Math Assesment books for Sonshine (6 Yo)

 

This is a (boring) post on what Math assessment books I used. I never thought this was of any interest to anyone until someone asked me. I was also quite surprise that this topic (on what assessment books to use)  was even posted on a parenting forum!

 

 

Kumon books are probably a common choice among parents. I don't know why! But i first chose Kumon for its word problem sum series. It offers exactly what i wanted- lots of practice. Also, i like that the sums are similar; it gets repeated but in different storyline, because it gives the child lots of repetitive practise. Subsequently, i also bought their Addition and subtraction series.

 

If you are looking for a confident booster for Primary 1 Math, this is it.

 

It is relative easy and won't kill your child's interest. If I didn't remember wrongly, I got this for him when he was 5 years and he was able to do this with much ease.

 

I find it useful that it is topical. This means that after the child learns one topic, you can follow up by getting him to do one chapter as some sort of revision.

Subsequently, I decided to up his challenge and got him this book. I knew he was good at operations (addition, subtraction) but i wanted to know how well he can apply it. I deliberately got him a slightly challenging book because i knew the basic ones were too easy for him.

 



 

I can't say this is a very difficult book. But it does pepper its chapters with some questions that need a little more thinking versus those straight forward ones.

 

The Topical practice book was too easy for Sonshine (and he has completed it) so I went on to find him something more difficult. Well, who can set challenging questions better than our local 'TOP' primary schools? :D

 

Again, I wouldn't describe this as difficult. Rather, I would say some or maybe most questions are pretty tricky. I was quite shock to see a division question appear on a Primary 1 paper. Not just any division question, but division involving 2 digits question. From what I understand only simple division (maybe up to division by to 3 or 4?) is in the Primary 1 math syllabus. But Sonshine got the answer correct. I watched him read the question, stare at the illustration for a moment without scribbling on the page and then wrote '12'. I think the illustration gave him the visual to work on the problem.

Heh heh.

 

Edit: Okay, thanks to a reader, i just realised the above answer is wrong. :P Ah see I told you this book is tricky!

I shall return and correct his (and my) error! :)

 

 Oh well, I still am grateful for my error. It led me to discover that Sonshine can do division beyond 10, mentally. After he cracked 36/3, I went on to ask him what 45/15 is and 42/14 is. Without any pen & paper, he thought the questions for a moment and gave me the right answers. But obviously, he still needs some help in deciphering division word problems. :)