BZmom Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 My ds is 12 and is ready for algebra. We did NEM 1 last year. He did not like it. So, this Fall, I am checking out Art of Solving Problem, Jacobs Algebra and Dolciani Algebra. Would anyone give me some advices please? thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoggirl Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 We use Chalkdust for Algebra, but lots of folks like both Jacobs and Dolciani. You might check out posts on the High School board. Are you talking about using The Art of Problem Solving Algebra text? I had forgotten that they had this. We have used their books some, but not their textbooks. Their other books (number theory, probability, etc.) are designed as supplements. Not sure I remember reading about The Art of Problem Solving algebra specifically. I would suggest asking on the high school board as well as here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharon in MD Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Our Ds is strong in math, somewhat accelerated, but not incredibly so. I slowed him down to put him in AL I at the 8th grade point because I felt that his cognitive ability was outpacing his computational skills. Anyway, Jacobs is very self-explanatory and easy to use. Don't let the fact that it doesn't have a solutions guide through you off....the answer key is truly sufficient. We never ran into anything that I couldn't handle with just looking at the answer key, examples and ds's work to see where he had gone off track. The cartoons and funny, punny problems make Jacobs really fun, IMO. Our ds used Jacobs for Al I and geometry, then moved into Foerster for Al II and Pre-calc/trig. Now we are headed to Chalkdust for Calculus because I need the tutorial support. Pre-calc took all I had...so I need some pro-backup. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 My son has done well with Jacobs. We have about a quarter of the book to go. We dabbled with VideoText for a while (which didn't work for my son) and when we returned to Jacobs it was like a breath of fresh air. I haven't seen to the other books you mentioned, though I know Dolciani is well regarded here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Bay Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 Dd found Jacobs very, very boring when she was 11. We've tried a few. She did fine with Lial's, but now that we've tried the 1965 & 1975 Dolciani, she likes that and is doing that for a review this summer because she hates math & I gave her 2 years for Alg 1. She also likes Gelfand's, but didn't have the patience for the long problems until she turned 13, so she's doing that, too, because she likes reading his proofs, the theory, etc. The high school forum has a number of good threads about Algebra, and you could search it using the names you've mentioned to find threads on these. There are a couple of college math major parents that comment there, too, & also Myrtle, with no degree in it, but with a lot if good insight into teaching math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BZmom Posted July 26, 2008 Author Share Posted July 26, 2008 I found a copy of the 1979 Dociani algebra method & structure. is this ok? or have to be the earlier edition? i will try to look at some sample pages of the Gelfand algebra, too. Should i use both Jacobs and Dociani together? sorry about all these questions. thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Bay Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 I found a copy of the 1979 Dociani algebra method & structure. is this ok? or have to be the earlier edition? i will try to look at some sample pages of the Gelfand algebra, too. Should i use both Jacobs and Dociani together? sorry about all these questions. thanks in advance. I haven't seen the 1979 edition of Dolciani, so can't say. It's probably better than the newer ones. I would only add the Jacobs if you think you'll need extra practise or that it might help to read it written by someone else. Our favourite combination is the Dolciani with the Gelfand's. fwiw, we now have 5 methods here for Algebra 1, although I did sell our used Jacob's. This way if any of my other dc don't understand something one way, they can read the other texts. I should add that although dd loathes math, she's mathy, so the Gelfand's is fun because of the theory. I think understanding that is very important. As for dd, her math loathing is something I've never understood. I could understand it if math were really tough for her, but it's not. Nor is it related to any method. However, she doesn't hate it nearly as much with Gelfand's or Dolciani and sometimes, although she'd never admit it, she seems to enjoy herself with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmchr6 Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 Does your son like math? If he's got a bad taste in his math about math, he may not like any of those! And if he does like math what did he NOT like about NEM? Art of Problem Solving is for kids who like math and like to think. My son has really enjoyed this series (he's completed 2 and 1/2). Jacob's algebra is supposed to appeal much more to kids who are right brained learners, especially if they've hated Saxon. I was going to try this with my son but we went with the art of problem solving instead. Dolciani - never even heard of this one! One book my son loved at age 12 was real world algebra from http://www.challengemath.com. That's a great beginning algebra book to help you understand the concepts. He also did the algebra book from Making Math Meaningful (at 12) which he liked too, but I have to say there were quite a few errors in that book. It's self-directed and he could understand most all of it on his own. Life of Fred looks like a great book too for kids who are hating doing tons of workbooks. I'm trying that with my 12 yo dd this year. I will probably get the one for my son's level too, since he'll read it for fun, lol! The nice thing is he's still young, so he can have fun with all these great books. Rather than just pushing him through all the math levels he can spend the time to understand it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BZmom Posted July 28, 2008 Author Share Posted July 28, 2008 Thanks for all the feedbacks. my son is good with math and said he does not like any school work. he just like swimming and scouting...however, he does very well with most of his school work and scored very high percentile in all major subject areas..go figure... I will get all the books i can in algebra, art of problem solving, challenged math...and see what works... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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