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aops online book and other math questions


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Hi everyone,

 

I have learned a lot lurking here, and now I feel rather audacious posting a rather long message as my first topic. But I do hope to pick your brains about math.

 

My youngest daughter is in grade 6. This is her first year in a gifted program. She was just tested at the end of last year, which was our first year in Canada after having been overseas. The program is one day a week at another school. The teacher is amazing, not just with the gifted kids themselves, but also as a strong advocate in the kids' regular schools. My daughter is so happy because she has found a place where she can be herself (at least once a week) and is really thriving. The teacher is in the midst of developing IEPs for the kids in cooperation with the classroom teachers and resource teachers. She was at my daughter's school twice the last few weeks to talk to the resource teacher (who happened to be my daughter's grade five teacher last year). She asked my daughter what she finds easiest, and my daughter said, math. So she has already given the teacher a duotang of math stuff for her to do when she finishes her work. The duotang contains brain teasers and math contest practice questions and computer programming type questions. They have been going deeper into problem solving strategies in the gifted class itself. But my daughter has asked me to also do math at home. The first time she mentioned it, I didn't follow through because I know she values her downtime and her social life. But she has asked twice more, and she wants it to be a special time we spend together. We enjoyed working together through some Beast Academy a few years ago when I was homeschooling her, and maybe it's those times together she is remembering. She is also really ready to experience math beyond the "get into groups and write the expanded form of this number in the hundred thousands."

 

My first thought was to order AOPS pre-algebra, but it is $33 to have it sent to Canada, which I find hard to justify on top of the price of the book. So I was wondering if anyone has experience with the online version of the book? The one drawback I see is that if we want this to be a mother-daughter bonding time as well as a math lesson, then it might be kind of weird looking at a screen the whole time. Or is there a way to use the online book in a more interpersonal-friendly way? Or should I break down and just pay for the extra shipping?

 

I also looked at MEP year 8, but it seems like the teacher really needs to teach the lessons, rather than work through the student book together. Again, I'd love to hear how you might use MEP in a "parent-child exploring together" sort of way.

 

Then I was thinking of Key to Algebra, which is inexpensive to begin with and only a few dollars extra shipping from most retailers. My question is whether it moves fairly quickly without beating each topic to death. From the sample pages, it looks like there are not too many problems on a page, so it doesn't seem to be tedious, but it is hard to judge how quickly it moves from one topic to another.

 

What other suggestions do you have for resources that might be appropriate?

 

Thank you so much for your insights!

 

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I bought the online version for the intermediate algebra, intro to geometry, precalc, calculus as an add on to the books for when my kids study at the library. I wouldn't use an online book as the only medium for the prealgebra book.

It is an eye strain for us to read off the screen for long periods of time and you can't print. It is great as an add on as we have good public wifi at libraries. Also you can't access the book offline.

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Key to algebra has a lot of pages on a single topic and variations, but is easy to skip. Having said that, it doesn't compare at all to AoPS-my DD did it as Pre-algebra before starting AoPS PA. It was nice for a kid who wanted algebra, but still struggled with writing-the workbook format made that much easier to manage, but I wouldn't make it my first choice for a 6th grader for enrichment purposes. 

 

 

 

 

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I think the online book would be fine. While we didn't get that one in the online version, we have gotten others for when we travel and DS actually prefers those (I am the one who wants him to use the physical copies). They have embedded links to solutions and for the earlier books embedded videos, which makes things easy for the student, I think.

 

I think the Key to books might be a little young/boring for a gifted sixth grader, but I suppose it depends on the child.

 

We haven't used MEP for two or three years, but when we did DS was fine using it without lessons, he actually preferred it that way. I don't know if something changes in the upper levels (we stopped when the Spanish version stopped but certainly would have continued otherwise as it is a great program) to make a lesson more necessary. We mostly used MEP as a supplement, in case that matters.

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Key to algebra has a lot of pages on a single topic and variations, but is easy to skip. Having said that, it doesn't compare at all to AoPS-my DD did it as Pre-algebra before starting AoPS PA. It was nice for a kid who wanted algebra, but still struggled with writing-the workbook format made that much easier to manage, but I wouldn't make it my first choice for a 6th grader for enrichment purposes. 

 

:iagree:

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Thank you so much for your responses! It is good to know that the Key to series would likely be too young/boring. Looking over the samples again, I can see that.

I also appreciate your perspectives on the online versus print book. In spite of that, I still can't decide!

 

It is also helpful to hear that MEP could be used without the lessons. We may try that while trying to decide on whether to order the AOPS print book/waiting for it to arrive.

 

Thanks!

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We use Life of Fred for fun, together mathy time. We sit side-by-side and read it out loud together.

If you look on the website you can see sample pages to gauge the level for each book. It goes right from preschool level through to college maths.

 

And yes, I feel your pain re AoPS costs. I finally succumbed and ordered AoPS pre-algebra. With postage it came to about $120 to get it to Australia. I have to say, my procrastination paid off because the exchange rate improved. Only a month or so earlier it was going to be closer to $140. 

I opted to go for the book because I know that we don't work as well at a screen and I was given the heads-up that you can't print out the online book.

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