The big issue I see with taking algebra 1 at the CC is that it's usually taught over one semester instead of two. Assuming your child takes math every semester, they end up doing algebra 1 + 2 in 7th grade, then college algebra + precalc in 8th. This is excessively challenging for most students -- even if they're ready for algebra 1 in 7th, they're NOT ready for that pace. A really mathy kid could probably handle it, but for that kind of really mathy kid I'd prefer to consider an online course designed for mathy kids rather than just moving faster through coursework designed for non-mathy adults who in general fear and hate math. If they have a two-semester algebra 1 (some cc's still offer this) I'd be a lot more likely to consider it.

There are a lot of things that fall into this category too. Yeah, I'll eat them if I'm hungry and they're the ONLY thing available, but generally I don't buy food that doesn't either contribute nutrition or superyum to my day :D

Did she do the placement test? Even if she did, she should take the placement test after she finishes TT algebra 2. She may place into college algebra instead.

It's trending that way, but it's also your friends/relatives. I would block the few who are the most annoying. Then I'd start adding updates of your own -- sometimes seeing an update can remind people to do that. I actually started consciously trying to add more updates after my sister said "I was trying to see how you were doing and I had to scroll through six pages to get to something you wrote instead of re-shared"

One of my friends had this happen. He retested next time after maintaining for a few months and he was normal. Not that I'd ignore it if it stays high after you move to maintenance, but I wouldn't change what you're doing right now.

Hey! I finally met someone else who loathes it! I gave up trying a long ago. I just smile and say 'no thanks, more for everyone else'.

Chocolate Coconut Pickles Tea or coffee Mayo unless it's on potato salad or coleslaw Ketchup unless it's on fries Mustard under any circumstances Any potato chips except Frito Lays originals Any crackers except saltines or graham Any nuts except peanuts

Here is an example of what I mean by showing all the steps in instruction: http://www.aplusses.com/sample/AlgIICh1.pdf Look at example 1. See how at each step, she is showing what she is doing to both sides of the equation? Look at example 2. See how she references the distributive property prior to using it? Furthermore, see how she emphasizes throughout that she is showing one of many possible ways to do the problem, and points out pitfalls at the end of the problem (cancelling the 2s) and mentions we will discuss more about this in chapter 12?

Here's Shormann's website. http://drshormann.com/ It seems to be quite new so you are likely not going to find anyone who's used it. I would not use it myself because I really do not want religion intermingled with math. Here is an example showing something that I would find problematic: https://drshormann.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/screen-shot-2014-08-18-at-9-50-01-am.png-- problem 18 in the reading material for lesson 76 is another such. Therefore I'm going to stick to discussing the mathematical instruction. I very much like what he says about proofs and about historical foundations of mathematics. I like how it's integrated. It seems to be somewhat based off Saxon's ideas, with his own added in. I like the automated homework grading, although I am quite curious as to how he integrates proofs into this. I do not think proofs should be graded automatically, as there are frequently many valid answers. I question whether the average student will really be prepared for calculus in 3 years. It may be biting off a little much. The course is self-paced but is still limited to a calendar year, which would make me hesitant to give it a shot with a struggling student. I looked at the reading material for Lesson 1 but quite honestly there is so much religion intermingled I'm not going to discuss it. I looked at the reading material for Lesson 51 and also watched the video. He says he is teaching them to factor trinomials of the form ax^2 + bx + c, but everything deals with only trinomials of the form x^2 + bx + c. Furthermore, the answer is simply presented and then checked to show that the answer is correct. This is a shortcut and only works when x^2 has no coefficient. I have taught this frequently and one of the issues my students have is that although they are able to correctly do problems of the form x^2 + bx + c, they cannot do them when they have a coefficient on the x^2. For example, they will tell me that 6x^2 + 5x + 1 factors as (x+2)(x+3) because they do not want to do the algorithmic steps necessary when x^2 has a coefficient. I teach developmental mathematics at a university, so although I teach them the algorithm, they revert to how they learned it previously, which apparently involved this shortcut. I really don't like presentations that skip directly to a shortcut rather than presenting the entire algorithm and allowing students to discover the shortcut on their own. I looked at the reading material for Lesson 76 but did not watch the entire video. He does present the zero-factor property at the beginning of the lesson, but when he asks "Why is the standard form of the quadratic equation when f(x) = 0?" he does not discuss the zero-factor property directly, but merely mentions that they are easier to solve here. The biggest reason for this to be the standard form is that we can then apply the zero-factor property to solve it. He does discuss it in the lesson solutions. I don't really care for the way he skips directly to the answers without showing the step of setting each side equal to 0. I don't consider this appropriate for students who are just learning how to solve quadratics which can be factored. They tend to lose sight of what they are really doing and just go for "magic answers". I also don't like how he mentions that quadratic equations have at most two solutions and then directly afterwards shows a cubic with three solutions, without mentioning explicitly that the reason this can have more than two solutions is because it is degree three. Again, he has not explicitly set each factor to 0. Many students attempt to work a problem like this and forget about the x=0 solution, because they are not thinking of 'setting each factor to 0'. This also causes issues later on when a problem is presented such as (x-3)(x-1) = 1, because they forget about the zero-factor property and either claim that the solutions are 1 and 3, or set each factor to 1, neither of which results in a valid solution. I like the variety of his word problems a lot. Summary: Writing a math book is very challenging and I think this is a commendable effort. There are a lot of things I do like. Since I'm confident in my own ability to supplement instruction, if I were looking for a very religiously-oriented YEC-based mathematics curriculum I might give it a shot. But for a non-mathy parent I think I'd look for a book where all the steps are shown directly, at least at early instructional stages.

The TOC are the same section-by-section but I don't have the precalc text or the teacher's guide. I would think so though judging by the TOC. http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/product/College-Algebra-and-Trigonometry-5E/9780321671783.page http://www.pearsonhighered.com/product?ISBN=0321783808

I don't know about Jann, but *I* don't like it. I really dislike the presentation of trigonometry. I found it very disjointed. Next time I teach precalculus I'm going to use her college algebra and trigonometry text.

This is why I go with online homework a lot even though it raises the cost and they cannot use used books. Instead of turning in homework, seeing "Oh well I got it wrong", and simply moving on to the next assignment (which is how most students do it), they see immediately that they have it wrong and have 0 credit. It also is useful to reduce cheating, since every student at least has different numbers on the problems. They can still have a friend work the homework for them, but they can't just copy their friend's numbers. Since the online access code includes an electronic copy of the book, I encourage them to save money by not buying the book unless they really hate electronic copies. If they want a reference copy, I encourage them to get an old edition and cross-reference. The differing explanations are actually helpful for someone who wants to understand the material although less useful for someone who simply wants a sample problem where they can copy the template.

The People Could Fly has already been mentioned, but there is an audiobook narrated by James Earl Jones and Virginia Hamilton. Spectacular and highly recommended. http://www.virginiahamilton.com/media/audio-books/the-people-could-fly-american-black-folktales-special-edition/ For chapter books and a little later, I +1 the Mildred Taylor books. They're really awesome.

I use facebook a lot, but mostly to share stuff that makes me smile and to keep up with old friends/see how their kids are doing/etc. These are people where we weren't really close enough to call them up out of the blue and say hi, but it's still nice to see them.

The protection for the guy is a big issue. I'm given to understand that in the US, no matter what he signs, he can still be held liable for child support.

As far as actually explaining order of operations, the way I like is: Multiplication (with integers) is repeated addition/fast addition. Since it's a more powerful form of addition, it comes before addition. Exponentiation (with integers) is repeated multiplication/fast multiplication. Since it's a more powerful form of multiplication, it comes before multiplication. Parentheses, then, are when we want to change the default order, and so they come first of all. Division is multiplication by the reciprocal, so we lump division and multiplication together and treat them the same. Subtraction is addition of the negative, so we lump them together as well.

I hated people other than my family. Loved animals. Wanted to be a vet because that involved dealing with more animals than people. Also wanted to find a guy and have a bunch of kids, starting young, because if I hated people other than my family clearly the solution was MOAR FAMILY. Amusingly, now I teach math to a bunch of college students whom in general I like very much.

I specifically don't like the way the graphing approach text does trig. It introduces them as circular functions, gives a few values, and then goes straight to graphing the trig functions (as you might expect from the title). I'd have no problem with this if it were review (it is a good way to get them to thinking of them as real-valued functions) but people who haven't had a lot of prior experience with trig tend to find this section horribly confusing.

I really don't think it's necessary to use the same curriculum all through HS. There are plenty of people who have had a child where the curriculum was a great fit for them until (insert course) and suddenly it no longer was. If MIF is working now I would finish it out.

Yes exactly. If there were just adults living there (no animals, either -- they are not capable of consent to THAT) I'd shrug my shoulders and say they had a right to live that way if they so choose.

Because you did not intend it as snideness does not mean it is not so. Phrasing it as "your inability to understand" is incredibly snide. (I did intend my post as snide, and I have thought better and rephrased it since, but clearly you caught it pre-edit).

It is not my inability to understand. It was a rhetorical question. Some people can change. She should have to demonstrate the change before she is allowed to retain custody of a helpless newborn.

I don't understand why this baby would be a stepping stone when the ten previous weren't.

Yeah, I get no lift from them, and mine are unfortunately super pendulous. I did the Classify your breasts on Herroom -- starts here -- http://www.herroom.com/breast-separation,333,30.html -- for some ideas.

Given as you have gotten no answers: I have not used this but I have used a similar introductory and intermediate algebra from a different publisher as well as the lial college algebra + trigonometry. The lessons were nearly verbatim except that overlap and review at the beginning was eliminated (you can see this with the TOC -- chapter 10 in the combined includes chapters 1 + 2 in the introductory) because a student is assumed to have just completed the first half of the book. If you use it for both pre-algebra and algebra 1, you may need to incorporate extra review at the beginning of algebra 1 unless you review through the summer.