TabletClass or Lial's prealgebra, can someone compare??

[pjssully]

Hi,

These are my final options to pick from and wondering if someone can compare these.  Can people who have used one or even both give me their thoughts and reviews on these?  Note that we will be moving mid year-not sure when because it depends on our house selling.  So I need something relatively straight forward this year for the kids.  I am comfortable teaching this myself, with a book of course, but then thought maybe an online type of course would be helpful for me in the midst of a move.

 

Anyways, would love and responses from you wise ladies!!!!

 

Thanks

pam

[dereksurfs]

Hi Pam,

 

Not a lady but I have experience with both.  ;)

 

I actually started with Lial's after determining MUS Pre-A was not going to work for ds11 at the time.  After receiving the text and reviewing it, my wife and I both determined that the format was way too busy and visually distracting.  This seemed like needless fluff which both bloats the text with too many pages and forces the actual text to be cramped and too small on the pages..  These texts are written more toward college level remedial students rather than younger homeschool students.  Overall we felt we could do better and decided to keep looking.  Lial's can be found very affordably on the used market, BTW.  So you could review it and decide for yourself.

 

After reviewing quite a few more options including Dolciani, which is a much better math text than Lials IMO, we decided upon TabletClass.  Derek Owens was a close second choice.  I've written a lot about why we like TC on here.  So I won't go into too lengthy a description since you can look at those as well.  But I will say that it exceeded our expectations and therefore we are continuing to use it even as a follow-up to AoPS Intro to Algebra.  We actually wanted a fuller package than just a textbook and my son liked the online lessons. 

 

If you and your dc like Lials it can still work as I know it has others.  There is no one program which fits everyone.  Much of it depends on what you are looking for and which features and format suit your child's needs best.