Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1

[Peela]

I have the opportunity to buy TT Algebra1 (also Geometry but I doubt I would get that yet) 2nd hand (not a bargain, but things are not cheap down here) so I am considering it.

Both my kids are using an Australian program and are working on grade level. My dd14 however is beginning to reach the edge of where i can help her with maths. I am amazed at how hard it is, since I did well in maths at school- this is beyond what I ever did.

My son has LDs and maths is not easy for him. He makes progress, he keeps going, he gets it, but its not easy or fast for him. Maybe TT would help, I am not sure.

 

My question revolves around timing, mainly. With the programs they are using, which i am not sure either will be able to continue with, I am choosing about half of the practice sums (which is what the private schools who use this textbook do, I am told) so that we can keep maths within an hour or so a day, and hopefully finish the textbook. This works well for our newish CM approach of not letting the lessons get too long, or allowing maths to take up a disproportionate part of the day. Neither are mathy/sciency people but this approach helps everyone not get bogged down.

 

So i am wondering how long a TT lesson takes, and if its ok to skip some of the practice sums if the child is understanding it. Or, like Saxon, is the program set up to make sure the child does every single bit. In other words, will it take well over an hour, and if so, would it be possible, and still do the progam effectively, to trim each lesson back a bit?

 

I hope I have made myself clear. I am just weighing up whether it will work for us before handing over rather a lot of money.

[Peela]

OK, rewording- how long does a TT Algebra lesson take YOUR child?

thanks

[rwalizer]

but that's a little young for algebra 1 if you look at the public schools standards so I didn't worry if we didn't finish the book by the end of the school year. I let him take his time even if it meant taking two days to finish a lesson.

[Big Buckin' Longhorn]

It took my son between an hour to an hour and a half to do each lesson. That included viewing the cd lecture, going over all of the practice problems together, completing the problem set as well correcting any mistakes. I will say it occasionally took 2 hours if he missed a lot as I made a point of him redoing every problem even if he just found a little arithmetic error in it. I did this in the hopes that he would be more careful next time and not make the same silly mistakes.

 

If I remember correctly, each problem set had about 24 problems. If we were short on time, I'd pick out 12 problems for him to do that were relevant to that particular lesson as opposed to letting him do all the evens or all he odds because there is a lot of review built into the problem sets. I would suggest that as opposed to skipping lessons since the nature of the curriculum is to "build on itself" and I was afraid if we skipped lessons, he'd miss something.

 

Of course, do whatever works for you in your house :D, that was just our experience.