If you have been looking for things related to Singapore Math, then lionmath.com would be a good place to look for it. We will focus on math related to Singapore Math from grade 3 to 6 and even some junior olympiad math (at the lower grade level.)

For homeschool parents and teachers, lionmath.com hope to be a good math resource for you. There will be lesson discussionss and downloads. We hope to do more in time to come. We don’t intend to reinvent the wheel, so if there are things out in the internet jungle, we will go find it and link it. This place should be a friendly jungle.

Most important, we want to hear from you, especially if you have questions about Singapore Math. The simplest, if you have problems in math, post it at our forum, we will be glad to answer it. You can also contact me : singa@lionmath.com

Oh by the way, this is not a commerical site, there isn’t a big team here … but we hope to have fun doing it.

Here are a few links to begin with :

Word Problems Lament : Many parents lament that their primary school children cannot solve mathematical problems because the language used in mathematical questions is too difficulty for the children to handle. To what extent is such a perception valid? Read here … and register to download the file.

Use of “=” and “–>” : Thise should be of particular importance in mathematics. Confusion about notation, what is proper or not, leads to errors in calculations and in problem solving.

Parent facilitators and teachers in the child’s education can help by correcting the child. Read here…

The Model Method and Algebra : I for one am schooled in algebra and ultimately algebra must be learnt. Does The Bar Model Method provide a bridge ? Here is a comparision example and I hope it generates discussion.

Rosie bought a box of sweets. She put half of the sweets equally into 4 tins and the other half equally into 10 jars. There were 110 sweets in 2 tins and 6 jars altogether. How many sweets did she buy?

We are given 2 pieces of information :

4 tins of sweets equal to 4 jars of sweets, so we get

4T = 10J

Simplify 2T  = 5J

110 sweets in 2 tins and and 6 jars, so we get

2T + 6J = 110

5J + 6J = 110

J = 10

She bought 20 X 10 = 200 sweets.

In this case, no model drawing was needed.

Joseph is 40 years old and his son is 30 years younger.How many years ago was Joseph six times as old as his son?

So 1 unit is 30/5 = 6 years.

When Joseph was 36 years old, his son was 6 years old.

It was 4 years ago.

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More advance solution :

This can be solved much faster in this manner :

Joseph age to his son’s age  is 6:1

The difference in this ratio is 6-1 = 5. This remains even as they aged.

The constance difference in their age is 30.

One unit of the ratio is 6 years. Hence Joseph was 36 years old when he was 6 times his son’s age.

So it was 4 years ago.

Adam and Raymond shared some beans.  If Adam gave 1/3 of his share to Raymond, Raymond would have 70 more than Adam. If Adam gave 1/5 of his share to Raymond, Raymond would have 10 more than Adam. How many beans does Adam have at first?

Would any reader give it a go? Can we use the bar model ? Would algebra be better ?