MUS Geometry--your feedback, please

[distancia]

In her massive remedial program, MUS Alpha through Algebra 2 and beyond, D is progressing better than I anticipated. She hasn't yet said anything negative about Steve Demme, which is a first (usually something about the teacher's voice bothers her) and a darn good reason for me to stick with the program. I have stripped out ALL the Geometry assignments thus far, leaving D to contend with only arithmetic and Pre-algebra.

 

Next week D starts Alg 1. She has already had it 2x; once in p/s 8th grade (a B grade) and again in 9th grade (a C!). Three years later and she has matured a great deal, so she is receptive to learning AND her math brain has finally developed. She really enjoys complex Algebraic word problems now. I anticipate her reviewing one MUS Algebra 1 lesson per day (more or less) and moving on to Alg 2 just as quickly.

 

Geometry is a different story. She was lucky to earn a C in Geometry in 10th grade and she understands practically nothing of it. Even the simplest concepts baffle her. The other day I did a Pre-algebra placement test and she couldn't even figure the area of a triangle. Even if she didn't remember the formula, common sense would tell her that folding a paper rectangle (which we know the area of) in half, on the diagonal, would give us the area of the triangle. You can see she has a long, hard road ahead in this subject.

 

Although I am familiar with MUS in other areas, I don't know how well Steve Demme introduces Geometry. I LOVE Geometry and for me it is fun and easy to understand; therefore, I can't objectively gauge any kind of Geometry program.

 

For those of you who have used MUS Geometry, did you find it as easily understood by your student(s) as the other MUS topics? Even for the "geometrically-challenged" student? If you have one of those who failed with another curriculum, how well did he/she do with MUS Geometry?

 

Thanks for any input!

Edited September 25, 2010 by distancia

[LuvingLife]

In her massive remedial program, MUS Alpha through Algebra 2 and beyond, D is progressing better than I anticipated. She hasn't yet said anything negative about Steve Demme, which is a first (usually something about the teacher's voice bothers her) and a darn good reason for me to stick with the program. I have stripped out ALL the Geometry assignments thus far, leaving D to contend with only arithmetic and Pre-algebra.

 

Next week D starts Alg 1. She has already had it 2x; once in p/s 8th grade (a B grade) and again in 9th grade (a C!). Three years later and she has matured a great deal, so she is receptive to learning AND her math brain has finally developed. She really enjoys complex Algebraic word problems now. I anticipate her reviewing one MUS Algebra 1 lesson per day (more or less) and moving on to Alg 2 just as quickly.

 

Geometry is a different story. She was lucky to earn a C in Geometry in 10th grade and she understands practically nothing of it. Even the simplest concepts baffle her. The other day I did a Pre-algebra placement test and she couldn't even figure the area of a triangle. Even if she didn't remember the formula, common sense would tell her that folding a paper rectangle (which we know the area of) in half, on the diagonal, would give us the area of the triangle. You can see she has a long, hard road ahead in this subject.

 

Although I am familiar with MUS in other areas, I don't know how well Steve Demme introduces Geometry. I LOVE Geometry and for me it is fun and easy to understand; therefore, I can't objectively gauge any kind of Geometry program.

 

For those of you who have used MUS Geometry, did you find it as easily understood by your student(s) as the other MUS topics? Even for the "geometrically-challenged" student? If you have one of those who failed with another curriculum, how well did he/she do with MUS Geometry?

 

Thanks for any input!

 

From what I have heard, MUS geometry introduces concepts in a "gentle" way so that students that have a hard time understanding how to do math can easily grasp it. Now I haven't used MUS before but it has been reccommended by many people with kids that struggle with geometry or math in general. I would say try TT, but there are quite a few proofs whereas MUS geometry leaves proofs for the end.

 

Maybe you should look at their website and request a geometry demo? See if your daughter can understand it, you also may want to supplement just to make sure your daughter understands what's going on.

 

I hope things work out for you!:grouphug:

[Alyce]

After using both I really prefer MUS. My Dd used at and had no trouble with it. It really is no different than any of the other MUS programs. The concepts are introduced one at a time and are explained very well. It is true that they leave the proofs till the end but I haven't really seen Dd have any problems because she had few proofs. She is now in college and took Calculus and Statistics without any problems. Ds used TT because everyone was saying it was such a good program. Ds was able to retain very little of it. I think it's because it is somewhat spiral in it's approach and Ds did better with mastery, which is what MUS is. If she's doing well with MUS and continues to do well with it I would not change it.

[Miss Marple]

It is a perfect fit for my short-attention span son. He does well with the slow introduction of topics and the review on every lesson helps solidify the concepts learned previously. He is working through the regular lessons first and then we will go back and do the Honors (H) lessons at the end. This boy likes to move to different subjects in about 30-45 minutes so MUS is great because he doesn't have to learn a lot of theory before working the problems. He is finishing his Algebra 1 course as well this year so he has two math slots in his schedule.

 

So far he is scoring anywhere from 87-100% on his tests - mostly in the A range. When he scores below 90% we go back and review the lesson.