Maths Assessment Books

[SAHM_TAN]

:offtopic:


I think the most important method to nurture a child is thru' love. A child will bloosom very well in the warmth of a loving family.

[Maple leaf]

24hr-mum:

ya i agree. tho my girl copes well when she was p1, as in all band 1, given that she is 1 yr younger than her peers as she is 1 jan bb, she has nvr scored full marks or anything close. bcos her carelessness n immaturity shows.


but to me, since maths is a subject u neednt worry, why dont u focus on his languages? languages harder to excel cos it is borderless and the answers are subjective.....at the end of the day when we work, i personally think languages may be more useful.....

Hi 24hr mum,
so good, yr DD can save one year. No need to appeal level skipping.

[Maple leaf]

chamonix:

Maple leaf:

Hi,chamoni,

Murderous Maths did not catch DS attention. I didn't browse it but DS and DH said that \"too simple\" I was a bit diappointed. However, he was hooked on the Science series instead.
Where are u located?How come yr DD needs to take Math proficiency tests?

I am a lazy or (busy?) mom, so I hardly have the patient to teach DS. Workbooks with examples are better. So far, I just verbally tell him what is dec. or fractions. I don't think he can do problem sums without having a rough idea what is diameter or circumference.
Now,without any coaching,I guage his standard as doing P5 Maths normal assessment books with no problem but need guidance for challenging problem sums.
I have actually stop letting him do any uplevel Maths since beginning of P1. Now that school holidays coming. Thought of getting him to do some work b4 he comes to bother me. He is happy when he see numbers..
Ya, like yr DS too, will ask me that kind of square root questions.

Oops, I made a blunder. My son just corrected me that his favourite used to be the Horrible Science series. He finished the entire series in K2 and considers it childish now. So far, he tried only 3 books from Murderous Maths. He enjoys Brain Benders most. Talk about lazy or busy moms... I don't know which I group I belong too. Most likely both, haha... My forte would be buying books...

Erm, what do you consider as normal assessment books? So far, we have yet to come across any challenging assessment books. There may exist only a few challenging questions in an entire assessment book. We tried a few like -

Step by Step Math by Simon Sio (simplest)
Casco Step by Step Mathematics (relatively simple but sprinkled with some challenging questions in certain units)
Challenging 4-in-1 Maths (Questions are not difficult once the kid get through the phrasing of the questions) - started only recently. Personally, I don't really like their questions.
School papers - feels a bit like drilling after a while

I flipped through both Fabian Ng's PSP and Onsponge. Both share a very similar format, as in they provide examples and questions that follow closely to the examples. Wouldn't consider these as difficult too. But Onsponge books provide a very systemetic way for learning to solve questions via model way and unit transfers.

Since your son finds P5 Math easy, you may want to skip Challenging Maths Made Easy by Animel Wan. My son tried it last Dec accidentally and was able to solve some of the questions using logic. He was only working on P2 Math then. (Likewise, we didn't bother to up his level until the second half of last year.)

Olympiad Maths by Terry Chew - not difficult if the child likes numbers.
Since your is child in BTPS, you should be living near Bt Batok Maths Hub. You can try requesting for your ds to join their Maths Olympiad classes. Mine tried the P1 class and was allowed to join P2 class after one lesson. The instructor was willing to consider him for Maths Olympiad classes a couple of months later. (But we didn't stay on.)

What one friend suggested is to let him try solving upper primary exam questions. She gave him one P6 question on rate of change last year. Of course, he wasn't able to solve when his heart was thinking about playing with his best friend. Nonetheless, it was a good thinking exercise for him.

Instead of concentrating on the Sg Syllabus, I'm diverting his attention to other Maths. We have 3 books by Edward Zaccaro:

Primary Math Challenge - Fairly simple
Becoming a Problem Solving Genius - He finds the Super Einstein level engaging.
Challenging Math for the Elementary and Middle School Student - Yet to try but Chapter One looks promisingly fun.

Another author that I like is Theoni Pappas. It introduces concepts like Fibionacci, golden ratio etc. Might be too easy for your ds if your DH has
already taught him these concepts.

The Number Devil is another book popular with kids good in Maths. But my son didn't enjoy it. He's a scaredy cat, hehe.

All in all, my son finds these maths books more interesting.

Hi,chamonix,
Wow.. You are such a diligent mom. Not only research the books and also got them for yr DS. That's a handful of them. :yikes:
Hope have time to find them . :thankyou:

How old is yr son? How come u stop the Math Hub classes?
My DS has transferred out of BTPS last term cos' school is too far.
Are u still letting yr DS do Maths Olympiad?

[Maple leaf]

[optimistforum]

Interestingly, my P3 sons finds the EPH Challenging Maths difficult. Stranegleyt, when in UK Year 3 (or your P2), he struggled through the P2 books. I was later told by a tutor that some of his Year 5 (P4)_ students found those questions difficult.


I therefore rate these books as one to use.

My DS2 (Uk Y2 and MOE P1) uses EPH Step by Step Maths P1, and this is brilliant).

[SAHM_TAN]

Maple leaf:

They mean that we are not financially well off to provide the material possesions be it gadgets or enrichments or overseas travelling that are eye-opening for the kids.They meant other family can provide both love and the above lah.
For me, I only feel that both DH and I are not smart. Lots of time cannot answer his questions instantly.Pity DS cannot gain lots of knowledge from us. :smile
Cannot googlle, they will urge me to get him an ipad2 for this reason.
:evil:
Not easy to be parents these days.

It's nice to have those things but locally many places to gain knowledge as well, like museums, bks, zoo, science centre, special exhibitions etc. I think as parents we do not need to give them all the answers, we just need to let them know how to find the answers.

It is never easy, being a parent. I just follow my gut.

:offtopic: must get back to math assessment type content

[metz]

Maple leaf:

Hi,chamonix,
Wow.. You are such a diligent mom. Not only research the books and also got them for yr DS. That's a handful of them. :yikes:
Hope have time to find them . :thankyou:

How old is yr son? How come u stop the Math Hub classes?
My DS has transferred out of BTPS last term cos' school is too far.
Are u still letting yr DS do Maths Olympiad?

oic, your son has been transferred out. Yes, school distance is a consideration when kids are still young.

Diligent isn't quite the word. Just a few clicks here and there, and the books would appear at my doorstep within weeks, haha. Buying books online has become a pastime since we live abroad most of the time. :moneyflies:

As for research, I wouldn't know where to start from. But thanks to another forum, I came to know about these books. There were a few mothers with maths whizz kids there and I benefitted a lot from their sharing.

He's P2, formerly from BTPS too. We couldn't wait for the Olympiad class with Maths Hub as we were preparing to leave Sg in a few months then. Hope you'll find something suitable soon to keep your ds busy.

[24hr-mum]

hi maple leaf


i knew my #1 was gonna so called skip year cos she is 1 jan bb, so i started her on readg early. she can read a to z at 2, and simple bks at 3 both eng n ch. till now she is still a bookworm.
but i realise its actually no gd to be able to skip level, cos while she can cope wf p3 work tho she is only 8, it will be challenging to want her to excel or be at the top 5-10 or even 20% cos her maturity and logic hasnt set in yet as compared to her peers. this shows in comprehension, compo and math. she has to work harder than the rest. ie i must worker hard too to "nurture" her. stressful.
i didnt think of it and just conveniently follow the MOE guideline of 2 jan - 1 jan (of following year) to be one cohort. i alwaz comfort myslf to see as 32 Dec bb，hee

i m surprised ur DS grammar needs to be brushed up cos i thot must be a careful person then can excel in math. so a careful person shd also do well in grammar becos u need to be mindful and careful or rather, meticulous abt the rules and details in the language phrasing. my DD isnt the meticulous sort, so she suffers for grammar and math and daily routine - must remind her every day the the routine things she has been doing since p1 ： eg pack $, take out water btl, pack uniform, pack bks, write tidier, etc etc. bring bus card when gg out wf me…can stil forget to bring back hmwk to do…sorry for being off topic

[metz]

SAHM_TAN:

:offtopic:


I think the most important method to nurture a child is thru' love. A child will bloosom very well in the warmth of a loving family.

:goodpost:

Ok, back to assessment books. Do you find doing Maths assessment books really help your children? 2 tutor-friends have advised me that assessment books don't really help. Very often, their tutees are able to perform when doing assessment books. But the same performance does not show their results. A case of not enough practice?

[metz]

24hr-mum:

hi maple leaf


i knew my #1 was gonna so called skip year cos she is 1 jan bb, so i started her on readg early. she can read a to z at 2, and simple bks at 3 both eng n ch. till now she is still a bookworm.
but i realise its actually no gd to be able to skip level, cos while she can cope wf p3 work tho she is only 8, it will be challenging to want her to excel or be at the top 5-10 or even 20% cos her maturity and logic hasnt set in yet as compared to her peers. this shows in comprehension, compo and math. she has to work harder than the rest. ie i must worker hard too to \"nurture\" her. stressful.
i didnt think of it and just conveniently follow the MOE guideline of 2 jan - 1 jan (of following year) to be one cohort. i alwaz comfort myslf to see as 32 Dec bb，hee

32 Dec bb?

My niece is also a year-end child, 27 Dec. Likewise, my sister also feels her daughter lacks in maturity and questions herself if she has done enough for dd. Frankly, I think my niece and your dd has done very well. So, give yourself a good pat on the shoulder. You mommies have done a very good job!