Grace is Sufficient Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 Just some comments which may or may not be helpful to anyone. My now 11th grade son did Videotext Algebra in 8th-9th grades. We started VT Geometry in 10th. I'd bought Modules A-C used, and when he finished those -- probably about a year ago -- only Module D had been completed and was available. For a bunch of reasons, none of which seem very compelling from this perspective, we stopped VT after Module C and finished Geometry using ALEKS. (That worked fine.) After hearing so much about Chalkdust, I decided to use it this year for Precalculus... BUST! Horrible text, unbelievably long lectures, and impossible for this Mom to figure out which tiny fraction of the gazillion problems to choose. Went to Life of Fred Trigonometry. We like the text, but most of the time, the answers are given, but not the worked-out solutions. Fortunately, my husband can help him figure it all out. It won't take the whole year, though, so he's stopped it for a couple of months to do SAT math prep with Khan Academy. I just don't know how to put it all on a transcript, or what to do for math next year.... Ok, I'm done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie in CA Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 I am glad you posted because I was just wondering which path to choose as we get closer to highschool. We have a few years--thank goodness! I have VT and was wondering if it was a good program for highschool. Susie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musicmom Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 Thanks for posting this! My dd is in VT Geometry Module C right now, and we'll continue with Module D, but I'm wondering what to do after that. With my ds, two years ago, we had to quit after Module D because the rest wasn't available, and he went into EPGY Precalculus. It worked fine for him, but I'd been wondering about trying Chalkdust Precalculus for dd... Module E of VT is now out, but who knows when F will come along. Glad to know about your experience with Chalkdust!! Seems like others have said too that it's more like a 2-year program. Still don't know what I'll do, but it sounds like Chalkdust may not suit us very well either, so I really appreciate your input! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 Glad to hear this from you. I'm getting ready to start the VT I already own (and used with my oldest) with my youngest next year. I keep wondering if it's sufficient, because my oldest isn't really a math person and is having trouble with calculus (back in private school) this year. It's easy for me to second guess myself...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catiejoy Posted March 18, 2010 Share Posted March 18, 2010 We finished Videotext Algebra and my two boys started Geometry- did anyone find that the Geometry videotext does not explain the lesson as well as the Algebra- my boys keep "complaining" that it is so Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Geometry wasn't out when I bought VT, so I'll be glad to hear more about this, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musicmom Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 We finished Videotext Algebra and my two boys started Geometry- did anyone find that the Geometry videotext does not explain the lesson as well as the Algebra- my boys keep "complaining" that it is so I can see why they would say this. It does seem harder and not quite as straightforward... the nature of the material, I think. They're developing a way of thinking in VT, and it's not easy right off the bat--at least it wasn't for my dd. We had a hard time in the beginning of Module C and she would get bogged down. The other thing is, if you have the 1st edition like I do, it is full of errors, and that's frustrating. So you have to take those in stride, and slog through a bit, and try to see and understand what they did in the solutions when you don't quite get it. Also don't get hung up on the exact sequence or the exact way they did a proof in solutions manual. If your dc's proof is logical and each step is backed up, that's fine. Dd is now getting the hang of the proofs, so things are generally going better, though it's still hard at times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grace is Sufficient Posted March 19, 2010 Author Share Posted March 19, 2010 I would definitely agree that you should not expect a student to solve proofs the exact way as in the solutions manual. I checked (most of) my son's proofs to make sure they made sense, and periodically assigned him to read through the solutions manual proofs to make sure he understood their way of doing it, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catiejoy Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 we do have the first edition - is there a way to update without buying a whole new set- also since this is still not completed - what do you think of finishing to module C and then switching to Life of Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grace is Sufficient Posted March 20, 2010 Author Share Posted March 20, 2010 - what do you think of finishing to module C and then switching to Life of Fred That's basically what we did (although we wandered through ALEKS and Chalkdust on the way.) LOF would be considerably better for us if the solutions were worked out in detail for every problem instead of just having the answers given. I'm using it for Trig, and had hoped to use it next year for Calculus, but now I don't know WHAT to do next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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