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I am looking to order all the materials I will need to start my daughter in the Preparing guide in the new year. I am wondering if I could easily get along without buying the math textbooks if the 3A & 3B workbooks are self explanatory as were the previous levels. I am wondering the same thing about the grammar teacher’s guide. I didn’t purchase it when we were in the Bigger guide. Trying to save a buck.

Thanks,

For grammar, if you are solid on grammar including diagramming, you can probably get by without the teacher's guide for 3. But by level 4, you will probably want it. I like it because I can read out of the teacher's guide while my daughter reads out of the student book. It is nice for each of us to have a copy. But I also found ours used locally to save money.

For math, I think you will want the textbooks at Level 3. There are no more hands on activities in the guide. The guide only gives page numbers. So having the textbook for problems to work together is helpful. Unless you have background in math education, you will want the textbook for the actual instruction. The workbook is only problems (no instruction).

For grammar, the teacher's guide has all of the answers, making it much easier to grade a student's work, so I think it's well worth the cost. I have also found the oral drills and "written" (we do them orally) quizzes, found in the teacher's book, to be an amazing tool to help solidify the material in my childrens minds. I honestly wouldn't want to do the program without them.

As far as the grammar teacher's guide goes, I've never had one and I've used through level 5 (or 6 maybe... I can't remember what my older two got to honestly). In my opinion the student book is good enough. And we do 90% of the entire thing orally anyway. And grammar hasn't ever been my strong suit. Plus my older three are in a charter school now and they are having no trouble in their English classes... even in honors English with a teacher who grades based off grammar.

Math will depend on you. Singapore is how I do and think math anyway. So that's how I'd be teaching it no matter what program we used. Basically it's instinctual for me. So the textbook is really just overkill and busy work here. If you struggle with math or with teaching it the way Singapore math does it, then you'd probably want the extra help from the textbook.

Hello! The oral review questions in the R & S English teacher's guide are important to do and impact retention beginning with R & S English 3 through R & S English 8. The textbooks for Singapore Math are definitely needed beginning with 3A and through 6B! All of the teaching is included in the math textbooks. I cannot imagine not having them, as Singapore Math has various mental math methods that are to be taught prior to completing the work in the workbooks. These items are used daily, so they are worth the purchase, which is why Carrie planned for them to be used beginning with R & S 3 and Singapore Textbook 3A.

In Christ,
Julie