[Pen88n]

The \"teach less, learn more\" refers to teacher teaching less, and the children learning more from enrichment / tuition lessons.

:lol:

[jedamum]

digress abit, one question...

4 x 6 is it defined as:
\"4 groups of 6 items each\" or \"4 items times 6 times\" :?:

[Emelyn]

jedamum:

digress abit, one question...

4 x 6 is it defined as:
\"4 groups of 6 items each\" or \"4 items times 6 times\" :?:

It means 4 groups of 6 items.

[jedamum]

Emelyn:

jedamum:

digress abit, one question...

4 x 6 is it defined as:
\"4 groups of 6 items each\" or \"4 items times 6 times\" :?:

It means 4 groups of 6 items.

thanks! that's what i thought so too...
my husband and my boy's montessori enrichment teacher said it is 4 items times 6 times.

[Emelyn]

jedamum:

Emelyn:

[quote=\"jedamum\"]digress abit, one question...

4 x 6 is it defined as:
\"4 groups of 6 items each\" or \"4 items times 6 times\" :?:

It means 4 groups of 6 items.

thanks! that's what i thought so too...
my husband and my boy's montessori enrichment teacher said it is 4 items times 6 times.[/quote]Oh dear. Think you better change enrichment class.
In P1, if the question says \"4 groups of 6\" and your child write 6 x 4, it will be marked wrong !

[jedamum]

Emelyn:

Oh dear. Think you better change enrichment class.
In P1, if the question says \"4 groups of 6\" and your child write 6 x 4, it will be marked wrong !

Thanks for clarifying. Had already discontinued the math enrichment.

I thought I saw that somewhere too, so I have been teaching my boy that 4x6 is 4 groups of 6.
Then on the montessori worksheet, there is 4 separate rows of connecting blocks. In each row there is 5 blocks. My boy wrote 4x5 and the teacher marked wrong....she said is 5x4 (5 blocks x 4 times/rows). When i query her on my intepretation, she said that 5x4 is the montessori way.

My husband intepreted the same, but said check textbook to see which is the MOE way. :lol:

[BlissMom]

Am so amazed reading the threads on multiplications :shock: I think they call it the conceptual approach appreciation And once our kids get the concept right, learning becomes so much easier. What is 4 x 5? really quite meaningless without contextualising it and if a child is not explained the 'concept', it's just memorising the multiplication time table - like what we did when we were young!


Surprised that it came from Montessori... got to be careful, there are many pre-schools/enrichment centres that 'claim' to be structured on Montessori but really, some don't practice or for that matter thot it's only based on the apparatus. Got to be careful where u go to.

I used to send my kids to Modern Montessori - the good bit about them, they applied the pluses of Montessori BUT to ensure our kids are prepared, they incorporated the local requirements in preparation for kids to P1. They used to conduct classes for parents who want to learn more about Montessori in order to better appreciate and reinforce the learning at home as well. Check it out. Then (10 years ago), i made a mistake and took their Diploma instead :oops: without realising they had a short courses for parents. For engaging parents, it's a good way to start...if they still have courses for parents. Also, i hoped they still maintain the quality....


On the question about starting enrichment classes at K1, my opinion only - why do we want to start them so young when learning at that age is really alot of interaction with the environment, observations and interactivity. Also, don't our kids already are registered with the nursery and kindergarten? What are these for if not learning to prepare for Primary 1? All these enrichments, I think we got to manage ...