AimeeM Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 DD11 will be doing Algebra 1 in the fall. I have no qualms about moving her into Algebra, but I *am* having a difficult time deciding between TT Algebra and Jacob's. Care to help? Lol! She is mathy and a science gal. She will be a very young 7th grader in the fall (she turns 12 at the beginning of the school year). She is dyslexic. She needs a good amount of review, but not a TON. I like the idea of "outsourcing" math to Teaching Textbooks, even though I know it isn't a popular choice for math bent children. Her and I butt heads often over this subject; not because she doesn't understand it, but because she approaches problems correctly, but entirely different than I do (besides, I'm a literature kind of gal and I know it annoys her that I have to look back in the book for help explaining things to her, lol). I think she would enjoy Jacob's more (she isn't a huge fan of video based curriculum), BUT I worry about how teacher intensive it might be and this isn't a subject I care to bump heads over, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngieW in Texas Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 For a mathy kid, Jacobs would not be very teacher-intensive, but I'd like to offer a 3rd choice for you. Kinetic Books is computer-based like TT, but it's a very solid, rigorous program. It has introductory videos for each lesson and most of the problems offer immediate feedback with stepped help. It is a fantastic program for an independent, mathy kid to use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted February 19, 2013 Author Share Posted February 19, 2013 For a mathy kid, Jacobs would not be very teacher-intensive, but I'd like to offer a 3rd choice for you. Kinetic Books is computer-based like TT, but it's a very solid, rigorous program. It has introductory videos for each lesson and most of the problems offer immediate feedback with stepped help. It is a fantastic program for an independent, mathy kid to use. It *was* on my list, but I had discarded it after reading how "un homeschool friendly" it seemed to be. Have you had a different experience? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngieW in Texas Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 I have only used it for Algebra I and Algebra II and they have been bought out by another company since then. As long as an answer key is enough for you, you shouldn't have any problems with Kinetic Books. If you need a solution manual, then KB is going to be an issue because they don't offer solutions for hsers. You have an answer key only for the odd end-of-unit problems that are to be completed with paper and pencil, but the odds are more than enough to assign, so I never saw an issue with that. There are MANY immediate feedback problems that have stepped help and the ones that don't generally allow more than one attempt. Out of all the different math programs my two older girls have used in middle school/high school, they thought KB had the best instruction. Between the two of them, they used Jacobs, Larson's, Lial's, and Thinkwell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dereksurfs Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 If she would like Jacobs more then why not give it a shot? The book is pretty inexpensive and you could always supplement with online lectures from Khan or other sources - see below. I wouldn't limit it to 'only' TT or Jacobs as you and she may discover that a combination of things works best. My wife is in the same boat during the day. She wants to outsource Algebra 1 and beyond. I usally help answer questions after work. But still its nice to have the detailed lessons covered and also to have support when needed. One worth mentioning which is very homeschool friendly is TabletClass. My son uses it this year for Pre-A along with Khan and AoPS as supplemental. You could use their vary straight forward Algebra 1 lessons along with the Jacobs text. Here is a demo page to check out if interested: http://www.tabletcla...efaultdemo.aspx Also here is a series specifically designed for the Jacobs text by Dr. Callahan: http://www.askdrcall...iculum/Algebra/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted February 19, 2013 Author Share Posted February 19, 2013 If she would like Jacobs more then why not give it a shot? The books is pretty inexpensive and you could always supplement with online lectures from Khan or other sources - see below. I wouldn't limit it to 'only' TT or Jacobs as you and she may discover that a combination of things works best. My wife is in the same boat during the day. She wants to outsource Algebra 1 and beyond. I usally help answer questions after work. But still its nice to have the detailed lessons covered and also to have support when needed. One worth mentioning which is very homeschool friendly is TabletClass. My son uses it this year for Pre-A along with Khan and AoPS as supplemental. You could use their vary straight forward Algebra 1 lessons along with the Jacobs text. Here is a demo page to check out if interested: http://www.tabletcla...efaultdemo.aspx Also here is a series specifically designed for the Jacobs text by Dr. Callahan: http://www.askdrcall...iculum/Algebra/ How much review is incorporated in the TabletClass course? Is review incorporated into the sets or does the student have to find what they need to review and go back to it on their own? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dereksurfs Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 How much review is incorporated in the TabletClass course? Is review incorporated into the sets or does the student have to find what they need to review and go back to it on their own? Aimee, TabletClass's lessons build upon each other as most algebraic concepts do. So the way I look at it is review is built-in every time he gets to the next level. For example my son is currently doing polynomials. But way back in the beginning he was learning about single and multi-step equations. So as he progresses he continues to use the same concepts learned earlier and thru this use it acts as review. Also at the end of every chapter there are review notes and extra practice problems to review the concepts before they take the chapter test. I find the chapter tests to be great tools for evaluating retention and understanding of concepts. If more were missed in a particular area we go back and review over those concepts. And if something is especially tricky we slow down and also supplement with Khan and AoPS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted February 19, 2013 Author Share Posted February 19, 2013 Aimee, TabletClass's lessons build upon each other as most algebraic concepts do. So the way I look at is review is built-in every time he gets to the next level. For example my son is currently doing polynomials. But way back in the beginning he was learning about single and multi-step equations. So as he progresses he continues to use the same concepts learned earlier and thru this use it acts as review. Also at the end of every chapter there are review notes note and extra practice problems to review the concepts before they take the chapter test. I find the chapter tests to be great tools for evaluating retension and understanding. If more were missed in a particular area we go back and review over those concepts. And if something is especially tricky we slow down also supplement with Khan and AoPS. I just took a look at it the sample chapters and it looks great. Thanks for reminding me about it (I'd heard about it some time ago but it slipped my mind entirely, lol). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trish Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 We are currently using Jacobs and Thinkwell. Jacobs has been pretty independent, I just follow up with him if he's having trouble with something. (The solutions manual is necessary, back of the book doesn't have all the answers.) Jacobs starts with several chapters of pre-algebra review. It does have some review incorporated as it goes along, that is the first (shorter) set of Problems. Then we do either problem set II or III, which are pretty similar. We started the year using Kinetic Books as a supplement. (it took him longer to do the Jacobs problems than the KB problems) KB seemes very solid -- you have to be careful to answer the problems in the format they're expecting. If you say X = 2 when they were looking for "2" you'll get the problem wrong. My son found this very irritating. As time went on he felt the presentations were going on too long, as far as getting to the point of the problem -- he had it solved, and the guy was still setting up the problem with his magic marker board. For the second half of the year he asked if he could return to Thinkwell as his video supplement. It was on sale at Homeschool Buyers Co-op, so I said okay. Prof. Burger from Thinkwell is pretty speedy getting to the point, and he's funny too. In both cases, Jacobs takes him about twice as long as either Kinetic Books or Thinkwell. And we do Life of Fred Algebra on Fridays instead of the above. Haha! And he isn't a mathy kid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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