Preparing kids for P5 in 2011

[janet88]

I just spoke to a Math tutor recommended by friend. Now waiting for her to let me know if she can teach my son. She has her own materials...so if she can coach my son to P6, then all the assessment books I bought are going to be white elephants

My 'Challenging Maths Problem (Ammiel Wan), Onsponge are all too challenging for my son...he needs to grasp the basic concepts but his teacher is just going on and on.

As for Science, I go for books with explanations but download and print out past year exam papers which give a breakdown in marks.

[Chenonceau]

cwc:

Chenonceau:

[quote=\"JRLam\"]
Hi. May I know what's the difference among \"Challenging Maths Problem Made Easy\", \"OnSponge\" and \"Visible Thinking in Mathematics\", where all 3 are from the same author?

Is the \"Visible Thinking in Mathematics\" good?

I bought both. Visible Thinking is too easy for us. We prefer Onsponge because if too easy, the practice is a waste of time. And time is so short especially if there is a lot of simple homework too. But I think you need to decide based on how strong your child is at Math already. If your child is pretty weak, Visible Thinking may be better to build confidence before you go on to Onsponge?

Hi JRLam,
I second Chenonceau. Need to decide based on your child's strength in Maths. I browse thru' Visible Thinking, found it too easy. I have OnSponge but my son is losing interest in it as he finds it getting easy. He's using Challenging Maths in school and according to him, Challenging Maths is tougher than OnSponge (sorry ah, I cannot comment cos' I dun really go thru his Maths, he's self-driven)

There is another thread where there are comments/discussion on these 3 books. Maybe it will help?
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18144[/quote]Yup! I also find Challenging Math more difficult than Onsponge. For the moment, we're ok with Onsponge but in a couple of months, I reckon we'll move on to Challenging Maths.

May not need to do everything in Onsponge. Once you do 2, can pick up then move on. Otherwise, gets boring. My son gets bored too so I move him fast through the book. No need to do all sums there.

[pixiedust]

I find the \"Visible Thinking\" good for introduction to topics - when I need to teach topics ahead of school. The explanations and little tips are more useful than the school textbooks, in my opinion. I agrew with Nicklebeetutors analysis of this series in the other thread.


The Challenging Maths and OnSponge, I always need more time before I understand the flow of the solution - maybe just me. I still find model method more intutive.

JRLam
Just my personal opinion :
\"Challenging Maths Problem Made Easy\" \"OnSponge\"
Above two are similar but organise topics differently. Challenging organise the topics according to terms used by Mr Wan eg. equal concepts, remainder etc but OnSponge has more questions and organised according to Fractions, Ratios etc.

\"Visible Thinking in Mathematics\" - newest in the market and more fundamentals concepts of the topics. Read the Ammiel Wan thread for more info.

Playchinese - anyone has any feedback ?

[BeContented]

Chenonceau:

Yup! I also find Challenging Math more difficult than Onsponge. For the moment, we're ok with Onsponge but in a couple of months, I reckon we'll move on to Challenging Maths.

May not need to do everything in Onsponge. Once you do 2, can pick up then move on. Otherwise, gets boring. My son gets bored too so I move him fast through the book. No need to do all sums there.

Hi Chenonceau,
I actually asked my son to attempt the odd-number questions only. Was thinking if there's time end of year, will attempt even-number as revision.
No time? Just pass the book on to DD next year

[janet88]

pixiedust:

I find the \"Visible Thinking\" good for introduction to topics - when I need to teach topics ahead of school. The explanations and little tips are more useful than the school textbooks, in my opinion. I agrew with Nicklebeetutors analysis of this series in the other thread.


The Challenging Maths and OnSponge, I always need more time before I understand the flow of the solution - maybe just me. I still find model method more intutive.

JRLam
Just my personal opinion :
\"Challenging Maths Problem Made Easy\" \"OnSponge\"
Above two are similar but organise topics differently. Challenging organise the topics according to terms used by Mr Wan eg. equal concepts, remainder etc but OnSponge has more questions and organised according to Fractions, Ratios etc.

\"Visible Thinking in Mathematics\" - newest in the market and more fundamentals concepts of the topics.

I didn't get 'Visible Thinking' for P5 since son has many assessment books this year. But got for P6.

Challenging Maths Problem by Ammiel Wan is too tough for son. Onsponge was ordered by his school teacher and follows topics.

[JRLam]

pixiedust:

I find the \"Visible Thinking\" good for introduction to topics - when I need to teach topics ahead of school. The explanations and little tips are more useful than the school textbooks, in my opinion. I agrew with Nicklebeetutors analysis of this series in the other thread.


The Challenging Maths and OnSponge, I always need more time before I understand the flow of the solution - maybe just me. I still find model method more intutive.

JRLam
Just my personal opinion :
\"Challenging Maths Problem Made Easy\" \"OnSponge\"
Above two are similar but organise topics differently. Challenging organise the topics according to terms used by Mr Wan eg. equal concepts, remainder etc but OnSponge has more questions and organised according to Fractions, Ratios etc.

\"Visible Thinking in Mathematics\" - newest in the market and more fundamentals concepts of the topics. Read the Ammiel Wan thread for more info.

Playchinese - anyone has any feedback ?

Thanks all. Ya, all these concur with my conclusion after flipping thru the Visible Thinking (I have both Onsponge and Challenging Maths). That 'Visible Thinking' is the simplest of all 3, good to boast morale esp if the kids totally 'catch-no-ball', when there is no point to go to the other 2 books. Like what Pixiedust suggested, \"Visible Thinking' is good for teaching ahead though, cos it is quite comprehensive and step-by-step, so I am going to do that for my P2 dd, who still 'have time'!

Personally, I find 'Challenging Maths'\" tips more comprehensive. I refer to that when I don't understand the explanation from \"OnSponge\".. so always have 2 books with me when helping son with hw from the latter... super KS right! But finally my son can see the benefit of learning the \"Unit Transfer\" method now coz he is able to use that to solve quite a few questions from Top Sch exam papers, which were previously considered as 'too chim' for him! So glad that we are finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel ...

Thanks all!

[Chenonceau]

JRLam:

pixiedust:

I find the \"Visible Thinking\" good for introduction to topics - when I need to teach topics ahead of school. The explanations and little tips are more useful than the school textbooks, in my opinion. I agrew with Nicklebeetutors analysis of this series in the other thread.


The Challenging Maths and OnSponge, I always need more time before I understand the flow of the solution - maybe just me. I still find model method more intutive.

JRLam
Just my personal opinion :
\"Challenging Maths Problem Made Easy\" \"OnSponge\"
Above two are similar but organise topics differently. Challenging organise the topics according to terms used by Mr Wan eg. equal concepts, remainder etc but OnSponge has more questions and organised according to Fractions, Ratios etc.

\"Visible Thinking in Mathematics\" - newest in the market and more fundamentals concepts of the topics. Read the Ammiel Wan thread for more info.

Playchinese - anyone has any feedback ?

Thanks all. Ya, all these concur with my conclusion after flipping thru the Visible Thinking (I have both Onsponge and Challenging Maths). That 'Visible Thinking' is the simplest of all 3, good to boast morale esp if the kids totally 'catch-no-ball', when there is no point to go to the other 2 books. Like what Pixiedust suggested, \"Visible Thinking' is good for teaching ahead though, cos it is quite comprehensive and step-by-step, so I am going to do that for my P2 dd, who still 'have time'!

Personally, I find 'Challenging Maths'\" tips more comprehensive. I refer to that when I don't understand the explanation from \"OnSponge\".. so always have 2 books with me when helping son with hw from the latter... super KS right! But finally my son can see the benefit of learning the \"Unit Transfer\" method now coz he is able to use that to solve quite a few questions from Top Sch exam papers, which were previously considered as 'too chim' for him! So glad that we are finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel ...

Thanks all!

Congrats JRLam, all the best for exams.

[Brenda10]

JRLam:

Thanks all. Ya, all these concur with my conclusion after flipping thru the Visible Thinking (I have both Onsponge and Challenging Maths). That 'Visible Thinking' is the simplest of all 3, good to boast morale esp if the kids totally 'catch-no-ball', when there is no point to go to the other 2 books. Like what Pixiedust suggested, \"Visible Thinking' is good for teaching ahead though, cos it is quite comprehensive and step-by-step, so I am going to do that for my P2 dd, who still 'have time'!


Personally, I find 'Challenging Maths'\" tips more comprehensive. I refer to that when I don't understand the explanation from \"OnSponge\".. so always have 2 books with me when helping son with hw from the latter... super KS right! But finally my son can see the benefit of learning the \"Unit Transfer\" method now coz he is able to use that to solve quite a few questions from Top Sch exam papers, which were previously considered as 'too chim' for him! So glad that we are finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel ...

Thanks all!

Hi, this was our experience last year when solving the top school papers. Once the child is able to grasp the concept of \"Unit Transfer\" and able to convert fraction to ratio or percentage to fraction or ratio etc, then you would see a less stress of P6 lah.

[BeContented]

Brenda10:

Hi, this was our experience last year when solving the top school papers. Once the child is able to grasp the concept of \"Unit Transfer\" and able to convert fraction to ratio or percentage to fraction or ratio etc, then you would see a less stress of P6 lah.

Hi, have been seeing this 'unit transfer' term being mentioned. Can share where can I find out more? Is it meant for P6? Found in textbook or other sources? I'll like to understand it too

[Brenda10]

cwc:

Brenda10:

Hi, this was our experience last year when solving the top school papers. Once the child is able to grasp the concept of \"Unit Transfer\" and able to convert fraction to ratio or percentage to fraction or ratio etc, then you would see a less stress of P6 lah.

Hi, have been seeing this 'unit transfer' term being mentioned. Can share where can I find out more? Is it meant for P6? Found in textbook or other sources? I'll like to understand it too

Hi cwc

You can find it at onpsonge Chapter 3- ratio. Some example and exercise on fraction and percentage questions also using the similar concpet.

For challenging maths copy, Chapter 2 - chapter 7 .

Hope the above information useful.