Opinion of Math Relief

[joni470]

We are currently using the Lial Algebra series and I was considering supplementing with the Math Relief DVD series. Can someone who has used this please give me their opinion of it? Do you think it would work well as a supplement?

 

-Savannah

http://www.hammocktracks.com

[K-FL]

I think it's overkill. MR is a full Algebra program. For a supplement, I'd look more at the "Keys to" series.

[74Heaven]

I have no idea why you'd supplement unless you thought MR would help your child understand some concepts that need reinforcement for her understanding of Lial's. Overall, I have liked the effectiveness of DVD teaching for higher maths. The MR teacher (forget his name) is a great instructor. We did MR for Alg. 2 after one dtr hated VT. Mistake. My complaint about MR is that it didn't cover all of the concepts that Videotext did and that Chalkdust PreCalc course assumed a student covered in Alg. 2.

 

Lj

[74Heaven]

Firebaugh? I think that is the MR instructor's name. I want to say Leonard?

[Julie in MN]

I have no idea why you'd supplement unless you thought MR would help your child understand some concepts that need reinforcement for her understanding of Lial's. Overall, I have liked the effectiveness of DVD teaching for higher maths. The MR teacher (forget his name) is a great instructor.

 

I agree that he's an excellent instructor. He also has many customers who use Math Relief for a supplement, both homeschoolers and public schoolers. You could always email him and ask him how to use it as a a supplement. I would think that the first phase might teach the child how to think about algebra terms and move them around in an equation comfortably, even if the student didn't get into the quadratic equation etc.

 

 

We did MR for Alg. 2 after one dtr hated VT. Mistake. My complaint about MR is that it didn't cover all of the concepts that Videotext did and that Chalkdust PreCalc course assumed a student covered in Alg. 2.

 

I can't imagine any "Algebra 2" topics that aren't covered by Math Relief. (If I'm wrong about that, let me know!)

 

I think the problem might be that some programs expect you to tack other things onto Algebra 2, such as some trigonometry or statistics or things like that. Sometimes some of the "math terminology" and "math logic" that is usually in Geometry will be instead covered in Algebra 1 or 2. Each program is going to be different as far as what it tacks on where, and you'll run into that problem with whatever program you use. My oldest ran into that between public school years. The only option is to use one program all the way thru, but my personal opinion is that rarely is one math program good at all things.

 

Julie

[joni470]

Thanks for all the information...it has confirmed a lot of what I was thinking.

-Savannah

http://www.hammocktracks.com

[74Heaven]

I can't imagine any "Algebra 2" topics that aren't covered by Math Relief. (If I'm wrong about that, let me know!)

 

I think the problem might be that some programs expect you to tack other things onto Algebra 2, such as some trigonometry or statistics or things like that. Sometimes some of the "math terminology" and "math logic" that is usually in Geometry will be instead covered in Algebra 1 or 2.

 

Seems like logarithms (which I can't spell today) was not covered in MR Alg. 2 but was covered in VT and Chalkdust PreCalc assumed a level of expertise in logarithms that even Vt didn't quite provide.

 

I can't remember what else - my brain is foggy, MR was 2007 or 2008 for us and neither of my high school age dtrs are home now!

 

Lisaj