Could an average MUS student switch to TT or Kinetic books for Algebra 2?

[lots-o-rice]

My son is an average math student.  He is not a genius, but he does OK.  I have been looking into some other math programs --you know homeschool mom ADD :)  I think he could use something a little more challenging, with good explanations.

 I am impressed by the explanations in Teaching Textbooks-lots of hand holding, also I like the online instant grading of Kinetic books.

My question is --Are either of these math programs too much of a jump from MUS?  or could a kid probably figure it out to catch up?  

 

Thanks,

K

[Farmgirl70]

We used kinetic books for Algebra 2 the first time around.  For our family, it moved too fast with too little reinforcement.  It was not a successful math year for us (I had two students use it). Teaching Textbooks has been a winner--lots of reinforcement and there is a record keeper with the program.  I really like it!

[Corraleno]

I've tried both TT and KB, and I found Kinetic Books to be more rigorous and faster paced than TT.  KB also assumes more knowledge on the part of the student, and therefore doesn't reteach or reexplain concepts that the student is assumed to have learned previously. IMO, Kinetic Books would be a bigger jump from MUS than TT would. I don't think most students would have any trouble going from MUS to TT. As for automatic online grading, both programs have that. 

 

ETA: If this is for your 9th grader, who would be starting with Algebra 2, I would not try to jump into KB Alg 2 after having only done MUS Alg 1. I think there would be a large gap there. TT Alg 2 includes a lot of review of Alg 1, so that would be less of an issue. If you switch to TT for your 2nd son as well, I would definitely do it after MUS Prealgebra.

[Mom22ns]

I would say yes. Both my kids who are not stellar math students switched out of MUS, one during Algebra 1 and one after Algebra 1. Neither had any trouble going to a more challenging program (Lial's) and I don't actually consider TT a more challenging program.

 

There may be some issue if KB assumes a lot of knowledge. Lial's really re-teaches most of Algebra in the first section of each unit before going onto new material, so it was easy to catch up any weaknesses.