If you use the Key to Algebra series in any way.....

[hmsch4me]

how do you incorporate it? Is it a main spine or purely supplement?

[mama25angels]

I have used it as a supplement when DD was struggling in the beginning of Algebra, I will use it for my DS the summer before he starts Algebra.

[Kris]

I couldn't believe I saw this topic this morning, as I just wrote to the lady I got the books from last night to thank her for them. They are really helping my son.

 

I just had him start with the first book, and he's working his way through. He's been struggling with Algebra for quite awhile and I'm not sure where the problem lies, so I guess you could say we're using the books for review. When he gets to the point where he's working on "new" things, we'll have him do Keys first and then the appropriate Saxon lessons.

 

He *has* told me that they've been a great help.

[teachmom3]

how do you incorporate it? Is it a main spine or purely supplement?

 

I've used it with two--or maybe all three; I can't remember now--children as either a supplement and/or introduction to algebra, but never as the main spine.

 

HTH!

[K-FL]

Dd #1 did them & we called it Intro to Algebra. She liked them, but we did find a few errors in the answer book.

[Nan in Mass]

We used them. We began algebra, then stopped after a little bit, when it got to the point they'd had lots of rules explained to them and now had to remember them and apply them. At that point, they did Keys to 1-3. Then we began our regular algebra again. My two used them to cement the early rules. By the way, they had used those rules for years to mentally juggle numbers around, just not as written manipulatations of equations.

[langfam]

Using it right now for my 8th grader. He had been doing Jacob's Algebra, but everything came to a halt with algebraic fractions. So I got the Key to series. I used the tests at the back of each booklet as a pretest to see where he's having trouble. He had trouble with Book 4, so we started there. We only started last week, but he managed to work through Book 4 last week working about an hour every day and doing every other question or so. I told him if he was getting them right, he could try the last one (most difficult one) in the section and move to the next section. He's really appreciating the relief from Jacob's. I'm hoping it'll give him some tools and some confidence before we start up again next school year.

 

HTHs

[Tokyomarie]

I used it for my dd#2 as "one" of her resources when she was at the transition to algebra point. She had tried a variety of resources when she first came home in 6th grade, including Alpha-Omega SOS Gr. 5&6 & Singapore Primary Math 6.

 

We tried to move on to Singapore NEM in 8th grade but she struggled with the basic idea of algebraic thinking. So we dropped NEM after a point and picked up Keys to Algebra and Hands On Equations. After completing those two resources she moved on to an Algebra I curriculum which she started midway through because of her work in Key to... and Hands On Equations. When it came time to assign credit for Algebra I, I used mastery of all the topics in a standard Algebra I curriculum, rather than completion of a particular resource, to serve as the criteria for awarding credit because we had used several different resources.

 

I just bought a new set for my 7th grade ds who is a relatively strong math student but has challenges with working out of his comfort zone as well as challenges with writing. He has done ALEKS only for the last year and now I'm going to have him use Keys to Algebra to both cement his thinking, and to get him used to writing everything down. Since it will be partially review and partially new stuff, I'm hoping Keys to Algebra will serve as a scaffold to help him transition to a standard math curriculum.