Ruthie Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 My dd is more liberal arts bent, but I'm so freakish about math, we spend most of our time on that. So until now, she was using Math U See & Horizons. She scored in the upper 90% on her standardized test. So, after all the raves about Chalkdust, when she was ready to move onto PreAlg, so I bought CD. She hates it! She says Prof Mosley can't make up his mind and is all over the place and she can't follow his train of thought. She is asking to do MUS again, but I fear it is not rigorous enough. I also just bought Life of Fred, she's working thru those, too. What do I do? Ruthie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie-Knits Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 How are you using Chalkdust? Are you watching the videos with her? How many problems are you assigning? I have both a math oriented student and a liberal arts oriented student too and both have done well with Chalkdust. But I don't "work" the curriculum the same for them - you know what I mean? Susie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy in MD Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 My dd is more liberal arts bent, but I'm so freakish about math, we spend most of our time on that. So until now, she was using Math U See & Horizons. She scored in the upper 90% on her standardized test. So, after all the raves about Chalkdust, when she was ready to move onto PreAlg, so I bought CD. She hates it! She says Prof Mosley can't make up his mind and is all over the place and she can't follow his train of thought. She is asking to do MUS again, but I fear it is not rigorous enough. I also just bought Life of Fred, she's working thru those, too. What do I do? Ruthie Dr. Mosley will show several ways to solve a problem. It sounds as if your dd either isn't used learning how to solve a problem several ways or she just wants to learn one method and go on. She may need some hand holding to get used to learning to think in multiple ways. I think Dr. Mosley does make it clear when he's showing an alternative method, so you shouldn't have any problems pointing it out to her. Personally, I think it's important for students to learn multiple ways to solve a problem. Not all problems can be solved, at least efficiently, the exact same way. It also teaches mental flexibility. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 Dr. Mosley will show several ways to solve a problem. It sounds as if your dd either isn't used learning how to solve a problem several ways or she just wants to learn one method and go on. She may need some hand holding to get used to learning to think in multiple ways. I think Dr. Mosley does make it clear when he's showing an alternative method, so you shouldn't have any problems pointing it out to her. Personally, I think it's important for students to learn multiple ways to solve a problem. Not all problems can be solved, at least efficiently, the exact same way. It also teaches mental flexibility. I agree. An analogy I use for this is being "local" or from "out of town" in math. We live near two major interstates. If I'm traveling and I see a jam ahead, I immediately exit and have a few different options for the best way to work around the jam and arrive at my destination. However, if I'm traveling and come upon a jam, I usually have to sit it out because I only know one way to get to where I'm going. Programs like Singapore and Chalkdust help a kid to become "a local" in math: the kid can use the best way for a particular problem, and/or select the method for solving the problem that works best for their particular brain. There are other programs that leave you always "out of state" in mathland. You know one way to get somewhere, which is fine when it works, but if you run into a snag, you're stuck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie4b Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 One other comment: I know that being able to tailor things for kids can be a strength in homeschooling; it can also be a weakness. Unless a kid has specific learning disabilities, times when curricula truly needs to be switched are few and far between. I usually totally ignore my kids' protests if I think a program is good but they don't like it right away. Even when a child has specific learning disabilities, I weigh the merit behind the protests. I recently switched from Singapore to Rod and Staff in math for 2 youngest ds's. I want to solidify their math background before we finish 6B and move them into algebra and I really like the practical math that Rod and Staff gives. So we're taking a detour and using it. Ds with the LD's fussed and fussed when we first switched, but we kept on. I did adjust the way I did lessons (lots more on the whiteboard at first) for him, but stuck to the curriculum because I think it's the best thing for him right now. (Kinda like , "Eat your veges. I know you like the meat more, but eat your veges." ) I'm not saying that Chalkdust is the perfect program for your child, but I would take the protests with a grain of salt unless I saw a true reason for them, and know that it is normal for most kids to be less comfortable with a new way of presenting ---at first. Just something to consider. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruthie Posted May 25, 2009 Author Share Posted May 25, 2009 Hmmm... all good advice. She is watching the lessons herself and does all odd problems. I'm going to take your advice and watch it with her and explain how to absorb it. Maybe that will help. As she has gotten older, there is more dialogue about what curricula she likes and such. Thanks so much! Ruthie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraceinMD Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 watch it with her and explain how to absorb it. Maybe that will help. My ds is using CD Pre-Alg this year. It has been good, imo, because he is showing his work (mostly!), and understands the concepts. I have found, however, that he seems to do much better if I DO watch it with him and help him know how to pull the info from it. We pause the tape a lot once Dana Mosely has explained the concept, and I get ds to say what he thinks the next step will be, or what the answer will be (which he likes because it's more like a game to him!). THEN he does the problems in his notebook. I think there's something on the website that recommends doing every 4th problem (or so), so maybe doing all the odds is too much for your daughter? (I could be thinking of a different program though, so you might want to look at the website to verify this!) If ds misses too many from one section, I'll have him go back and do more from that section. HTH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFSinIL Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 I have been watching the prealgebra dvds with my dd (we are almost done with chapter 5 now as we switched to Chalkdust in January) since I am a nonmath person who never took algebra in school. I do not think the instructor is "all over the place", although he will often show more than one way to do something. My dd, however, HATES math...so she says she hates the instructor (hating the messenger?) Could this be a part of what is going on with your kidlet? If she finds the dvd lessons unclear, she can always look at the textbook. It is very straightforward and clear - the best math book I have ever seen. Even I understand it!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asta Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 Just my .02: I made kiddo stick with a math program he hated for an entire year, and at the end, we had to start all over with a different curriculum. Worse, he had scored 98-100% on everything he had done with the "failed" program, but none of it "stuck". I am firmly in the camp of "does it work for him? OK, we'll stick with it." I have found that he retains more by doing a program that he enjoys, and is able to use it as a "jumping off" point for other lines of thought. asta Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIch elle Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 Ds did Saxon alg. for the rest of the school year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4wildberrys Posted May 25, 2009 Share Posted May 25, 2009 I am in the camp also of "If it ain't broke---don't 'fix' it!" You switched with obvious good intentions---but to a program that just may not be a good fit for your particular child ;) I have yet to see a bad review of MUS from someone who used it all the way through high school and whose child failed the SAT/ACT or college or college math. (And somebody please post the link if I am wrong here) If your dd 'likes' MUS, 'understands' it and wants to use it----why not use it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cornflower Posted May 26, 2009 Share Posted May 26, 2009 Take another look at how to use the program. There is a good explanation in the paperwork that it came with. The teacher does not expect the student to do so many problems. His recommendation is to do 25-30 problems per lesson and to only do math for 1 hour per day. If your daughter doesn't finish the lesson stop after the hour and have her finish it the next day. Try not to wear her down with math especially since it's challenging for her. Have a good evening! Cornflower Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kris in Wis Posted May 26, 2009 Share Posted May 26, 2009 Just because a program comes highly recommended doesn't necessarily mean it's right for your student. We tried 4 different math programs for my dd before finally settling on Teaching Textbooks. It just appealed to her learning style best, and math finally clicked for her. She raised her score on the math portion of the ACT considerably!! Not saying TT would be a good fit for you dd, just that it did for mine. So don't force your child to use something she doesn't like. She'll learn better if it's interesting and understandable to her. FWIW, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted May 26, 2009 Share Posted May 26, 2009 Hi, I am brand new to this forum... I used CC PreAlgebra for oldest w/o videos, took 3 hrs./day..... then used BJUP PreAlgebra for youngest. I liked BJUP much better, there was enough explanation for my daughter to do it by herself w/o dvds. CC was the hardest out there. If you stick with CC, know that you can leave out the hardest last half of the problems and it will still be a more rigorous program than even BJUP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chalkboard Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 Susan C. What is 'CC' math? Did you mean to type CD, which stands for Chalk Dust? chalkboard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted May 28, 2009 Share Posted May 28, 2009 Sorry, getting carried away with abbreviations, it is Chalkdust! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 Maybe she doesn't need the videos. I haven't watched enough of the videos to know if he's "all over the place" or not, but I did find the lessons head-banging-slow! I know people give him mad props as a teacher, but I don't find him . . . riveting, and the lessons seem really, really long. Watching them would double or triple the amount of time my dd spends on math, she's being doing fine to date with self-teaching and asking mom/dad as needed, so we decided there was no reason to use them. Can your dd simply try the lessons without watching the video? I didn't care for the layout of the text, so we are going with Saxon Algebra 1/2 (I coaxed my phsyicist b-i-l into looking at scads of algebra texts, and he said Saxon is plenty rigourous and also straightforward; I did not have the CD at the time for him to look at). Saxon teaches one new concept per lesson directly to the student, and the new editions make it super easy to hand pick only the problems the student needs to work on from previous lessons. If we slam into a wall at some point, I know there are several choices for supplemental Saxon help (DIVE cds, videos, etc). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruthie Posted May 29, 2009 Author Share Posted May 29, 2009 Thank you for all the advice!- Ruthie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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