Tracy in Ky Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 Ds (9th grade) is not very strong in math, but plugs along very, very slowly (ie. it takes about 2 1/2 days to complete a lesson, corrections included). we are almost 1/2 way through Saxon 8/7 with prealgebra, but I wonder if we need to switch to another program, as this may not be a good fit for him. He would do well with a strong video teacher giving lots of explanation. Would Chalk Dust work well for us do you think? Is the teaching plain and thorough? I am very, very weak in math myself, and need a lot of help too. Does the text that comes with Chalk Dust give explanation also? It would be good to have the explanation in the book as well as on the video. Thanks so much, Tracy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KJB Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 (edited) My DD did CD Pre-Algebra last year. We found the lectures kind of difficult to break up into lesson chunks. There also is no lesson plan for daily lessons. You decide how many problems, which problems, etc. The text was thorough with lots of problems which is good if you need extra practice. This year we switched to Video Text Algebra and we're liking it a lot better. The video portion is good and to the point. There is a short video section broken up to correspond to each lesson. It's obvious when the pertinent lecture for the specific lesson is over. The problem sets are manageable and each lesson, or every couple of lessons, there are two corresponding quizzes. My dd takes the first quiz as a warm-up the day after the lesson before she watches the video for the next lesson. I made a review packet from all the second quizzes and she completed those to study for the test at the end of the module. She has just finished module 1. A negative about VT, imo, is that the lessons are all labeled in a funky way. Instead of just having lesson 1, lesson 2, lesson 3,.... they have lesson 1 part a, lesson 1 part b, then lesson 2 a, section 1 blah, blah, blah. That can be a little confusing at first when you are trying to plan. Anyway, having tried both, we'll continue with Video Text. The Chalk Dust lessons are very good, and the videos are full of explanation, but I didn't find the program as user friendly as we are finding Video Text. I wanted to add: Am I the only one who doesn't understand why these video math programs aren't more logically laid out? It seems to me that CD should have Dr. M. teaching one lesson at a time not an entire chapter. And, it would be nice if he then assigned problems specific to the lesson he just taught. And really, I'd like him to check them aloud the next day on tape so the student can walk through the answers for problems they miss with him explaining how they are solved. I'm asking too much, I know.... For VT, I can't understand all the goobley gook arrangement of lessons. Why can't they just say lesson 1, lesson 2, lesson 3,..... Am I wrong or missing something? With CD, I always felt like there was some extra planner I should have had to suggest lesson sets. I know everyone says "we just do the odds" but I want my hand held more for the first time through these math programs. Those lessons have a lot of problems! Once we survive one run through, I'll be fine with my next student, but for the first time I use a program I would prefer specifics! Someone will probably say that it really *is* all logically arranged and I'm wrong. That's the way my day has been. (0: Edited October 27, 2009 by KJB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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