Your favorite Pre-Algebra

[zenjenn]

What is your favorite pre-algebra for an upper-elementary accelerated learner? Looking for something for my rising 5th grader for next year. She has  primarily used Math Mammoth up until now. We've let her self-pace and she will be finished with 6b probably around September or October. I know MM has 7a now but I feel it's kind of a work-in-progress and would rather move my child to something more established.

 

I am leaning heavily towards getting Chalkdust Pre-Algebra for her 7th grade sister who is NOT math-accelerated, so if you want to weigh in on that too, feel free. But my feeling is the video-based lectures will be too slow-paced for my 5th grade AL.

 

So far the younger one seems to appear to prefer to work with text materials written to the student. She has not been a fan of videos (even when she's stuck and I make her), because she thinks they are too slow and cumbersome.

 

[ErinE]

A student who works well with texts written to the student may like AoPS. I had to work with my DS for the first few chapters, but by chapter five, he was working on his own.

[Alice]

My son has really enjoyed AoPS prealgebra. He sounds like your daughter. He likes to be independent and it allows him to do that. He reads the text and does the problems on his own. I then look over them and we go over any he has missed. If he misses a lot we go over that concept together. On the few topics that have proved more challenging I've had him watch the videos. They are a great resource but he also doesn't like to use videos as his main method of learning.  

 

 

[Gil]

I have two thoughts I'll share with you:

1-- Have you considered doing an alternative Math for a year/term instead of PreAlgebra? For a kid strong in math who is using a strong math program (and MM is strong), a year of Prealgebra is often redundant. We are spending the next 2 years on problem solving type skills so that I can transition my sons to AoPS later if need be or continue through standard high school mathematics curriculum. We are using UMM and Mathematics: a Human Endeavor this year. Next year'll probably finish UMM...

If you do use a prealgebra, then I encourage you to consider the various options carefully and pick one that will advance her skills appropriately. AoPS is the obvious suggestion, but there are tons and tons and tons of valid and respectable choices.

 

2-- I don't think you should write off MM7 as a follow-up to MM6 just yet. I wrote it off because the timing and finances weren't right for us but I kind of regret it. Along side completing MM1-6 in its entirety, we used

• Keys to...Fractions, Decimals, Percents, Algebra, Geometry -- we used these in their entirety.
• Algebra Readiness Made Easy grades 1-6 -- we used these in their entirety.
• Math Mammoth 7a-7b and Algebra 1a-1b of Golden curriculum -- I explained these at the white board, topic-by-topic for anything that they hadn't covered yet and the boys did the worksheets
• Integers, Geometry, Ratios/Proportion/Percent and Statistics units of Green Curriculum -- The boys had used much of Keys To, and I taught what they didn't know.
• SunShine Math grades 1-8 -- This is what we used for "Math Club" material.

As you can see there wasn't much need for us to use MM7 and but in hindsight, if I had the chance to do it again, I'd have swapped the Gold and Green MM materials for MM7AB. I think it would have been a smoother continuation of MM and left them in roughly the same place mathematically.

 

Just think of MM1-7 as a strong, K-6 program and consider it with an open mind. Try to remember that MM1-6 is well established, tried and true and MM7A is already out and MM7B is expected out later this spring. You've trusted MM with your daughters education thus far, so trusting MM7 shouldn't require that big of a leap of faith.

 

Good luck.

 

--Gil

 

[eternalsummer]

We're doing Jousting Armadillos (we finished MM5 and spot-checked topics in MM6, using some Khan Academy here and there) and we like it.  DD is very humanities-oriented (though she is globally bright, so math is not hard for her) so the heavy text-based nature of it is good for her.  I would say it is written to the student.  It's a discovery method, though gentler than AoPS, I am told.

[MamaSprout]

Consider continuing with MM7. Also, Russian Math 6, Armadillos, and moving onto Jacobs are ones to consider. There used to be an extensive sample of Jacobs on Google books, but it seems to be just a chapter now. Here's the Algebra placement test from Dr. Callahan's site- I think it's a generic placement test for algebra, actually.

 

http://www.askdrcallahan.com/pages/Algebra-Readiness-Exam.html

 

My dd is pretty young and is doing great with Jacobs. I thought working into a notebook would be an issue but it hasn't.

 

ETA- video lectures were a bust here for the same reason.

 

Good luck!

[fourisenough]

What is your favorite pre-algebra for an upper-elementary accelerated learner? Looking for something for my rising 5th grader for next year. She has  primarily used Math Mammoth up until now. We've let her self-pace and she will be finished with 6b probably around September or October. I know MM has 7a now but I feel it's kind of a work-in-progress and would rather move my child to something more established.

 

I am leaning heavily towards getting Chalkdust Pre-Algebra for her 7th grade sister who is NOT math-accelerated, so if you want to weigh in on that too, feel free. But my feeling is the video-based lectures will be too slow-paced for my 5th grade AL.

 

So far the younger one seems to appear to prefer to work with text materials written to the student. She has not been a fan of videos (even when she's stuck and I make her), because she thinks they are too slow and cumbersome.

 

I'm in a similar boat with a young, mathy daughter. Mine is 10 and is nearly finished with MM6B (began with MM1B after a Montessori preschool/K). I think I'm just going to proceed with MM7, but I have tentatively enrolled her in WTM Academy AoPS/Singapore style pre-algebra class. I suspect we'll have finished MM7A by the time the course begins in September, but I hope that the class will foster her problem-solving skills and build-up her 'willingness to struggle' with difficult material. Not that she is unwilling, but that she hasn't actually faced anything that has challenged her yet.

[MEmama]

DS went straight from MM6 to algebra at 11. Anything more would have been redundant; he definitely had a strong enough base having used MM all the way through.

 

There is more to it, however, for making a successful leap to algebra. But if your child has the math maturity, don't necessarily feel like you have to do a formal prealgebra program or that there will be holes if you don't. Just something to consider.

[Tsutsie]

AoPS, hands-down.

 

 

[Rivka]

I put my nine-year-old into Jousting Armadillos pre-algebra, and it was wonderful. It's written to the student and it's full of the kind of whimsy that she still needs. It's definitely not a full year of pre-algebra, although I agree with Gil that a gifted math learner probably doesn't need a year of pre-algebra. We skipped the negative numbers chapter entirely because we did MEP, which is very strong in negative numbers.

 

Now we are in the first algebra book in that series, Crocodiles and Coconuts. I continue to be very impressed. The introduction to the coordinate plane is outstanding in the way that it builds a very deep understanding of how data tables, equations, and graphs relate. I'm planning to finish C&C, do the third book in the series (The Life and Times of Chuckles the Rocket Dog), and then switch to AoPS Introduction to Algebra. My understanding is that AoPS is deep and broad enough that it will work well as a second pass through algebra.

 

We are also supplementing with Creative Problem Solving in School Mathematics and with math contest problems.