Sue G in PA Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Dd15 (a young 10th grader) is using Lial's Alg. 1 (whatever the title is, I don't remember!) successfully! Yeah! After struggling through Saxon Alg. 1 last year and not doing well at all, Lial's is a breath of fresh air and has given her back her confidence. My question, as I am not familiar with Lial's at all (I figured we'd stay the Saxon course until 12th grade), is where do we go from here? Alg. 2? Geometry? I have heard that some people actually do BOTH of those in a year (Alg. 2 one week, Geometry the next, etc.). I'm concerned about PSATs and dd not having any Geometry knowledge. I'm very confused as you can tell! :tongue_smilie: Anyone using Lial's, please tell me what your sequence is/was! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candid Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Generally folks do Geometry and then Algebra 2. The one reason you may wish your daughter to do both concurrently is to get enough math credits for whatever college she may apply to. If this is the case, then you can probably do two at once, but in order to finish them and allow her to take a third math course (assuming your goal is four), you may have to work at an increased pace and not do the work alternately but concurrently. My suggestion is to first find out how many math credits she needs to have and by when then work from there to determine how you are going to meet that goal. If she needs to finished with both Geometry and Algebra 2 by the end of her Junior year, next spring, then she has a 1 1/2 school terms to finish both. You should then set your schedule based on that goal and whatever you plan to use to get those credits. You would then need to decide, would it be better to work at an increased pace one class at a time or at a slower pace but do both at the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in PA Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Hey Sue, Glad to hear the Lial's is working! :001_smile: Our sequence has been Algebra 1, geometry, and Algebra 2. Not sure about the PSAT as we never took that here. However there is a decent amount of geometry on the SAT. If you wanted to do Algebra 2 and geometry concurrently you could use Lial's Intermediate Algebra (which is Algebra 2) and MUS geometry. My middle dd used the MUS last year and it got the job done. The lessons did not take long and covered all the bases. This would work if you were doing it concurrently as well as alternating days. As far as college goes, if she is planning on going I agree with the pp who said to look into their requirements as well. My oldest transferred to Millersville and they want 4 years of math with the last math being a minimum of Algebra 2. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoopytwo Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 We have been doing Lial's Algebra and Teaching Textbooks Geometry concurrently. It has worked out very well. My dd is not mathy but she really likes the TT Geometry. She will continue with the Lial's progression next year. HTH, Linda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue G in PA Posted January 14, 2012 Author Share Posted January 14, 2012 Thanks, all! And thank you, Chris, for the Lial's! I'm not sure dd will like MUS so I'm wondering if another Geometry might be better. Jacob's? LoF? Not sure. Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsTheDay Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 9th grade: Life of Fred algebra 10th grade: Lial's Introductory Algebra :glare: (face is at having to take it again, not making a face at Lial's) 11th grade: Jacob's (currently) 12th grade plan: Lial's equivalent to alg II (fuzzy brain, can't remember tonight) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue G in PA Posted January 15, 2012 Author Share Posted January 15, 2012 ThisIsTheDay, how are you liking Jacob's? I'm torn btwn that for my dd15 and giving LoF a try since my son uses LoF Pre-Alg and we really do like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsTheDay Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 ThisIsTheDay, how are you liking Jacob's? I'm torn btwn that for my dd15 and giving LoF a try since my son uses LoF Pre-Alg and we really do like it. Like?:lol: I cannot fathom "like" and "math" in the same sentence, at least not in relation to teaching. You'd have to know that my dd has NO drama in her life except math. We pull out the math book, dh rolls his eyes and leaves the room, and ds practically sits nearby, popcorn in hand, ready to watch the show. I'm beginning to see that even dd finds herself quite entertaining. It's been easy on my end. Although dd needed a lot of handholding and encouragement with algebra, I haven't had to learn one bit of geometry. She really does teach herself, although she "requires" my presence, and I constantly have to encourage her to look up information when she's stuck, or handhold her through parts of proofs. My ds is a different kid. He's flying through the two LoF pre-alg books. I wasn't sure if he was quite up to the rigors of Lial's, but it was really more true that I couldn't handle a third consecutive year of algebra after the last two years. I'm thinking he'll do much better with LoF Algebra than dd, although I'm planning to use additional problems from Lial's. With dd, I would have considered LoF geometry if I would have thought she'd be receptive to it. I don't know that anything would have stuck with her, but my goal is to get through geometry with this child, to get through all of her math, and just be done with it. It doesn't have to stick in the long term. With ds, I will consider LoF all the way through. I want it to stick, because I think he'll lean more toward a STEM career. I think he sees math differently enough that it would stick with him. Geez, the longer I hs, the more I am convinced that nothing is certain, and the more I can see things twelve different ways! Or maybe I'm just trying to convince myself. (Pressing send, but now convinced I sound utterly insane. I think it's that time of year.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue G in PA Posted January 15, 2012 Author Share Posted January 15, 2012 Thanks for that! I sooooo get math drama. :svengo: My dd is mostly even-keeled...except for math...and writing. Once we switched to Lial's, the drama-moments for almost gone. :D I want to use Intermediate Algebra with her since Lial's is working, but also want her to take Geometry simultaneously. Saxon Algebra 1 put us behind schedule as she just didn't retain anything. Anyway, I'm glad to hear that LoF is good enough to stick with all the way through since ds13 seems to tolerate it. Notice I didn't say "like" either? :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Bay Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Thanks, all! And thank you, Chris, for the Lial's! I'm not sure dd will like MUS so I'm wondering if another Geometry might be better. Jacob's? LoF? Not sure. Any suggestions? Isidore Dressler has a good Geometry textbook. DD used it as a secondary one with LOF (the LOF was supposed to be secondary when I first bought it, but she had other ideas.) And excellent Plane Geometry book that I couldn't get her to use (this is a very stubborn dd) was Basic Geomter by Birkhoff & Beattly. http://www.ams.org/bookstore-getitem/item=CHEL-120-H Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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