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What to use for PreAlgebra?


armom
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My 11 ds is all most through MUS Zeta.  He makes 100's on almost all of his work.  He doesn't love math, but does really well at it.   I think he will begin to like math the more  he progresses, but he doesn't like to work at anything.  I do not like Lial's textbooks.  I have MUS Prealgebra on the shelf, but did not enjoy that text with my twins.  We have moved away from MUS with them.  Does he need a specific prealgebra or can I start Algebra with him and go slowly stopping for extra time on any new topics he needs  time on.  I wanted him to start with AOPS Prealgebra, but don't think he will want to do the challenging type problems.  I really enjoy math and he seems to have a math mind like me.  For instance, a few days ago he started practicing the math examples on the SAT website.  He got over 50% of them correct, but didn't always know how he got that result.  He actually has ask to do the questions of the day every day since he started, so I know he has enjoyed being challenged. 

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My son did AOPS pre Alg with help from a tutor. It's an awesome program ...if you are great at math you could probably teach it. However I do agre that it's best for kids who either love math or are so committed to a math related field that they are super motivated to keep pushing through.

 

If your kid doesn't love math or doesn't have that long term motivation than I Think puzzling through math every day would get old for him too fast.

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I have kids that are intuitive with math and they enjoy it most when they approach something challenging from their own personal interest. Your dh seems similar. As much as I would like for them to do something like AOPS, I think facing challenging everyday without choice would ruin math for them. I think mine are better off with a standard program of some kind for daily work and just giving them opportunities for challenge that remain their choice. Maybe it would be better for many kids just have them give AOPS a try and pull back if it gets too much, but I get really bad, long-lasting reactions when mine get frustrated so I want to avoid that at all costs. 

 

The other really important point is that there's a quite a gap between MUS Zeta and algebra. In some ways it seems there's not so much in difference terms of actual concepts but a huge difference in the difficulty and applications of the concepts, especially in working with percents and conversions. MUS doesn't go to far with at the pre-algebra level and there's a big difference between MUS and other programs in this area, as I learned from experience. There's also new and important concepts like negative numbers, the distributive property, etc, in pre-algebra that your son would not have had in Zeta, I think, but are important for a good transition into algebra. For that reason, I would suggest a pre-algebra that would bridge that gap. I think a student could go into algebra from Zeta but he would have significant gaps and it wouldn't really be in his best interest long-term.

 

I'd be curious what algebra you had in mind. You may want to use that as a guide in terms of what pre-algebra to use.

Edited by Tiramisu
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  • 4 months later...

Update: My son is finishing up Chpt 1 of AoPS Prealgebra. He has been using Alcumus daily. He says he still doesn't like math, but he has worked on alcumus for a couple hours some days of his own choosing. I let him have some time off from math after he completed MUS Zeta.

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If your boy is good at Math I wouldn't worry about if you liked the MUS text, I'd just let him do it. My Pre-Algebra student does MUS on his own. He watches the lecture, does the work, & brings it up for correcting. If he gets stuck he goes to Dad for help. ;)

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