pre-alegebra. Kinetic Books vrs. AoPS

[christine in al]

Can I have some help? I am trying to decide between these two. Anyone have experience with comparing these two?

 

Here's what I THINK they are like

 

Kinetic Books

Pros.

DIY

interactive so has moving videos to demonstrate concepts

only pre algebra I found that covers functions as such

 

cons,

computer so not portable

DIY, I'm concerned I'll let this slide and just epect him to do it. I hope they test.

 

AoPS

Pros, text so so adjustment to textbook learning for future.

sounds like balance of theory and practice

 

Cons

I'll have to learn this too and he'll need me to help him.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~``

 

Can anyone chime in on any of these thoughts? mis guided ? or in accurate understanding on my part. ( DUH.. YEAH )

 

thanks

~chriistine

[christine in al]

just looked at an AoPS video... short and sweet.. I'm liking AoPS .... If I keep in this direction,,,, ds is liking the computer aspect of KB... If we go with AoPS,,, I'll just have to convince my ds to "step away from the computer."

 

Oh, ds will be folding into public school in 9th, and they use block scheduling... ( ARGH) , And they are VERY anal retentive about credits, as in anything we do doesn't count. so I want him to have the strongest skill base possible and the name of courses don't count.

 

~christine in al

[SkateLeft]

My 8th grader used Kinetic Books pre-algebra last year, and my 5th grader is currently using AoPS pre-algebra.

 

For what it's worth, I really like them both.

 

AoPS is wordy. It's a discovery based approach with very little review. Concepts build on each other though, so if your student doesn't get something in one chapter, they'll have trouble in later chapters, even without the review. AoPs covers the *why* behind math, which is really cool. It's the perfect fit for my son, who eats, sleeps and breathes math and would do nothing else all day if I let him. The ideal AoPS kid likes to wrestle with math, and is okay spending time figuring things out. The author's philosophy is that is that problems should be hard.

 

Kinetic Books pre-algebra is more independent, and more like a traditional pre-algebra course. It's not discovery based. If you buy the homeschool edition, there's a pacing guide that schedules lessons, videos and quizzes. For each lesson, there's a video to watch, and some sections to work through. It has more review than AoPS, but less than something like Saxon. The interface is a little particular about the format of problems sometimes, so occasionally it would grade something incorrectly. I was able to print a spreadsheet of all my daughter's homework and quiz scores. The lessons were pretty short, and she enjoyed the interactivity of the program. Kinetic Books is good for a kid who just wants to do the math.

 

My daughter rolled into Jacob's Algebra this year with no trouble at all. In fact, it's been rather easy for her. So I think Kinetic Books was good preparation.

 

Hopefully that helps! All of my kids are mathy, but my son has a passion for math that my 13 year old just doesn't have. She enjoys it, but doesn't do math for fun in her spare time. AoPS is a great fit for my son. KB was a good fit for her.

[dereksurfs]

... The lessons were pretty short, and she enjoyed the interactivity of the program. Kinetic Books is good for a kid who just wants to do the math.

 

My daughter rolled into Jacob's Algebra this year with no trouble at all. In fact, it's been rather easy for her. So I think Kinetic Books was good preparation.

 

Hopefully that helps! All of my kids are mathy, but my son has a passion for math that my 13 year old just doesn't have. She enjoys it, but doesn't do math for fun in her spare time. AoPS is a great fit for my son. KB was a good fit for her.

 

Thanks for this review as I am also considering Kinetic Books for my son. However I am looking at it for Algebra 1. Any reason you chose Jacobs rather than simply continuing with KB for Algebra 1?

[SkateLeft]

Thanks for this review as I am also considering Kinetic Books for my son. However I am looking at it for Algebra 1. Any reason you chose Jacobs rather than simply continuing with KB for Algebra 1?

 

We switched to Jacob's, because I wasn't convinced she was retaining enough with the online program. She did it independently, and seemed to breeze through KB. The lessons were short, so I was worried that she was coasting. She's done really well with Jacob's though, so I'm confident that KB was a solid program. I just wasn't sure at the time that it was the best option for Algebra 1.

 

I have a friend who is a math professor, and she used KB Algebra 1 with her own daughter and spoke very highly of it, which is why I used it for pre-algebra.

[Trish]

My 8th grader used Kinetic Books pre-algebra last year, and my 5th grader is currently using AoPS pre-algebra.

 

For what it's worth, I really like them both.

 

AoPS is wordy. It's a discovery based approach with very little review. Concepts build on each other though, so if your student doesn't get something in one chapter, they'll have trouble in later chapters, even without the review. AoPs covers the *why* behind math, which is really cool. It's the perfect fit for my son, who eats, sleeps and breathes math and would do nothing else all day if I let him. The ideal AoPS kid likes to wrestle with math, and is okay spending time figuring things out. The author's philosophy is that is that problems should be hard.

 

Kinetic Books pre-algebra is more independent, and more like a traditional pre-algebra course. It's not discovery based. If you buy the homeschool edition, there's a pacing guide that schedules lessons, videos and quizzes. For each lesson, there's a video to watch, and some sections to work through. It has more review than AoPS, but less than something like Saxon. The interface is a little particular about the format of problems sometimes, so occasionally it would grade something incorrectly. I was able to print a spreadsheet of all my daughter's homework and quiz scores. The lessons were pretty short, and she enjoyed the interactivity of the program. Kinetic Books is good for a kid who just wants to do the math.

 

My daughter rolled into Jacob's Algebra this year with no trouble at all. In fact, it's been rather easy for her. So I think Kinetic Books was good preparation.

 

Hopefully that helps! All of my kids are mathy, but my son has a passion for math that my 13 year old just doesn't have. She enjoys it, but doesn't do math for fun in her spare time. AoPS is a great fit for my son. KB was a good fit for her.

 

Is it obvious what the student needs to do to complete a lesson? In the sample I looked at, it seemed like there was a lot of stuff going on (I'm sure because they were trying to show all you might encounter with the program), but I couldn't tell if they're specific on what the student needs to do. We're doing Thinkwell this year, which I do like, (and they have 6th grade math), but I'm considering KB for pre-algebra.

[AngieW in Texas]

I used Kinetic Books for Algebra I and for Algebra II. KB Algebra I goes a little deeper than Jacobs and also has a few topics that aren't covered in Jacobs.

 

Example of going deeper: going as far as solving systems of three equations with three unknowns instead of stopping with two equations and two unknowns.

 

Examples of topic not covered in Jacobs: optimizing solutions with systems of inequalities.

 

I thought KB Algebra II was excellent. My middle dd is working through Lial's Precalculus now and has not yet come across anything that wasn't covered to the same depth already in KB Algebra II. KB Algebra II also covers trigonometry. It doesn't just stop at learning the trig functions either. It teaches identities too.

[Julie of KY]

I am a very happy user of AoPS. Some other "pros" of AoPS is that there are free videos online that go along with the book and Alcumus, the free online learning system.

 

Of course, you don't have to use AoPS to use either of these free resources.

 

A "con" (or pro) of AoPS is that it is tough. You have to understand the tough math to move on as it keeps coming up later. This is a good thing in my opinion.

 

I have no reference to compare it to Kinetic books, however.