dauphin Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Next class starts tonight. DD and I had to take a break from JA because....well....we weren't getting along. For a long time, I've thought that AoPS might suit DD but this was the first time it occurred to me to try a course that was a little more "review" rather than what was next up in the sequence. We've finished through about ch. 5 of Jousting Armadillos, and DD did totally fine on the "Are You Ready For" PreAlgebra 1 but when she couldn't complete the linear equations or ratios/rates on the "Do You Need This" for Pre-Algebra 1, it seems like PreAlgebra 1 might be the best choice for now. She lacks confidence and doesn't want to look like she's "flunking" so I think a class that is more review might be smarter. That's a chunk of change to build confidence BUT I also think we need to shift to an instructor that is...not me. I know, love, and get math, but I don't get teaching HER. She probably was ready for the concepts when we started homeschooling in 4th grade but I didn't have the comfort level to adapt to where she needed (what gaps remained from school, if any, and how hard to hit them) and the skill level to know how much independence to expect (I seem to consistently expect too much). I also seem to (according to her) get exasperated when she seems to forget something she knew before (usually easy concepts, and she usually goes "oh, yeah! Duh!" when she finally remembers....so it's not unreasonable expectations....). If you think I'm crazy, tell me now. I'm trying to register her on the website. I appreciate the security procedures, but I need to go figure out how my scanner works.... Edit: Oooh it also looks like I need to decide between online books, hardcopy books, or both (with a discount). If we're going with the class that starts tonight, then perhaps I need to make sure and get one of the versions with an online option...? That also leaves us with something if we drop the class before the third session for a refund....? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 For the security paperwork, I just took a photo of the signed form with my iPhone and emailed in. The hard copy book took about three days to reach me from placing the order. I am in NorCal and AoPS office is in SoCal. My kids like hard copy. It was helpful for my kids to read the chapters before the class and they did some of the homework questions too before class. My youngest is taking algebra B and geometry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dauphin Posted June 4, 2015 Author Share Posted June 4, 2015 Great idea! I checked and with my free Prime shipping, I can get an equivalent or better savings on the hard copy. And it'll be here in 2 or so days :) I'm very anxious about making this commitment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Another thing that help my boys was that they have a three ring binder for their AoPS online class. They print out the class schedule, homework before and after they completed, and the class transcript to put in the file. They also file the written work question, one per week. They read the class forums for fun. You can pull out by the 3rd lesson but I think most kids would be able to get into the groove by then. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 I'd opt for either the hardback book or both - it's so nice to have the book to look things up in. Good luck. Sounds like a great choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leav97 Posted June 4, 2015 Share Posted June 4, 2015 Oh good, I'm not the only one. This is the first major outside class DD has ever taken. All of it except the last 3 weeks should be review. I'm sure there will be questions that are more challenging then she is used to but, I figured that would make it an easier into to the class. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dauphin Posted June 4, 2015 Author Share Posted June 4, 2015 Are you starting the one tonight Leav97? Yes, other than Classical Conversations this is also my DD's first major outside class (since leaving school haha). We'll be doing WWS in the fall though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 How did the first lesson go? Just being a busybody while cooking dinner. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dauphin Posted June 5, 2015 Author Share Posted June 5, 2015 Great! She's feeling confident enough that I asked if she felt like she needed to bump up to prealgebra 2 and got a clear "no thanks." She's navigating all the elements better than I probably could have and started on her homework and finished two problems before deciding she didn't want to work too far ahead. Haha. She's hooked in for sure. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raristy Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 For similar reasons I signed up my ds for the class that started last week. I also decided to go for a summer class that is mostly review, Prealgebra 1: why rush? I too had never thought of a review class vs an at level class. I think if there is any place where a math review will always have an element of excitement and would help them see familiar concepts from a new perspective is AoPS. My oldest and I worked through Algebra 1 together and it was a phenomenal experience for me, so much learning. I think we all are in good hands. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leav97 Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 DD did well. She's still not 100% sure she wants to take the class. But, she wants to do something for math this summer. She's done with alcumus homework. She hasn't started the rest. Yes, she is doing prealgebra 1 on Thursday nights. She's will need to work ahead some because she'll miss 2 weeks for camp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dauphin Posted June 7, 2015 Author Share Posted June 7, 2015 Ah! I think they're in the same class then :) fun! I was wondering how that might work about potentially missing classes - I just realized we might run into conflicts with sports in September... I hope she likes it and decides to stay with it. We're fully on board for now but I it IS still early and we have until the beginning of the third class, from what I read. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 I was wondering how that might work about potentially missing classes - I just realized we might run into conflicts with sports in September. The class transcripts is posted by the next day. If your daughter goes to her account and click on the class, she should be able to see the transcript and print it for yesterday's class. So if and when she miss an online session, she can print the transcript the next day to read. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EndOfOrdinary Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 We did a review for Ds' first AoPS too. I really think it works out so much better for many kids. Ds is risk adverse, so walking in with his head a bit higher was much better than jumping in trying to swim right away! Good for her! I hope it continues to go well. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dauphin Posted June 9, 2015 Author Share Posted June 9, 2015 Yay, I think I assume that because she likes a challenge and likes to "win," that her competitiveness equated to NOT being risk-averse but when it comes to math at least, I think that risk-averse is a good way to describe her.... Update: She says that she is done with all of her work for the week, and needed only a little bit of encouragement/questions to guide her thinking on the homework. I guess, after listening to SWB's lecture today on cultivating independence, I should go follow up on making sure the work is done :) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leav97 Posted June 10, 2015 Share Posted June 10, 2015 It took a little proding but DD is done with the homework. She didn't think she really needs to read the next section covered tomorrow. I wanted her to do the problems in the book as well as the reading. We compromised and she just the reading. But, she already has alcumus done for next week. :laugh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leav97 Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 How's it going? DD is starting to get into the class. She actually typed in replies to the questions during class. :) The questions are amazingly hard though. There have a been a couple of times she's gotten Alcumus into the green only to have it drop back down into the orange because of some really hard questions. She is struggling with the written challenge questions too. I've let her dictate her replies. I think this week she will do the typing. She is fascinated by LaTeX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted June 26, 2015 Share Posted June 26, 2015 She is struggling with the written challenge questions too. I've let her dictate her replies. I think this week she will do the typing. She is fascinated by LaTeX. My oldest is very particular about aesthetics. He typed the assignments in LaTeX by right clicking to see the LaTeX codes of the formatting he want and then just memorize the codes. My youngest wants his answers to look as pretty so he learned too. DS10 also learned Asymptote (Vector Graphics Language) because he wanted to draw the nice graphs in his assignment. Link to Asymptote on AoPS http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php/Asymptote_(Vector_Graphics_Language) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dauphin Posted June 29, 2015 Author Share Posted June 29, 2015 How's it going? DD is starting to get into the class. She actually typed in replies to the questions during class. :) The questions are amazingly hard though. There have a been a couple of times she's gotten Alcumus into the green only to have it drop back down into the orange because of some really hard questions. She is struggling with the written challenge questions too. I've let her dictate her replies. I think this week she will do the typing. She is fascinated by LaTeX. I think DD is into it, although out of sight is out of mind and the week gets away from us despite our best intentions to do both the current homework AND the next week's readings and as many problems as possible. DD has shown the kind of competitiveness I've heard about on the board about replies to in-class-questions - she tries to type it in fast enough to be one of the students picked to have their answers posted. She has a learning curve on that, though, if that's what she really wants - sometimes she spends more time putting a "good" answer down and before she finishes typing, the good-enough answers are all up already. ;) Alcumus hasn't thrown her from what I can tell - she never talks/complains about it, at least. She has generally gotten the challenge questions with little to no prompting (although she doesn't always get them right on the first try!) but the written question has been way out of her realm of experience. From my informal assessment, the AoPS goal with the written problems is that they're teaching students (or cultivating the prerequisite skills) about how to write a proof, essentially. Is that right? Even though we've done JA and she's sort of used to writing about math, this is a whole different ballgame. She has shown some independence in going to the forums to seek help on understanding HOW to solve the problem, too, reading others' questions and occasionally asking her own. But she couldn't do the writing without serious scaffolding from me - she just isn't thinking in terms of how to write for the reader so that the reader understands how she got her answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 But she couldn't do the writing without serious scaffolding from me - she just isn't thinking in terms of how to write for the reader so that the reader understands how she got her answer.Ask her to look at how the worked solutions are written in her prealgebra textbook. Also when she complete her online homework questions, ask her to look at how the suggested solutions are written even if she could get the correct answers. DS10 went from 3/7 for his week one's written assignment to a 7/7 for his week three. He type a short answer, then read what he wrote and add in more working to be clearer. So he sometimes do the written assignment over two days. DS9 is improving his typing speed for his class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dauphin Posted August 1, 2015 Author Share Posted August 1, 2015 Those are great ideas Arcadia, thank you. I will keep (re)directing her attention to the worked solutions. Things are continuing to go well and I am eyeing registration for the upcoming sessions. We still aren't working ahead prior to each class like I'd like but since a fair amount of the content is review for her (from skipping around between other Pre-Alg curriculum), her understanding isn't being hindered. Alcumus still happens pretty independently, and 50% or more of the challenge problems are as well, but often not on the first attempt. The written problem generally requires my assistance either with prompting towards the solution and/or scaffolding the writing. However, as I have reduced my assistance her scores have generally stayed the same or improved so I think she's getting a handle on it. I think it will be a long-term intervention to think in proofs (which I can do, but I sometimes have a hard time figuring out how to get her there since it seems kind of obvious to me... ;) ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.