Soror Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 So help me I'll never figure out math for my son. Since Right Start stopped being a good fit I've yet to find anything that really suites him. He likes BA ok but it does not suite him to use it all the time, he gets weary of the approach and sometimes wants easier. I'd really prefer some spiral and had him doing Horizons for review along with BA then I went to straight Horizons but the thing is it seems to move too slow and it takes too long to get through it to find what he really needs to work on (for him and me). Review is good for him but not that much. I've tried MM a few times but it doesn't seem to work well for him and the setup annoys me to be honest, I'd rather not have to sort through so many stinking books. I happen to have Lial's BCM here and I was looking through it today out of desperation and I was thinking it might actually be a good fit He generally gets concepts fairly easily but has to work for fluency and speed- due to memory, EF and attention issues. As of now he would say he doesn't like math and isn't good at it, however when he was tested last year he did exceptionally well, I think working at it with BA has given him this impression that he is not good at it. I've also considered Jacobs as from what I've read it would suite him well but I don't have a copy on hand to preview. I considered the Keys Books but it seems they are considered too procedural. No one around here seems to have anything except Saxon, Abeka and similar so unless I buy everything I'm kind of stuck trying to figure it out and I'd rather not spend so much money, so if anyone has suggestions I'm all ears. Past math: All of RS Levels B-D, A good chunk of E, all of BA3, BA4A and 1 Chapter into 4B, Some of HoE, various games and living math work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 BCM is fine for finishing elementary math. Just be prepared to locate worksheets if something doesn't click fast enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted October 16, 2014 Author Share Posted October 16, 2014 kiana- Thanks for your input. Do you think BCM is my best option considering what I'm looking for or is there something else out there that I don't know about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 The thing about BCM as opposed to a spiral arithmetic textbook is that it is topically oriented. For someone who's had a pretty decent grounding in elementary arithmetic but has skipped around a bit, it's a decent text to go through and look for holes. I don't think there is a specific best option but I think BCM is a good option, and since you have it I would use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 We've been in a similar boat. I have zero experience with BCM, so I don't know about that - I thought about looking at a basic college math to wrap up, but ended up just sticking with throwing things together. I do think the Key to books are basically fine. They are very procedural, but when you're using resources on the side that have more challenge to them, then I think they're okay. I just made a list of everything ds needs to cover before starting pre-algebra and have been using a variety of stuff including the Key to books, a little more Beast Academy, some of the NCERT books, worksheets from Pizzazz Math, some MEP, and me just teaching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted October 16, 2014 Author Share Posted October 16, 2014 Farrar those sheets from Pizazz look fun, ds would really like those, they remind me of the I Hate Math book that he just loves. What levels are you using and how? It looks like they are out of print, do you just print them from online? I also checked out the NCERT math because I seen you mention it but I'm not sure if I found what you were talking about or not. I had briefly tried to go through the Horizons just to pull out the areas he needed but with the way it is formatted it was a nightmare to do so I gave up. I'm looking more through BCM now, I really don't know. I like parts as it seems to really break the work down however it seems to just give the procedure without the why for some of the work and I don't know how offputting the examples will be to him as their aimed at being relevant to young adults. I love the idea of having one book and knowing that it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 The Pizzazz Math is cute. I've just been using various ones depending on what we're doing. Mostly from the fractions and decimals and ratios and statistics books. There's no teaching in them, obviously, and annoyingly I've found a couple of odd errors, but they're cute and ds likes the puzzles and I can do the teaching and then use them as the practice. I've been pulling chapters from the NCERT 6th grade book. You can see all the NCERT books here: http://ncertbooks.prashanthellina.com/ I had just intended to use the integers chapter, but we ended up starting with ratios because we were doing a project with ratios and I decided to delve into that and we really liked it. The format is nice. Talkative introduction with lots of examples followed by practice problems. I really appreciate when a math program has problems written in an incremental way that helps you discover things about the math - Beast is like that and Miquon was like that for us. These problems are also like that. A couple of the ones we worked the other day were really clever where if you were paying attention to the numbers and not just following the algorithm, you could do them in your head really quickly. But then that helped you see how the algorithm worked for the ones that didn't have such elegant solutions. It was neat. Also, there's something charming about Indian names and examples in rupees and marbles (I don't know why there are so many marble based examples, but there are). I'm enjoying jumping around with ds. His twin is using Math in Focus 5th grade and I have to admit that it's a chore for me to teach (what a dull program) whereas teaching my math jumper is much more fun. So having a single resource doesn't necessarily appeal to me anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted October 17, 2014 Author Share Posted October 17, 2014 Thanks for your thoughts, I went ahead and downloaded the NCERT 6th grade book. I'm so torn on what to do for math with ds. My organized self really likes the idea of having one book to go through and be done. However, I don't want him to go back to hating math again and I'd love to work more on his confidence and enjoyment, which although much improved are still not great. Maybe I just need to work on organizing myself and find resources that fit. I do love those Pizzazz sheets for practice, I know those will be a hit and considering the fact that although he really needs the practice but is loathe to do it they will be great resource. I looked closer at MHE and decided to go ahead and order it, I've thought for a long while that it would be something he would like and sampling MHE is much cheaper to try than the Jousting Armadillo series (which are supposed to be Jacob's inspired). I also looked at BCM more but the more I look the less I think it will fit him. I'm going to be looking at topics and then check out the resources I have to see how I can line it all up. I'm considering looking at MM again to fill in some areas, although I know this would have to be limited. I also need to look again at my own relaxed math thread for ideas. I also find it comforting that I'm not the only one not able to find a good program for this level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 For us it was Miquon ending, but it's frustrating to me that for both Miquon and Right Start there's nothing that's similar in terms of thinking outside the box math to fill in the gap before pre-algebra. I do have Jousting Armadillos on tap for us to start at the end of the year, but the TM is pricey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 MHE is a really great way to deepen mathematical thinking before algebra and I like it a lot, but I don't think it's going to really review arithmetic very much. If his arithmetic is already solid it'd be fine, and it'd definitely be a great supplement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted October 17, 2014 Author Share Posted October 17, 2014 kiana- my thought was to use selected bits from MHE interspersed with our other work. I don't plan on using it solely or all the way through, we need more work on some areas and more practice than others but he also needs some inspiration as well and that is the whole I'm hoping MHE fills. I thought we would be ok as RS has books going up to Algebra, the only problem was that he really started hating the approach as it changes through the levels. I was just searching through old posts and I found some from lewelma that were quite encouraging as she used a similar approach with her youngest son. It gave me some ideas on how to organize our work in a way to make sure we are progressing through new material, practicing past skills and developing problem solving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 It sounds like a great supplement for inspiration and interest. I wish my mother had had it when I was preparing for algebra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted October 18, 2014 Author Share Posted October 18, 2014 kiana- I think he is really going to like it and I've thought about it for a good while, so it is time to take the plunge. I'm feeling much better even though we're not going to be using Lial's, it does give me an idea of where we need to get. I printed up the Pizzazz A sheets as right now we are working on Division in BA, I cannot wait to show him these. He still needs to improve his speed with division and multiplication so these will be a great addition. Then while he is working on that I'll have some time to see what I want to use next. Purposely going from one program to another focusing on the topics we need to hit makes me feel more at ease as before I've felt a bit like I was trying to find a good fit but now instead we'll be looking for how to best program for each topic with whatever resource fits the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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