mmpmelmack Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Ds is dying to start Alegbra. He has spent the last week reading the Saxon Alg 1 and 2 Teachers manuals that I got for free. He even sat down and worked out some problems that he knew he could do from the Alg 2 book. Dh and I told him if he really wanted to we would let him start PreA now rather then wait to do SM stds. 5. In my head I know this is a not so great choice. but he is so excited to give this a try. I told him we could back up and do anything he needed in sm5. I have Dolcani PreA, BJU PreA, and AOPS is on the way. He is finishing up SM 4b this week, so SM 5 is also on the way. of all the choices he likes AOPS best, with Dolcani second. I looked through Dolcani, I am pretty sure he can do it. How terrible is it to skip SM 5? what pitfalls am I not seeing? If we take our time and back up as needed do you think it will work? He wants to do Dolcani till AOPS gets here, and then switch. thoughts? am I nuts for allowing this? is there a place where he might get stuck? I am thinking percentages maybe? he has worked with them a bit with his lego team but not alot 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 The prerequisites for AoPS Prealgebra include mastery of fractions/decimals and at least an intro to percents (I don't think mastery of percents is required). Negative numbers are another prerequisite though you could probably teach that yourself in a short time. (I'm not familiar enough with SM to know how much of fractions is covered in SM4 vs 5.) Unless he hasn't covered all operations with fractions, personally, in this situation, I would allow him to start. There's nothing like self-motivation. Strike while the iron is hot. If he doesn't have enough math under his belt, he'll probably be the one to ask to back up. I'd be ready to pipe in with the back-up offers as needed. If he can get through exponents in Dolciani first, that might smooth the path a bit, so I'd let him go ahead and start that book while you're waiting for AoPS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike in SA Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 There is no hard rule here. DS9 played around with number theory in first grade, so we let him do AOPS Prealgebra in second. He didn't back down from a single challenger, and is racing through algebra and geometry this year. He's getting plenty of practice in the arithmetic he skipped. If you think your child is ready, then why hold them back from something they love? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 For some kids it really works better to let them jump into the deep end and fill in the gaps as they go, rather than work for a gap-free education. I was one such. If he is chomping at the bit I would let him try. If he gets frustrated and needs to back off he will appreciate why he needs to fill in those holes more, and if he does not get frustrated clearly he did not need to fill them in. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slackermom Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 It doesn't take everyone the same amount of time to master elementary math concepts. Switching to a strong pre-algebra program in 4th grade was one of the best things we ever did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 My DD was at about that same point when she demanded to start Algebra NOW. We took a year and did LOF (Fractions, Decimals/Percents and both PA books that were out at the time) and Key to Algebra, plus some sections of SM 5A/B (lots of compacting and outright skipping). Since she was 7, it let her build some stamina and get used to copying over to a notebook and organizing her thoughts. We moved to AOPS PA the following year, and have stayed with AOPS since. I think, content-wise, she would have been OK in AOPS, but that the book structure would have been a bit of a jump from the cute, friendly looking SM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Honestly, I'd get him an algebra book and let him begin now. He is interested, willing and eager to try algebra. Don't buy into the hype that Algebra is difficult or scary or any of that nonsense. You both will eventually learn what he is missing and if you guide and monitor his progress then you will be able to fill in any holes as they materialize if he doesn't do it first himself. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlee Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 My 8 year old did elementary rote math with kumon series upto prealgebra1 along with mathantics, khan academy and whyu.org. Nowadays, schoolyourself.org and whyu.org seems to start clicking for him. AOPS hard problem is hard.. he gets rustrated at this age and not dealing frustraction very well. So we are doing singapore intensive practice instead from 3A and that seems working fine. Anyway, I definietly recommend whyu.org, schoolyourself.org and aops video section for ealry algebra introduction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 Honestly, I'd get him an algebra book and let him begin now. He is interested, willing and eager to try algebra. Don't buy into the hype that Algebra is difficult or scary or any of that nonsense. You both will eventually learn what he is missing and if you guide and monitor his progress then you will be able to fill in any holes as they materialize if he doesn't do it first himself. I am so glad you said this:) My dd finished SM4B and has worked though the Key to series for Fractions, decimals, and is finishing Percents. We have SM5, and she will do it...but because we have always worked on 'fun' math we have covered SO much. Because of her age I kept thjnkjng we needed to wait for some time, but she wants to do some algebra work. We have already played with Hands on Equations. I bought the first couple of Key to Algebra books thinking it would be a nice challenge...I know they are so gentle, but honestly we are finding it really a non-event. If we find gaps, we will just address them. And if we get to a point where we need to back off, we can. I plan on spending years tackling the fun, problem-solving, patience-stretching. Right now she is desperate for the tools to try, and I am trying to follow her... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Key to Algebra was an awesome first "algebra" book for DD at 7. It was very gentle, and gave her the "algebra" label she so wanted and the extensions on the topics. She slowed down after that point, and AOPS has been a good fit-but I think that's because the Spring semester of that year was when she got access to audit college science courses, so math was no longer her primary area where she was getting content at her level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.