Who's using NEM for math?

[Cosmos]

Just curious.

 

My ds is halfway through NEM 1. The first couple of chapters took a LONG time, but then his progress sped up.

 

I'm very impressed with this curriculum so far. Some great deep thinking problems, as well as a solid, conceptual framework.

 

We're using the textbook and the teacher's manual. So far, we've done every single problem in every part of the text -- the examples, the exercises, the challenger and problem solving sections, as well as the revisions, miscellaneous, and investigations. We tend to do the examples and investigations together at the whiteboard, and the rest ds does independently. I'm starting to consider skipping a bit here and there.

 

We're about to enter the geometry chapters. I was surprised to see that the last half of NEM 1 is essentially all geometry. One of the reasons I picked NEM was because it was an "integrated" curriculum. I didn't want to do months on end of geometry. Oh, well. :)

 

I'd be interested to hear who else is using this curriculum and how you make use of the materials.

[Cosmos]

Nobody, huh?

 

Bumping for the evening crowd.

 

Especially interested in opinions on the necessity to do every problem of every section. Do you skip any problems in the exercise sets? Do you skip any of the other sections, like challengers or investigations? Do you do all of the revisions?

[dhudson]

My ds uses NEM in conjunction with LOF but he never does all the problems in NEM. That might seriously send him over the edge.

 

NEM is a great, if hard, curriculum. I don't think my twins will do NEM as I think they will need a little more hand holding.

[jennynd]

we are going to use it in maybe 5 months or so. Want to hear some more about NEM also

[Punks in Ontario]

We've used NEM 1 and 2. I just took ds15 out of NEM 3 because he was getting frustrated with it and starting to dislike math. I put him in the standard Ontario textbook which I just happened to have on my shelf. Ds13 is in NEM 2 and doing fine.

 

I've never made them do all the problems - just too many and we'd never get done. In Ontario math is integrated most of the way through hs and I prefer that approach to the American one.

 

Sometimes the conceptual leaps are difficult for the boys since they mostly self teach. The new text we're using covers much the same material, but with easier questions.

 

Anyway, I don't have alot of advice, but if it's working stick to it.:001_smile:

[Aquinas Academy]

:seeya:Glad to know there are other NEMers here.

DD 13 is doing NEM 2. She doesn't do all the questions, but there's really no pattern we follow in deciding which ones to do. Basically, DD choose which ones to do and if I think she needs more practice or if she hasn't covered much of a certain type of problem, then I'll assign more.

[Cosmos]

Nice to meet all of you! :seeya:

 

Well, I think I'm going to take the plunge and do our first skipping. I am NOT assigning Miscellaneous Exercise 2. I did it myself and UGH, some of the problems were so tedious. Not deeper or harder than what he's done already, just more tedious. We will do #15, because he really enjoyed the problem of that type before. It's a long division problem with most of the digits missing.

 

And I'll make a note that we skipped the set, so that theoretically we can come back to it. I doubt we will, but it will make me feel better. :lol:

[Narrow Gate Academy]

We're just starting into chapter 3 of NEM 1. We haven't skipped any problems yet, but I'm sure we will at some point. I don't think I've ever done any program completely.

[tarahillmom]

We are doing both NEM D1 and AoPS algebra. I plan on switching over completely to AoPS after we finish NEM. I have loved NEM. We just finished the Financial Transactions chapter and are starting on geometry. I need to have the high school level maths taught traditionally for my home school group. So we are working on algebra officially through AoPS. I have found that NEM has made AoPS a lot easier than I had anticipated. I hope you continue to enjoy NEM. We have done all of the problems too and I love all of the challenges. I wish you well in your NEM:)

[Candid]

I have two boys, the older is finishing up NEM 4A at which point he will do DM Additional Math (since NEM Additional Math is no longer available). My younger is just starting NEM 1 and is in chapter 4.

 

I agree with your comments about the first chapters seeming to take forever then speeding up.

 

I absolutely loved how NEM handled geometry. They learned the geometry but problem solving utilized the algebra they had already learned. It was amazing. It was much, much better than the proofs we did in high school.

 

We do pretty much everything in the text and half the workbook problems. The first year this caused us to run a few weeks longer, but last year we finished two months earlier and looking back I think maybe we should have done Additional Math then (we did the AoPS book entitled The Art of Problem Solving, instead). In Singapore they do NEM 3 and 4 concurrently with the Additional Math books.