I recently talked about switching my Year 1 child’s math program to Singapore Math. When I got his next set of books, I decided to get the Pre-K set for my youngest as well!
We’ve been using Dimension Math’s Pre-K set for a couple of months now (we are taking it slow as he is only 3 years old.) Here’s a preview and our thoughts on the curriculum!
SINGAPORE MATH
What is Singapore Math? Quoting from the Singapore math website: “The Singapore math method is a highly effective teaching approach originally developed by Singapore’s Ministry of Education for Singapore public schools. The method has been widely adopted in various forms around the world over the past twenty years following our introduction of the curriculum to the U.S. in 1998.”
Pre-K Curriculum
What’s Included:
We got the entire set for Pre-K. That’s PKA and PKB, which includes:
- Teacher’s Guide:
- Background information on the lessons and concepts
- Detailed lesson plans
- Suggestions on how to teach and activities to try
- Textbook:
- Main student book
- Introduces the lesson and concept
- Includes practice problems
- Workbook:
- Made for independent use of the student
- Additional practice drills
- Problems are based on the lesson and get increasingly complex
There are no manipulatives included in this set, as they are optional. Personally, we already have most of the manipulatives at home as I’ve used them with my eldest son before. I would highly recommend getting sets of various manipulatives to enrich learning!
What’s Covered
There’s a number of basic concepts included in the PK set. Here are some topics covered:
- Matching and classifying
- Comparing objects
- Patterns
- Numbers
- Ordinal numbers
- Shapes
- Introduction to addition and subtraction
Also sharing a photo of the table of contents above.
Is it necessary? Would you recommend it?
I’ll be honest with you: when my eldest was 3-4 years old, we did not have Singapore Math. In fact, we did not use any Pre-K math curriculum. What I did then was get a Kindergarten curriculum and stretch it out for 2 years! Hehe.
Upfront, I wouldn’t say it’s an absolute must for every homeschooling family. I’m also aware that workbooks aren’t really necessary for their age yet. However, it fits REALLY WELL for our family for many reasons. Here are some:
- My 3 year old loves workbooks because he feels left out whenever he sees his older brother writing for schoolwork.
- He also loves Dimensions Math and regularly asks for Math. “Mommy, you said you will do Math with me today, right?”
- I LOVE FOLLOWING A GUIDE! Having 2 kids to homeschool at the same time now means that it’s hard to multitask. I appreciate having a guide to follow to make sure I cover these concepts with my child.
- The lessons and activities are short and you can spread them out at your own pace.
If you thrive better as a homeschool mom when you have a set workbook to follow, then this is THE ONE that I’d recommend!
You can get the set here at the official website. I had it shipped all the way to the Philippines via a 3rd party courier.
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