housemouse Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Ds will be finishing pre-algebra in a few months but he is not way ready for algebra 1. Keeping in mind also that he is only 11. What do I do for those 6 months to a year before he will be starting Algebra sometime next year?Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwi mum Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 It depends what makes you think he is not ready for Algebra now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 We're in a holding pattern before a straight algebra 1 course too. As our main book, we've been using SYRWL Maths 2 and now 3. We've also done some Singapore CWP and Zaccaro Real World Algebra and Become a problem solving genius. If you feel he needs more arithmetic work, I'd use MM for specific areas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Why isn't he ready for algebra? Lack of problem-solving skills? Lack of stamina for longer problems? Lack of pre-algebra skills? Recommendations will vary depending on reasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
housemouse Posted January 25, 2014 Author Share Posted January 25, 2014 To start with, we are doing math at half speed which means it would have take us little over a year and a half to do year of Prea-Aglebra by the time we afe finished. Even with doing half the lesson a day, ds still takes 1-2 hours to get it done. Some days he daydreams, but others it is just the material itself that he has to think and get it done and it is a slow progress. Then, there is the fact that he tends to do silly mistakes like not paying attention to directions, or assuming that the next problem will have instructions same as previous and do it wrong; not paying attention to his positive and negative signs and solving wrong. Of course, he haas to redo them just on the account that those are careless mistakes since I know that he knows how to do it. I am assuming this is just the age thing and he just needs to grow into it. I don't want to rush into Algebra 1 and then taking 3 years to do it just because we has to break the lessons into half, or thirrds and taking 2 hours every single day just for math. At that rate he will learn to dread and hate math very fast instead of liking it as he does now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 If he successfully completes prealgebra, there is no reason he wouldn't be ready to start algebra 1. Indeed, if he continues to need time to think (not always a bad thing if you are using resources of significant depth! *though I would keep an eye on whether there might be some other issue at work*), it is reasonable that a younger student might need more time to complete alg 1 and it may be wise to take advantage of the extra time that he may have. You wouldn't want to put off algebra 1 until later and then find that he needs more time and there isn't enough. Also note that putting him in a holding pattern for no real academic reason IMO would be much more likely to result in him dreading and hating math than moving on to new topics. Likewise, boring material can increase the careless mistakes (careless mistakes are typical for this age-group as it is). One tip I have seen here is to write the negative signs in a red or other colored pencil so that they are not missed. If you are looking for a challenging but interesting prealgebra program with lots of depth and a unique problem-solving perspective, without the tedium of a traditional program, you might look at AoPS, but if his prealgebra program already has a good amount of depth (I don't know BJU) I'd move on to algebra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 You might look into Key to Algebra as another pre-algebra. It covers a fair amount of an algebra 1 course, but not in sufficient depth, so you'd still need to do an algebra 1 afterwards, but it could be useful as a preview and for maturity issues. If you chose this I'd do once-a-week arithmetic review with fractions etc. as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Did you use the old edition pre-algebra or the new edition? If you used the old edition, then I'd simply repeat with the new edition, which will have more challenging problems in the Dominion Math, etc. etc. If he did the new (current) edition with the yellow shell cover, then I would continue on into the new edition algebra 1 and be done with it. The things you're talking about are developmental and not a reason to wait. They could have totally different explanations you're not expecting that waiting wouldn't solve. For instance, my very bright child who is a very slow worker turned out to have unusually low processing speed (like almost 60% lower than her IQ) when I got her eval'd. Also, if you're doing the new edition BJU with a young dc, the fact is it IS going to take him a long time. That's NORMAL with the BJU math. They bumped the levels. Remember in a cs they're using those on grade level, with older kids. So if the BJU pre-algebra is targeted at 8th graders, those are kids who are 13 turning 14. You did it with someone who was 10/11. The math takes longer at this stage anyway. I suggest you find ways to support his weaknesses and allow him to continue forward. If the issue is messiness causing errors, give him graph paper or turn the paper vertically. For attention, try doing the math alongside him and comparing your answers. He may turn out to be faster than you, lol. I did math together with my dd for YEARS using a whiteboard. Get two lapboards of nice size (we like 17X24 from Board Dudes, enamel on steel so it erases well) and big odor free markers in great colors. He may also be wearing out during the math. You might notice him starting out fresh and fatiguing. This would be a good time to start letting him use a calculator, frankly. I did with my dd about that stage, and it was really good for us. It does the computation for her so she doesn't wear out while doing all that thinking. Someone can be exceptionally bright but have low processing speed. This means they're working way harder than a NT (neurotypical) person to do the same work. It doesn't mean they shouldn't do it, just that they're working a lot harder. Since he's clearly bright and enjoys it so much, I would consider accommodations and perhaps evals, frankly. A psych/neuropsychologist could get to the bottom of why the work is taking so long and give you good recommendations. Just something to consider. You're right at the stage we were when we got our evals. I made a video of dd doing her math and told the psych he better explain what was doing on by the end of the testing! :lol: Turned out in her case she had very low processing speed and very poor word recall. She'll get accommodations all the way through college because of it, so I'm very glad we did the testing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 If you are looking for a challenging but interesting prealgebra program with lots of depth and a unique problem-solving perspective, without the tedium of a traditional program, you might look at AoPS, but if his prealgebra program already has a good amount of depth (I don't know BJU) I'd move on to algebra. Depends on whether she did old edition or new edition on the BJU. Old edition was fine, but the new edition is radically bumped up. My friend likes to explain it that they bumped all the math an entire grade level. It's definitely one of the better maths out there right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 If he successfully completes prealgebra, there is no reason he wouldn't be ready to start algebra 1. Indeed, if he continues to need time to think (not always a bad thing if you are using resources of significant depth! *though I would keep an eye on whether there might be some other issue at work*), it is reasonable that a younger student might need more time to complete alg 1 and it may be wise to take advantage of the extra time that he may have. You wouldn't want to put off algebra 1 until later and then find that he needs more time and there isn't enough. Also note that putting him in a holding pattern for no real academic reason IMO would be much more likely to result in him dreading and hating math than moving on to new topics. Likewise, boring material can increase the careless mistakes (careless mistakes are typical for this age-group as it is). I don't think that a holding pattern needs to involve dread or boredom or avoiding new topics. My 11 yr old has been digging deeper, developing resilience for solving tricky word problems and learning lots of algebra and geometry and probability and statistics, just not in the context of the Algebra 1 course that is standard here in the US. I think if your child is learning and thriving and is neither frustrated nor bored, it doesn't matter whether you call your math "Pre-Algebra" or "Pre-Algebra II" or "Algebra 1" or "Integrated Math 7" or "The Return of Pre-Algebra!" It's all good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
housemouse Posted January 27, 2014 Author Share Posted January 27, 2014 Thank you ladies for the ideas and advice. We are going through the new edition(yellow cover) of BJU Pre-Algebra. I will probably just slow him down a bit so there is no more than 45-60 minutes of math in one sitting and do some fun math like Life of Fred or similar in between and just keep going until it is done and when we are done, we'll just move on to algebra 1 and call it that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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