You may also want to get the optional readers and activity books. For the readers, you need the set of 10 small books, not the "big books" which are the same but are for the classroom.  Please read this FAQ for more information. 

Some parents use the Essential Mathematics as their main curriculum. Both Earlybird Mathematics and Essential Mathematics can also be used in conjunction with each other. Kindergarten math is a relaxed program, emphasizing hands-on activities to learn math concepts. These activities are given at the bottom of the pages in both the Earlybird Kindergarten Math and the Essential Math books. The textbooks are mainly used to wrap-up the concepts. There is not a lot of "seat work". If you want primarily workbook pages, you can get the Power Math.

The core curriculum for grades 1-6 is called Primary Mathematics. There are two books that are used together, a textbook and a workbook. The year is divided up into two parts, so there is a textbook and workbook A and a textbook and workbook B for each year. The B books are not different versions or harder than the A books; they simply follow the A books. The rest of the grades 1-6 math books we carry are a variety of optional supplementary books which are not a formal part of the core curriculum.

The U.S. edition consists of a textbook and workbook A and B for each grade, and a choice of a teacher's guide or a home instructor's guide or a simple answer key. Some of the popular supplementary books are sequenced according to the US edition (see below).

The Standards edition also consists of a textbook and workbook A and B for each grade. It currently has only teacher's guides, but home instructor's guides are in the works. It is based on the US edition, but is newer, has a few added topics, and moves a little faster than the US edition by grades 4-5. It only goes to grade 5. A middle school series to follow the Standards edition is being planned. Until then, you can either follow it with the US edition 6A and 6B (there is a bit of overlap) or with New Math Counts 1.

Please read this FAQ for more information.

If your student is starting with first grade, get the Primary Mathematics 1A and 1B.

If your student is starting 2nd to 6th grade, give your student some placement tests to take. 

Note that the placement tests are more like assessment tests and cover the material in that level. Since the Primary Mathematics curriculum will probably not follow the same sequence as the curriculum your child has been doing, and since there is little reteaching between levels, it is important to place your child accurately according to his or her understanding of mathematics, not by the number on the books. Therefore it is recommend that your student start the tests a grade or two behind his/her current grade level.  Your student would start in whichever level he/she first starts having difficulty with the concepts. If this is lower than you anticipated or his/her current grade level, your student will probably be able to move through the material quickly, only spending time on new concepts. It is better to lay the foundation where it is laid in the curriculum than try to back-track. If you need further assistance in interpreting the test results or placing your student after he or she has taken the placement tests, you can email the curriculum advisor.

A Home Instructor's Guide or Teacher's Guide is highly recommended. Not all teaching information is in the textbook. Note that the textbooks and workbooks do not contain answer keys. Answers are available in the guides. Please read this FAQ for more information on the guides. For the US edition, you can purchase separate answer keys if you do not want to purchase a guide. There is one answer key booklet for US Primary Mathematics 1A-3B and another fore US Primary Mathematics 4A-6B.

The Standards edition has an Extra Practice book for each grade level, and a test book for each A and B level, written specifically to accompany this edition. The Extra Practice book is a very basic re-teaching book. The test book was created for use in the US (in Singapore teachers write their own tests). Since there are two tests for each chapter and two cumulative tests for each unit, it provides a lot of extra practice and one of the tests could be used for continuing practice rather than as a test. There is no test book for the US edition.

Other supplementary books were not written to specifically accompany Primary Mathematics. They are simply extra math books that students or parents purchase in Singapore to give their children more practice. Most of the ones we are more challenging than the Primary Mathematics, and meant for enrichment, not basic instruction, and your student will generally require assistance to complete some of the problems in them. The Extra Practice US edition, Intensive Practice US edition, and Challenging Word Problems US edition follow the sequence in the Primary Mathematics US edition with regard to topics. The Intensive Practice and the Challenging Word Problems can still be used to supplement the Standards edition; they just won't have problems for some topics, and an occasional topic will be out of order. The other supplements do not specifically follow the sequence of Primary Mathematics. Please read this FAQ for more information on the supplementary books.

Supplementary books  have answer keys in the back.

If you don't know whether to get a supplementary book or not, wait until you have been using the Primary Mathematics for a while and then decide.

We carry four different series: New Elementary Mathematics, Discovering Mathematics, New Syllabus Mathematics, and New Mathematics Counts. In Singapore students attend Secondary School after Primary School, so these texts start with level 1 for Secondary 1. The New Elementary Math, Discovering Mathematics and New Syllabus Math have 4 levels; New Mathematics Counts is a 5-level series. Most home schoolers have been using the New Elementary Mathematics up until now, as it is the original series we carried. It is also the most challenging of the three series. New Math Counts is the least challenging. All of these integrate algebra, geometry, and introductory trigonometry, so there are not separate pre-algebra, algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2 texts.

The main component for each of these series is the textbook. New Elementary Mathematics and New Syllabus Mathematics have optional workbooks, Discovering Mathematics will have an optional workbook next year. All of them have an answer key to the regular daily problem sets in the back. New Elementary Mathematics has additional problem sets which only have answers (as well as solutions) in the Teacher's Manuals for New Elemengary Math. None of these have  a teacher's guide with detailed lesson plans - the teaching is in the textbook. New Elementary Mathematics 1 and 2 has a solutions manual for levels 1 and 2. Discovering Mathematics has solutions for all levels, in the Teacher's Guide.

Please read this FAQ for more information.

If your child is starting 7th grade, get the first level, unless your student is lacking in a good foundation in mathematics, in which case you should follow the steps for the Primary Mathematics.

If your student has had pre-algebra in another curriculum, he or she would still need to start with New Elementary Mathematics 1 or New Syllabus Mathematics 1, but can  probably start New Mathematics Counts 2.

Otherwise, you can have your student take the placement tests. The placement tests do cover the material taught at that level. A student who has trouble with the level 1 test would either start there or try the Primary Mathematics placement tests. There are currently no placement tests for the New Mathematics Counts.

For New Elementary Mathematics, you also want to purchase the Teacher's Manual if you want answers to all the problems. The Solutions Manuals are optional.

The workbooks are optional.

None of the texts from Singapore include use of a graphing calculator.

In junior college (grades 11-12) students in Singapore use College Mathematics. These are quite challenging.