TravelingChris Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 DD12 is a trial right now. In fact, she has been a trial for the last two years. I was going to be ordering her Chalkdust Pre Algebra which she said looked fine from the online web sample. Then she looked at her sister's SAT MAth prep and decided it is boring. SHe thinks he moves to slowly. Now the only reason I was going to go for a video class is not because I can't teach math but because this child is so stubborn and perfectionistic that it is hard to teach her. Add to that her talent is in math and we have problems. SHe doesn't want to do either ALEKS or Florida Virtual. SHe wants me to teach but I have had so much resistance this last year. So I guess I am asking for either other math suggestions or helps for very cranky and obstinate almost teen girls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 DD12 is a trial right now. In fact, she has been a trial for the last two years. I was going to be ordering her Chalkdust Pre Algebra which she said looked fine from the online web sample. Then she looked at her sister's SAT MAth prep and decided it is boring. SHe thinks he moves to slowly. Now the only reason I was going to go for a video class is not because I can't teach math but because this child is so stubborn and perfectionistic that it is hard to teach her. Add to that her talent is in math and we have problems. SHe doesn't want to do either ALEKS or Florida Virtual. SHe wants me to teach but I have had so much resistance this last year. So I guess I am asking for either other math suggestions or helps for very cranky and obstinate almost teen girls. Chalkdust will work very well if she is good at math. Another friend of mine bought prealgebra and the dvds for the same reason you are stating, that she didn't want to teach the math (the kid can't argue with the tv!). The only question I can think of is will she think the dvds are a waste of time? If she is aggresive, and tends to get things easily, she may want to tackle it with just the book. There's plenty of examples before the exercises. Which reminds me, I do have the Chalkdust Prealgebra book and solutions for sale :).... we did it w/o the dvds for my oldest (we didn't argue, but I had to reremember and teach all at once and it took awhile...). It is on the hard side, so my daughter did BJU Prealgebra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natalie Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 (edited) If you do decide to use Chalkdust Pre-Algebra, you can get it here for $29.87 plus $3.99 shipping. This is for a brand new set, in shrink wrap, that includes the 4th edition student text, student solution manual, and DVD's. (I ordered mine from Student Friendly Books recently and received it in less than a week, exactly as described.) I was so pleased with my find, I just had to share :D. natalie [i hope I did the link correctly, it's my first try at it] ETA that the item offered by Student Friendly Books included all of the above. I have no idea about what the other sellers include. Edited August 7, 2009 by natalie clarification Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nchser Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 If you do decide to use Chalkdust Pre-Algebra, you can get it here for $29.87 plus $3.99 shipping. This is for a brand new set, in shrink wrap, that includes the 4th edition student text, student solution manual, and DVD's. (I ordered mine from Student Friendly Books recently and received it in less than a week, exactly as described.) I was so pleased with my find, I just had to share :D. natalie [i hope I did the link correctly, it's my first try at it] ETA that the item offered by Student Friendly Books included all of the above. I have no idea about what the other sellers include. How can this be? I saw the seller you refer to, but can't understand how it can be priced that way when the price from CD is $394! What's the catch? (sorry to get OT OP...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staci in MO Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 FWIW, Chalkdust didn't fly here, either. I tried it for 6th grade and my ds didn't do well, so we scrapped it early. He completely zoned out during the CDs. He's slightly dyslexic, too, so I'm partly blaming that, although I can't put my finger on exactly why it didn't work. Anyway, I'm using Pre-Algebra: an Accelerated Course by Dolciani this year with my 12yo ds. It's not self teaching for *him*, but the explanations in the text are fairly clear. If she's really bright, maybe you could get by with letting her go it alone with you just standing by when necessary (that could either go really well or be a disaster - it's hard to tell with kids that age. LOL). I like it because it introduces just enough of the algebraic concepts (so it's not like a repeat of 6th grade math), but it gives him another year before we get into the quadratic equations and such of Algebra I. I've been Googling syllabi, and it seems that this text is used a lot in 7th grade "gifted math" classes. Have you considered Lial's Basic College Math? There have been a lot of people use it as their pre-algebra course. I own one but haven't studied it a lot. You should be able to search this forum and fine lots of info. There's enough room in the text that most of the problems could be done "workbook" style. It's written as a Junior College text, so all of the explanations are in the text. Best wishes. This is the third plan I've had for math for this ds this year. I fairly confident I picked the right one, but I understand the hair-pulling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natalie Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 How can this be? I saw the seller you refer to, but can't understand how it can be priced that way when the price from CD is $394!What's the catch? (sorry to get OT OP...) See here and here. I have already received mine and it seems to be correct. My ds12 is watching the first lesson right now. Please note that I did not get the complete solutions manual for this price, nor do I have Chalkdust support. I did manage to track down a complete solutions manual, but I don't think I'll need it; the student solutions manual has step-by-step solutions for all of the questions in the prep test, problem solving, review lesson, and chapter test sections. It has step-by-step solutions to all of the odd questions in the objective (practice) exercises. To OP: My ds12 had used Saxon in previous years and HATED it. He thought from the samples that Chalkdust looked good. His attitude sounds very similar to your daughter's. I had been holding off on purchasing the Chalkdust since early spring because I didn't want to spend that kind of money and have him hate it. When I saw Pongo's posts a couple weeks ago, I did some hunting and found the item that I linked. If ds finds the dvd's move too slowly, he doesn't need to use them (no big deal, I only paid $30 for the whole thing). If I end up having to switch programs, I am only out $30 plus some time versus $394 plus some time. I really don't have much to lose trying Chalkdust. There is no guarantee that using a different program will make him happy either. This was the solution to my math dilemna. I wish you the best finding the solution to yours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 Math is one of the hard subjects, I have used most math curriculums during my 14 yrs. of homeschooling..... glad to have a few more to check out if I need to from this forum! Our record is three math curriculums for one kid in one school year :O Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aggie Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 I taught algebra and pre-algebra in my bc days. I *loved* the PH Algebra book, and I kept it, so my older dd is using that. It's pretty teacher intensive, but I still like it. My younger dd, who is very good with math, didn't want to go with PH, so we stayed with Singapore. She really enjoys it, the examples are great, and she rarely asks for help. It's been such a great experience that I plan on using Singapore for ds. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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