Tess in the Burbs Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 I read all the Pre-Alg threads and ended up trying the Derek Owens Pre-Alg program. We didn't do the online class but bought the program outright. It came with a DVD of solutions and syllabus. DS watches the videos online through the Lucid Education site. He has practice problems and homework problems. It has quizzes, exams, extra exams. But the point is....my math hating kid is enjoying math now and letting him choose and go into this at his speed was a good choice. He admits it's been super easy, but he needed the confidence boost and I like how he wants to do math now. Today he asked to do the videos alone and is now working on the practice. AWESOME! We intend to continue with this program unless issues come up later. The Algebra and up classes are online, but if I understand it correctly he basically watches the videos online at his pace and emails homework to Mr Owens and it will be completely off me at that point, whoohoo! I am just happy someone here mentioned this program for a kid who can do the math but needed a less intense pre-alg program at the 6th grade level. thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TarynB Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 Hooray! That's great! So glad to hear your DS is enjoying it. Derek Owens pre-algebra is on my short-list for what to have my DS do next. My DS is trying out another program that uses video instruction, which seems to be a solid curriculum, but he gets frustrated with the amount and type of review in each lesson, so I'm looking at other options as well. How much and what type of review is built in to the Derek Owens program? TIA! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy in TN Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 We just finished our second week of Derek Owens Alg2 and so far my ds is also very happy. :) Mandy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yvonne Posted September 13, 2013 Share Posted September 13, 2013 My boys just finished their second week of Algebra I with Derek Owens. They and are happy, too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tess in the Burbs Posted September 14, 2013 Author Share Posted September 14, 2013 Review....we are too early on to comment on it. The topics are review from earlier math he has had. The practice problems are from that day's lesson but the homework has been too. It's not like Saxon with tons of review if that is what you mean. I can comment later on about review in the program.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TarynB Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 Review....we are too early on to comment on it. The topics are review from earlier math he has had. The practice problems are from that day's lesson but the homework has been too. It's not like Saxon with tons of review if that is what you mean. I can comment later on about review in the program.... Please do! I'd appreciate hearing more. The program we're testing out right now has review that might be similar to Saxon's spiral format, I don't know. For example, the assignment for Lesson 45 has, say, eight problems from the current lesson, plus five problems from Lesson 44, and three problems from Lesson 43, and so on, typically going back three or four lessons. So it is constantly rotating through a spiral review, but never backwards more than three or four lessons, if that makes sense. There are a total of around 25 problems per assignment. The review doesn't appear to ever go back into previous chapters or anything too far back though. The review was driving DS batty, so I've been tweaking the assignments to cover the current lesson and only one lesson back. However, the tweaking is getting kinda tiresome. :coolgleamA: (I don't recall this program being specifically marketed as having this review feature, so I'm glad we're just trying it out. If the video instruction didn't seem solid, we'd have dropped it already.) So it sounds like the assignments/review in Derek Owen's program must be quite different from that, I'm guessing, or you would have already mentioned it . . . ? Anyway, I'm looking forward to learning more about how Derek Owen's program works. And glad to hear your DS likes it! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vida Winter Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 High praise for Derek Owens here -- dd did alg2 and precalc with him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dassah Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 We just finished lesson 2.9 of Pre-Algebra. Dd loves Derek Owens' lectures and notes. We did have a rough spot from 2.7-2.9 and have had to slow way down and really understand what is being taught. I think a lot of it was just slowing down in general and learning to write everything out when substituting letters for numbers in algebraic equations. My only concern at this point is the lack of any systematic review outside of unit tests. Because dd is so young, I worry that we need to be doing more review work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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