ssexton Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Hi everyone, I hope you don't mind me asking this over here--my ds will be an 8th grader next year. We will be using a tutor next year for math, but I'm having a hard time deciding which one, based on the program each will be using. My ds is finishing CLE7 this year, and has benefited from the spiral nature of the program. He's a fairly strong student, but a bit careless at times. I have several options available: 2x a week using Larson (McDougal Littell) at local tutorial 2x a week using Lial's online tutor 1x a week (but for 1.5/2 hours) local tutor I believe all of these tutors are great--I'm just wondering about the material itself and which would be the better fit. We've never used Saxon at all, and I've heard it can be difficult to start at Alg. 1. But maybe with the right teacher? Thanks so much for your thoughts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 No experience with the others, other than McDougal Littell for geometry, but if you want to go with Saxon, you don't have to start with Algebra 1. You could do 8/7 in 8th. With geometry being incorporated into Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and the first half of Advanced Math, there's still plenty of time in high school to complete pre-calculus or even calculus. If you are interested, there's an online placement test you can give your son to have an idea of whether he'd be ready for algebra 1 or would need more work in pre-algebra. The McDougal Littell geometry text was great in content and providing varying levels of difficulty in the problem sets. The solutions manual is more like an answer key, so a tutor would be great for going over the formal proofs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Dd is currently using Lials, and it's probably the favorite Algebra 1 I've seen. I don't have experience with McDougal, though. I also currently tutor a student for Pre-Algebra, meeting once a week for 1.5 hours. Will you be doing any of the teaching, or will it all come from these sessions with the tutors? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssexton Posted March 6, 2012 Author Share Posted March 6, 2012 Will you be doing any of the teaching, or will it all come from these sessions with the tutors? Well, it would have to come from the tutors. In order for me to help, I'd have to relearn it with my son. That would be possible with algebra, but not much higher, I'm afraid. Math is not my area of expertise, so I'd like for him to learn from someone who is an expert, and concentrate my teaching in areas I'm more comfortable. I have looked at Saxon, and it does not make sense to me at all. I don't think I'd be much help with that one, but I could supplement with Saxon Teacher or Dive. I don't know much about the other programs. Thanks!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Well, it would have to come from the tutors. In order for me to help, I'd have to relearn it with my son. That would be possible with algebra, but not much higher, I'm afraid. Math is not my area of expertise, so I'd like for him to learn from someone who is an expert, and concentrate my teaching in areas I'm more comfortable. I have looked at Saxon, and it does not make sense to me at all. I don't think I'd be much help with that one, but I could supplement with Saxon Teacher or Dive. I don't know much about the other programs. Thanks!! If I were you, I would probably go for more times a week. The problem I've seen with my tutoring situation is that I present all the weeks material, then he has to do it at home on his own. He takes notes and does some problems, but it's difficult to see all 5 concepts presented in one day and remember all the teaching that was presented days later. My student would do much better to have a little shorter sessions, two days a week. I'm just not sure I can commit to 2 days at this point. I'm currently recommending that they consider a program like Teaching Textbooks where he would have a lesson presented daily, then my job would be to help him with things he didn't understand on his own. My student is not a super, strong student, okay, but not really strong. The thing I like better about Lials than most Algebra texts I've seen is that Lials has very good examples that are very thorough in explanation. IMHO, most texts are written for a classroom situation and don't have enough explanation or examples for a student to be using on their own. Why don't you purchase a Lials' text or borrow one, then look at the McDougal text at the local tutorial location? You could compare the explanations and see which you think does the most thorough job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssexton Posted March 6, 2012 Author Share Posted March 6, 2012 Amy and Teachin'mine--thanks so much for your thoughts! I especially appreciate the point about the shorter, more frequent tutoring periods. That makes a lot of sense! Sounds like both Lial's and ML would be good programs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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