I recently discovered Singapore Math, Inc. curriculum for my son Mason for Grade 5 and decided to write a product review. This curriculum emphasizes problem-solving and logical skills which can help students take steps to work through each question.
Disclosure: I received product and was compensated for my time writing this article. All opinions are my own.
Singapore Math Curriculum Grade 5 Product Review
Some of my children dislike math; it has been a challenge to get them to do their work. I would then hunt for a new math curriculum to try to see if a certain curriculum would work better for them. As a mom of eight this has always worked for me in the past, with my oldest five children.
Even with three math curriculums in the house, I just had not hit on that “lights going on – child is getting it” moment with my sixth child, Mason. Time after time, I felt like each school year we needed to relearn many of the basics. Each new skill taught was learned with resistance.
So going into this review, part of me expected this to be the same. I had heard from other homeschool moms that Dimensions Math® Sets have high quality, colorful and engaging resources, which can help students to understand the concepts and develop a love for mathematics. In hearing that, I was hopeful that this could be “the one.”
I received this entire set of teacher and student books for Grade 5 with beautifully decorated covers and stickers from Singapore Math, Inc.
Dimensions Math® Grade 5 Set With Home Instructor’s Guides
Dimensions Math® Sets include all the material (other than the manipulatives and pencils) that you need for an entire school year. “A” books are for the first half of the year, and “B” books are for the second half of the year.
My set came with a free sheet of reward stickers that I can use on Mason’s Sticker Chart, but I don’t know if that is a limited supply or something they always do.
Recommended manipulatives for this grade are:
a set of 10 sided dice
base 10 blocks
centimeter cubes
compass
counters
regular 6 sided dice
dry erase sleeves
fraction tiles
geoboards
graph paper
linking cubes
liquid capacity set
liter cube
measuring tape
meter stick
number cards
pattern blocks
place value discs
protractor
ruler
set squares
two-color counters
whiteboard
We already have several of the manipulatives in my home from teaching my kids over the years. However, I noticed you can buy many of these through the Singapore website where you can also purchase the Dimensions Math At Home® Video Subscription for Grade 5, which you can use optionally alongside the books.
Mason and I looking at this beautiful full color page in his workbook to learn today’s lesson.
What is Singapore math?
Well, that can’t be defined without telling you some history about the company. Notice how the stickers above said “Celebrating 25 years of Singapore Math!” Dawn Thomas, the founder, had moved to the United States from Singapore with her husband and daughter. The family noticed a stark difference between how math was taught in Singapore compared to how the daughter (Echo Thomas – now the company CEO) was taught in her new school. They wondered if other parents in the community might find the Singapore approach an appealing alternative to the rote memorization and surface level treatment of math that was offered locally.
25 years ago, in the late 1990’s, Echo’s parents introduced the original Primary Mathematics textbooks and workbooks to a small group of parents in West Linn, Oregon. The interest in the Primary Mathematics materials they introduced grew quickly. One thing led to another and they kept creating new content to make Singapore Math more accessible to more people.
Dimensions Math is the strongest Singapore math program currently out there, a natural evolution of Primary Mathematics that delivers more of what students and teachers want today (video lesson subscription, activities, and differentiation).
Mason and I learning how to work through some problem solving.
Lots of Problem Solving To Help Students Think Logically
In my personal opinion, the key strengths of this teaching method are the full color pages with images in the textbooks to help in learning – it makes math look fun and the step by step problem solving techniques help apply math to real life situations.
Mason writing in his Singapore Math workbook. Notice how few problems there are on a page? It is not overwhelming to him.
Few Tasks Per Page Eliminates Overwhelm
Mason kept saying this was “so easy” and there was “not much work to do” yet he was actually spending the same amount of math lesson time as he was with a different curriculum but he seemed to be advancing through Singapore Math at a faster rate. His shoulders seemed to relax, and he didn’t complain as much.
It took me a few nights thinking about it in bed to realize the difference. With Dimensions Math®, at least for Grade 5 anyway, there are few tasks per page in the student workbook. Other curriculums often have twenty or more problems per page, which must be very overwhelming to a child. Each page in his workbook has from two to ten problems. I also like that they are written in large print in the student textbook and workbook, it’s easier on my “older eyes.”
The drawback I see is that it does take up a little more room in my house with all of these books, but each item Mason is working on seems so easy to him (at least so far in the 5A part), that I guess it’s a trade-off. I would rather have the happier, easier to teach kid than more room on my shelves!
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Mason and I at the dining room table during a math lesson.
Conclusion
I almost forgot to mention that I absolutely love the spiral binding on the teacher book. I am really happy that we were able to try out this curriculum. I recommend that you click on https://www.singaporemath.com to learn more details about it and see if it would be a good fit for your family.
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