dirty ethel rackham Posted June 16, 2017 Share Posted June 16, 2017 Please be gentle with me. I don't want to get into the back story here's but suffice it to say that we have had a lot of outside stresses in our family that contributed to our current problem. Dd has never been in love with math. She didn't pick it up as easily as her older siblings and it has been a struggle to keep her on track. We did Singapore with her like her older siblings, but struggled after 6B. After some stops and starts, we settled on Dolciani for Algebra 1 and 2. It took her a full 12 months to get through algebra 1 after a few other disasters. We are working our way through Algebra 2, but she is only half done. She learned the pieces she needed for AP Physics 1 when she needed them (if she hadn't gotten to them in her book) and got As and Bs in her class. So she isn't hopeless ;-). She is expecting a 26 on the ACT math section. She got 630 on SAT math section back in April. She is hoping to get those higher when she actually finishes Alg 2. She is entering her senior year and we are working on getting her caught up. We figured out that working with me is not doing the job and are outsourcing. She is doing Geometry over the summer with Mr. D (thanks for the suggestion. ) She had hoped to be ready for precalculus by September and take that at the community college. But she needs some outside help ... working with me seems to stress her out. Plus, my own issues are making this very hard. Since she has completed half of the Dolciani book, one thought was to tie the topics in the book to Khan Academy , have her watch the videos, do the problems, and take the chapter tests. But we are finding that Khan Academy doesn't line up well with Dolciani. Other thought was to just have her take a class at the community college. But she needs to learn a bunch of topics before retaking the ACT in the fall (she expects to be close to a cut off for automatic scholarships at some schools that interest her, but knows that the math score will hurt her.) If I have her do that, I need to adjust her transcript to show only half of Algebra 2. I'm so confused. Help me figure this out. She is a smart, talented girl. I feel like my inability to let go has hampered her. Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted June 16, 2017 Share Posted June 16, 2017 How about using Derek Owens? Since she's already done some Algebra II, she could run quickly through the first part. My son, who had also done some Algebra II, easily made it through DO's Algebra II course in just a few months. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnMyOwn Posted June 17, 2017 Share Posted June 17, 2017 I agree with Derek Owens. My dd seemed to get lost somewhere toward the end of Saxon Algebra 2 and I had her go through Derek Owens algebra 2 in about 8-10 weeks last summer and she came out with a very solid understanding of the material. I was able to watch the videos by myself for the first couple of chapters and just pull ones that I thought might benefit her, but she pretty much watched all the rest of the lessons and then did all the problems for the sections that she didn't feel 100% solid on. It took her about two hours a day. I don't think we could have done the same with his precalculus course because of the way it is set up, but it was doable with his algebra 2. If you do this, opt for the self-grading option so that you can move as quickly as you want (plus it is half the price). You could have her do the chapter test for each chapter until she gets to a point where she doesn't know the material. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted June 17, 2017 Author Share Posted June 17, 2017 Thanks for the suggestions. One of my concerns is that she needs outside deadlines. She has a busy summer and I'm afraid that she will fall behind without her grade being dependent on getting her work on on time. How much of algebra 2 is repeated in precalc? She might be able to pick up a precalc semester class this summer. She would be starting late. Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnMyOwn Posted June 17, 2017 Share Posted June 17, 2017 (edited) Thanks for the suggestions. One of my concerns is that she needs outside deadlines. She has a busy summer and I'm afraid that she will fall behind without her grade being dependent on getting her work on on time. How much of algebra 2 is repeated in precalc? She might be able to pick up a precalc semester class this summer. She would be starting late. Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk From what I've seen, the first half of precalc often seems to be a review of algebra 2, and then the second half is trig. The main problem I see with going with the precalc is that you will be hitting the algebra 2 material at a breakneck speed. Also, the algebra 2 problems in both the precalc programs I've used have seemed to be more challenging. For example, because my dd went through all of DO algebra 2 in such a short time I thought we'd go through the first half of DO precalculus very quickly since so much seemed to be a repeat of algebra 2, but it was not the case, even though she understood the material and did well with it, because the problems he assigned at this level took a lot more time to do. I've found the same thing for my son in going from Lial's algebra 2 to precalculus. I'm not sure what would work best for your dd, though. Hopefully, others will have more thoughts for you. Edited June 17, 2017 by OnMyOwn 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnMyOwn Posted June 17, 2017 Share Posted June 17, 2017 If I were in your shoes, another option I would consider would be to just work on test prep over the summer and then jump into a math course at the community college in the fall. You could have your dd take the placement test and see if she has enough algebra 2 under her belt to take precalculus at that point. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted June 17, 2017 Share Posted June 17, 2017 One of my kids was weak in Algebra 2 and worked through a lot of math on ALEKS in order to be ready for precalculus at CC. It doesn't have deadlines as such, but does show percent complete. You might be able to do something similar via Khan Academy. Is there someone outside the family who would be willing and able to create a coach/teacher account on Khan Academy and supervise her progress through the algebra 2 modules? You could set requirements for amount of time spent on the site, topics mastered, percent complete, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted June 17, 2017 Author Share Posted June 17, 2017 One of my kids was weak in Algebra 2 and worked through a lot of math on ALEKS in order to be ready for precalculus at CC. It doesn't have deadlines as such, but does show percent complete. You might be able to do something similar via Khan Academy. Is there someone outside the family who would be willing and able to create a coach/teacher account on Khan Academy and supervise her progress through the algebra 2 modules? You could set requirements for amount of time spent on the site, topics mastered, percent complete, etc. I had suggested that but she reminded me that we had tried that with Algebra 1 and she just didn't make progress. Also, since the modules don't align with what she hs already done, it is hard to know where she is. I really don't want to repeat what she has done. She has never been a work quickly kind of person. She really needs a class where it is obvious when she is not keeping up. Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoJosMom Posted June 17, 2017 Share Posted June 17, 2017 I agree with the others who mentioned Derek Owens, but that won't impose external deadlines. Of course, anything with external deadlines will also mandate a stop time, so she could go faster on her own. DO does provide a suggested syllabus; if you set dates for assignments to be due, is that sufficient for her to keep her on schedule? If not, I would lean toward taking classes at the community college. It sounds like she doesn't have any trouble picking up the material and that approach will impose deadlines. Has she taken classes there before? I don't know how your CC works, but ours requires placement tests prior to admission. Which, in our case, meant a free ALEKS placement exam. It might be worth pursuing the CC just to get a solid placement exam opportunity; that might help you with helping to know where she is. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted June 19, 2017 Author Share Posted June 19, 2017 I don't think she has trouble picking up the material. She needs external due dates with real consequences. Me setting the due dates won't work ... it hasn't so far. She has a lot to do and when she is tired, stress, burned out or whatever, my due dates are ignored if we don't have external pressure to stay on top of them. I think we need to check out the cc, but classes have already started. She has an acceptable SAT math score, but they may want their own testing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted June 19, 2017 Author Share Posted June 19, 2017 Well, the college class idea was a bust. As it turns out, they are kind of sticklers about things like deadlines and meeting with academic counseling and professors prior to classes start. Oops. We are looking into Derek Owens. She wants to just jump into pre-calc. Maybe I'll just give her the Algebra 2 exam and call it good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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