Thinkwell Math - is it enough?

[Kel & the Kids]

I'm primarily a lurker here but I pick up a lot of good advice... so I checked out Thinkwell this year and thought it looked good for my 6th grader who has been doing Math Mammoth for the last couple of years and previous to that, the old BJU.  Math is not her strongest subject and we have had much frustration with MM so I thought it was time to move on.  

 

In comparison to MM, Thinkwell is ridiculously easy unless I'm missing something. We are getting into the intro to Algebra now but it still doesn't seem to require any "thinking" at all, just a few very straightforward questions. We're doing the online exercise and the printed worksheet which seems to be all there is.  Does it get better? Am I missing something?  Have we just been overworked by MM?

 

I appreciate any thoughts :) 

[Kel & the Kids]

ABSOLUTELY NOT! Sorry to yell it, but I purchased it for my daughter who's very good in math. She is doing Geometry with them and it has been a disaster. My daughter LOVES the video lectures. But the sample quizzes are confusing, the test are difficult and there are serious holes in the lectures vs the quizzes test. Therefore I wouldn't purchase it as the primary form of instruction.

 

Now we made it work since my daughter didn't want to give up the videos. This is how (1) I searched and searched for the Holt Geometry book (which by the way has free access to the the Burger videos) (2)  she also does Teaching Textbook Geometry (3) and I found the Solutions manual free online.

 

So, with that said, I don't plan on using Thinkwell in the future unless my kid really wants to see the videos. The test, quizzes and materials provided for the online course are not helpful at all.

 

So you're sure then?  Just kidding!  Thanks for the review.  We haven't had too much trouble with confusion issues, it just doesn't seem thorough at all! 

[ondreeuh]

We don't use Thinkwell but we use the book it's based off of, and all the components. I teach from the Holt textbook right now because while we have the video lessons, this chapter is taught by a female teacher who isn't very engaging. For the first couple of chapters, ds watched the Edward Burger videos (available online or through CDs) and then he used the Know it Notebook to make sure he got the key points. He uses the Holt workbooks instead of the problem sets - the Homework & Practice book and the Problem Solving book. They are the same type of problem as in the book and a LOT more than Thinkwell includes. I have the Teacher Resource CD and print off quizzes, tests, and workbook pages.

 

It's working well. I start each lesson with review and we do the cumulative tests at the end of each chapter as non-graded practice.

 

Since you already have Thinkwell, I would just get a copy of the teaching resource CD so you can get the worksheets & quizzes. It would round out the program.

[Kel & the Kids]

We don't use Thinkwell but we use the book it's based off of, and all the components. I teach from the Holt textbook right now because while we have the video lessons, this chapter is taught by a female teacher who isn't very engaging. For the first couple of chapters, ds watched the Edward Burger videos (available online or through CDs) and then he used the Know it Notebook to make sure he got the key points. He uses the Holt workbooks instead of the problem sets - the Homework & Practice book and the Problem Solving book. They are the same type of problem as in the book and a LOT more than Thinkwell includes. I have the Teacher Resource CD and print off quizzes, tests, and workbook pages.

 

It's working well. I start each lesson with review and we do the cumulative tests at the end of each chapter as non-graded practice.

 

Since you already have Thinkwell, I would just get a copy of the teaching resource CD so you can get the worksheets & quizzes. It would round out the program.

 

Thanks, I'll look into this!