Princeton Academy Lower School Introduces New Math Program

When some of Princeton Academy’s youngest students head to math class, they’ll be mastering the subject through an innovative new program.

After reviewing five different math programs, Princeton Academy will be implementing the Singapore Math curriculum in kindergarten through second grade this school year. Selected not only for its visual format that works well with boys’ learning styles, Singapore Math also has a wide variety of resources, a strong online component and a primary curriculum that makes it easier to individualize for students.

“The program has greatly improved over the years and is published by an American publisher with many more resources for math centers, math challenges, fact practice, individualization and online resources,” said Head of Lower School Dr. R. Mark Bauman.

Prior, all of Lower School was using Everyday Math. However, Singapore Math is expected to better suit the Lower School boys due to its concepts, which are taught through stories and real life applications in addition to its visually compelling texts and workbooks. Where Everyday Math would introduce a concept and return to it over and over again in a spiral format, Singapore teaches a concept until it is fully mastered.

“Practice for the basic operations and facts is provided for in class, as homework and online in ways that provide enough drill, but not boredom,” explained Dr. Bauman.

The Lower School is still using Everyday Math in the third and fourth grades, but will switch those grades over to Singapore Math next year.

Essentially, a signature Singapore lesson has three steps: beginning with a manipulative activity whether with physical objects, online images or textbook drawings; drawing or recreating the problem; and putting the problem into a symbolic or abstract form such as a formula.

“This process, with the middle step, is the hallmark of Singapore Math — no other program before had that middle step” added Dr. Bauman. “It is particularly good for boys.”