How do you use Alcumus?

[redsquirrel]

do you have your student do a certain number of problems a day or week? Or is it a time based thing?

 

Oh, and lets assume that this student isn't the sort who would spend time there willingly. :lol:

 

He is finishing up SM 6b. Is it too soon?

[Julie of KY]

You can either set it to choose random problems from any math area or just set it for prealgebra. You can tell it to follow the prealgebra book or do random topics. As more problems are done correctly it will progress in difficulty. Some of how you set it up may depend on the personality of your child.

 

I have shown my son how to turn on and off different subjects so he can vary it however he feels like. I tend to say go do some alcumus and then trust that whatever time was well spent. I would not usually say do a certain amount of problems as some take much more time than others. Also, my son doesn't like to get the problems wrong. If he's really stuck rather than skip a problem, he likes to go look it up or ask me for help.

 

I'm about to start a second son on alcumus and I'm sure he'll approach it very differently.

[redsquirrel]

thank you. I went and set it to pre-algebra.

[Julie of KY]

Another thing to keep in mind - sometimes your child progresses to where alcumus is just hard and they need a break to let their brain mature or learn more material. You may be learning enough to keep up with alcumus or using the videos to supplement, but some kids will progress faster than they can keep up with in the textbook.

 

Have fun, but listen to your child. If he starts resisting, is it just that he doesn't want to do any math or is it getting too hard?