Finished NEM1 and just can't decide

[Jen500]

whether to continue on and do NEM2 or do AoPS Algebra. I have made a mental list of the pros and cons of each and I still can't make a choice. Ugh.

[Miss Marple]

whether to continue on and do NEM2 or do AoPS Algebra. I have made a mental list of the pros and cons of each and I still can't make a choice. Ugh.

 

How old is your student? If you have time, as in your student is in 7th or 8th grade, I would throw in AoPS. I had my son do NEM 2 and AoPS Intro to Algebra together. He didn't complete the AoPS, but did most of it before we moved on to DM 3. There is a lot of geometry in NEM 2 so there shouldn't be a lot of overlap with the 2 programs. Or you could add in the AoPS when the student reaches the geometry portion of NEM 2. We also used some of the AoPS geometry program at the same time. I'm not sure we used it as effectively as we could have ;) but it was a beneficial addition.

[Jen500]

Thanks for the ideas Cynthia (I appreciate your avatar too!)

Yes, we have plenty of time, my dc are in 6th grade.

[Crimson Wife]

How comfortable do you feel teaching the higher levels of math without a lot of teacher support? The lack of that in the higher levels of Singapore is a big reason why we probably will switch after DM1. I feel confident enough in my teaching ability to do the pre-algebra and intro algebra 1 found in DM1. Not sure about the harder topics in algebra 1, algebra 2, or trig.

[Jen500]

How comfortable do you feel teaching the higher levels of math without a lot of teacher support? The lack of that in the higher levels of Singapore is a big reason why we probably will switch after DM1. I feel confident enough in my teaching ability to do the pre-algebra and intro algebra 1 found in DM1. Not sure about the harder topics in algebra 1, algebra 2, or trig.

 

I've looked through NEM2 and I'm ok with the topics...I had a bit of a hard time transitioning from the primary series to NEM (then we side-tracked to Aops pre-algebra before finishing NEM) but now I feel ok w/o all the teacher support. However, I do not plan on using Singapore past NEM2. I think I am leaning towards AoPS because we really like the discovery approach, it's just so wordy and hard to look back through a chapter to review. Maybe I'll have them take short summary math notes as they go through the chapters.

[Miss Marple]

The DM series has been a good switch for us after NEM 2. I used through NEM 4A with my oldest and found it a bit painful. I find that the solutions manual for the DM series has been sufficient (we're almost done with DM3). The AoPS is in a class by itself :) which is why we used Singapore for our main curriculum and supplemented with AoPS.

[Candid]

I've been through the whole NEM series once and am now going through again. I thought NEM 1 was the big bear that took the longest in terms of work while the other books were less so. It may be that we just weren't use to it that first year.

 

I also fully admit that at some point during year 3 I was serving as a board chair on a nonprofit and just didn't have either time or focused brain and I said to my oldest, "You are doing great, from now on you can read over the instructions and do the work, I'll grade it, but I won't teach it any more." That also worked fine.

 

That year, he actually finished up way, way early (mid March). He did the first AoPS competition book in the remaining part of that year.

 

The hardest part for me at this point, is figuring out what to do with the oldest next year. He'll be in tenth grade and I think either AoPS pre-calculus (with maybe the online class) or some other pre-calculus class online. At some point I think I will need him to take math classes at a local LAC, but I need to iron that out.

 

So my opinion is NEM is do-able. Don't be afraid! Or switch to DM. If you do SM, you will still be ahead of the standard US program, and then you'll just need to figure out what to do next.