VideoText Algebra

[ValRN]

Hello. I'm new to the board; however, I'm not new to home schooling. This is our 6th year educating our three children.

 

Is VideoText Algebra confusing or is it just me? This is my first year using this for my 8th grader. We used Teaching Textbooks pre-algebra last year and liked it. I heard that VideoText had more solid content, so we switched after viewing samples. Fastforward to now.....I've never in my been more confused. I don't like VT's teaching style at all. I'm not a mathy person; my husband is and he gets it. My son and I BOTH get confused. I've heard the same thing from a few other home schoolers who have used VT. We are taking it slow because he's only in 8th grade, but I can't help him because I'm not understanding the lessons either. Any suggestions?

Val

[Michelle in AL]

I don't know about VT, but what's helped me when I can't understand dd's math when I need to be able to help her is to watch hotmath.com videos from the college algebra series. It costs $25/yr, but to me it's well worth it. I usually can understand the concept after doing this.

[Grace is Sufficient]

Thanks for sharing this. I've been very quick to recommend VT to non-mathy moms. As one myself, I've loved VT because I can understand it. I'll try to be a little more guarded in my recommendations.

[rwalizer]

Whew! It's not just me. I think one of the main problems is that they teach using different methods that TT (my switch from TT to VT is the same as yours) and I became used to TT last year. TT has so much practice that the techniques were really drummed into my head. Also, sometimes the answers in the key are scrunched together so that I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how they got the answer when really I was looking at two problems too close to each other. I'm not mathy either but I find that if we keep at it,we eventually get it. I have actually continued working on a problem myself long after ds has finished it and moved on. Then I end up asking him "how did you get that answer?" and he explains it to me. But there are occasionally times when I get an answer that he cannot and then I am able to help him. My only advice is to be patient and keep at it. I watch all the lessons and do the problems with my ds so that I can help him.

[ValRN]

Thanks so much for responding. I do the same, work at the problems and when I can't get it, I ask my ds. Or....my dh will come home and figure it out for me. :-)

 

I'm hsing three children and find it very difficult to find the time to watch every lesson. I wanted a math curric. that he could do himself.

 

I'm at a bump in the home schooling road to begin with. I'm feeling overwhelmed and overworked. I'm having thoughts of sending my 14 y/o ds to school next year. I'm so confused and the difficulty I'm having helping him with algebra is making things worse. AHHHHHH (pulling my hair out).

Val

[EKS]

VideoText was a disaster here. I switched to it from Jacobs because I thought it would be better for my extremely visual son. He didn't get it. I got it only because I knew it already. In my opinion, it takes itself *way* too seriously. We switched back to Jacobs and it was like a breath of fresh air.

[ValRN]

"It takes itself way too seriously." We are finally getting it after reviewing lessons and working on extra practice problems; however, I have two other dc to educate. I'm going to buy the Jacobs' just for reinforcement. I do own two cc math books and have used them to help me understand the VT material. I must say though, that VT is not the end all and be all of algebra programs (which I thought it would be....for us at least).

 

Val

[moki4]

Our 11 yr old did not like VT either!

"way too serious" regarding very simple (yet important) algebra facts. In fact, we actually laughed while watching the "lady" explain a problem.

We are using TT's, with Key to...series for review. She tried Life of Fred, and unfortunately, was disappointed!

Anyways, another vote for TT; she likes it and is VERY independent!

Good luck, and don't pull your hair out!:001_smile:

[74Heaven]

Thanks so much for responding. I do the same, work at the problems and when I can't get it, I ask my ds. Or....my dh will come home and figure it out for me. :-)

 

I'm hsing three children and find it very difficult to find the time to watch every lesson. I wanted a math curric. that he could do himself.

 

I'm at a bump in the home schooling road to begin with. I'm feeling overwhelmed and overworked. I'm having thoughts of sending my 14 y/o ds to school next year. I'm so confused and the difficulty I'm having helping him with algebra is making things worse. AHHHHHH (pulling my hair out).

Val

 

I relate to your last paragraph and understand the time commitment is a lot. HOwever, you might look at it as time "investment" that you will only make once and your next 2 children will benefit from all the time you spend in VT or any other algebra program.

 

I love VT because it is so thorough and the explanations are available for reviewing when need be. There are a few videos that we have watched many times before getting it (Mod D or E I think?). Sure the key and the student textbook leave some things to be desired (I can't even squint enough to see some of the exponent answers in Mod E,F.) But the instruction is golden imho.

 

For those of us with math strugglers, I don't think there are many math currics that they can do without a lot of hand-holding. The lack of rigor or thoroughness in TT Alg 2 sent me back to VT with my firstborn dtr. Now, at the end of VT with my "more mathy" secondborn dtr, I can see that my firstborn dtr missed out on so much algebra instruction and background since we ditched VT after Mod C with her and swtiched to TT Alg 2 (only for 2 months) and then Math Relief Alg. 2.

 

So if you can learn from VT, stay with it I suggest. Just my opinion as to it being time well spent on those videos and daily lessons.

 

Lisaj, mom to 5