Mary in GA Posted March 11, 2010 Share Posted March 11, 2010 OK. Dd is in 7th. We used SM through 6th, and I decided that we would do the first few chapters of NEM1 for pre-algebra then move into Foerster's Alg 1. Well here it is March and we are only on chapter 7 of NEM1 and I feel like we're behind. I had used NEM1 with first ds and ditched it somewhere during ch 5, because I thought he was making way too many errors and that it was just too hard. Ds went on to do Foerster's all the way through calc with a break for JAcob's geometry. I was planning to do the same thing with dd. HOWEVER, NEM is beginning to click with dd (and me too.) I was never intending to continue for several reasons including lack of proofs and other things like graphing. I began searching this board and came up with Nan in Mass' post about NAM that goes with NEM 3 & 4. Well, so now I'm not sure. ALso, I saw on their website a grading scale that made me think we really weren't doing too badly. We own all the Foerster books we would need. This road has been traveled with good results. Dh does the upper level math and physics around here, so I would have to get him to look at NEM 3 to see if he would want to teach it. I will be toast after 2. Foerster seems to break down explanations into smaller chunks. NEM gives you a couple of example of a concept, very pithy explanations, and then really expects you to extrapolate. I'm intimidated by doing an integrated math program, even though that's what my state has gone to for high school now (the texts are pretty abysmal.) I have looked at the description on the SM website, and it's still hard to tell what the NEM series translates into in terms of a traditional sequence. Also, I'm concerned about the lack of a solution manual after level 2. I'm sure dh can handle it, but solution manuals are good. I guess what I'm asking for here is any advice or encouragement or discouragement that I can get here! I need to decide soon. If I'm going to switch to Foerster's, I will do it this month since that book is a lot to complete in one year. If we decided to continue with NEM, I consider us locked in as I think it would be really tough to transition back into a traditional track. Thanks for all your patience in sorting through this! Mary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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