Oh, no! Are the later Foerster texts less good than his Alg 1? Other recommendations?

[g1234]

In the recent thread "Which Calculus books have good explanations?", two people had significant criticism of Foerster's post-Algebra 1 math books.

 

I find this devastating: my daughter had the best year ever using Foerster's Alg 1 text, so I had assumed we would just cruise through the rest of them until she graduates.  (This year, 9th grade, she's taking a break to do geometry.)  I was starting to think about getting a jump on ordering his Alg 2/trig so I could start refreshing myself.

 

Now I am wondering if I should throw our plans up in the air again.  Can anyone else weigh in with what you thought of any of his post-Alg 1 texts?

 

And, I suppose I should ask at the same time, what other texts have worked well for you post-Alg 1?  This is for a kid who is not afraid of math and does fine with it (though it's not a passion or anything), and who prefers to self-study from a text, not video. 

[8filltheheart]

We really like his alg 2/trig book. (So far 5 of my kids hsve completed it.) I can't teach precal up. Kathy tutored my dd who used his precal book. I tried at one pt, but it was definitely too hard for me to be successful.

[merry gardens]

We're using Foerster's Algebra II/Trig book and find it's fine. We haven't used the Calculus book yet.

[MorningGlory]

Hi! :-)

 

I used Foerster's Alg/Trig text with my older son. In some aspects, this text is fantastic. The wealth of application problems is amazing; I love how he covers so many different fields of study in his word problems (everything from finance to science to surveys/polls). The book is worth purchasing (used) just for the word problems. 

 

Having said that, I did find that *some* areas of the text lacked complete instruction. It almost seemed as if Foerster added in those sections at the last minute and didn't have time to properly develop them. (OR...maybe the sections were heavily edited by someone other than Foerster). Because of the weak instruction in those sections, there is a "disconnect" between the instruction and the problem-solving sets. But this is just for some sections of the text. Most of the text has thorough, interesting, and well-developed instruction.

 

I worked through the whole text with my son...doing the problems as he did them. He would agree with my assessment. We had to turn to Khan Academy and Google to help us learn (relearn) some of the topics. But again...this is not the whole text. 

 

Honestly, I wouldn't give up on using this text (in your situation). It seems your daughter is a very strong learner with a good bit of intrinsic motivation. :-) I think the two of you would do just fine with the Foerster text. If you have to do a bit of Khan every now and then, so be it.  I will also say that this text was EXCELLENT preparation for my son for the PSAT/ACT. :-) 

 

HTH! Jetta

[MarkT]

I agree with using multiple sources that's what I do with my after-schooling. I bought a used Foerster Alg 2/Trig based on reviews here and using it for the problem sets.

[Gratia271]

Oldest DD used it through Precalc.  She really enjoyed Foerster's approach.  We switched to another author for Calc BC this year because she is taking the course online.

[g1234]

Thank you, thank you, everyone!  This is such a relief.  It sounds like for certain kids, this can be a good option, at least for next year, as long as I watch for areas that may need supplemental explanations.  Yet again the lesson is repeated: no curriculum is perfect for all kids, and many are good for some kids.