Janeway Posted October 29, 2015 Share Posted October 29, 2015 I am wondering about math sequence. I could do the entire Singapore Math series and then go in to Jacobs, that would be fine. But, I am intrigued by AoPs and was considering stopping at some point in Singapore Math and trying AoPs Pre-algebra. Not sure if I going to break what is working, or if it would be an interesting change of course. I already have Jacob's Algebra and already like it. I found no problem going straight from 6B in Singapore Math straight to Jacobs. So no issues there. But everyone talks about AoPs so much here, I am curious basically. Suggestions? And if I did fit in AoPs preAlgebra, where would I stop the Singapore Math? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted October 29, 2015 Share Posted October 29, 2015 I am interested, as well. Thanks for posting this topic. My oldest son is in 4A in Singapore and will complete grade 5 next year and then we will need to make some decisions. Singapore grade 6? Pre-Algebra? If Pre-Al, with which curriculum? How many years of Pre-Al? Algebra with which curriculum? Geometry? Trig? Outsource or keep it in house? So many questions/options. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSmith Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 My kid went from SM6 to AOPS. It only made ch 10-12 go faster. The rest of the chapters I still got to torture him. So in retrospect he would have been fine going straight from SM5 to AOPS. He was very well prepared, except for the writing everything out part. But, he got over it by ch2. We spent ch1 formalizing all the elementary arithmetic. I finally got to explain all those big words I had been using for years :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 There are many of us around that have gone from SM5 to AoPS Prealgebra. The main thing not covered in SM is negative numbers. I think the question is more if your child has the maturity of thinking to work through AoPS style problems and not get too frustrated. I love AoPS. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rlestina Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 With my oldest, I went from SM6 to AoPS Algebra (skipped thier PreAlgebra). In hindsight this was a mistake. My later kids, I went from SM5 to AoPS PreAlgebra, sometimes circled back to some of the SM6 pages for extra practice if certain concepts in PreAlgebra weren't sticking, or just for variety. This worked quite well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 We went PM5 to AoPS Pre-Algebra. I can't say if this was the optimal path (or not), but we were forced by circumstances (entering an excellerated PS math program) which meant jumping PM6, or getting "behind" in the home program. PM5 to AoPS Pre-A went fine here. I would not jump Pre-A. I don't know what we "missed" skipping PM6. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sassenach Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 We are going SM6 to AoPS pre-a and finding it to be a good challenge. I'm using other pre algebra texts to reenforce some bits that DS needs to marinate a little longer in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 Can anybody compare between Jacobs, Jousting Armadillos, Lial and AoPS? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Sweetpea, that's a broad question - what aspect would you like to compare? Style, sequence, challenge level? Lial is different from the other three in that it is straightforward/traditional. Are you referring to Lial's Prealgebra or to the whole series? For straightforward, I'd prefer Dolciani's Prealgebra, An Accelerated Course for format reasons at a minimum. Jacobs is strictly an algebra 1 text though the first half is gentle. I'd say that the actual prealgebra topics, to the extent they are covered within the text, are often the first lesson of a chapter that takes the topic to the algebra level. (What do others think about that? I haven't tried to map those topics to a prealgebra text, though my guess is that a prealgebra text would be more complete or more thorough on the instruction of those topics at the prealgebra level.) Within the Jacobs exercises, there is a bit of discovery/stretching. My understanding is that the JA series was modeled on Jacobs' algebra text and his other text, Mathematics, A Human Endeavor. I think I posted on some other thread that AoPS Prealgebra is my favorite math text ever, if that tells you anything. I do like Jacobs, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 Sweetpea, that's a broad question - what aspect would you like to compare? Style, sequence, challenge level? Lial is different from the other three in that it is straightforward/traditional. Are you referring to Lial's Prealgebra or to the whole series? For straightforward, I'd prefer Dolciani's Prealgebra, An Accelerated Course for format reasons at a minimum. Jacobs is strictly an algebra 1 text though the first half is gentle. I'd say that the actual prealgebra topics, to the extent they are covered within the text, are often the first lesson of a chapter that takes the topic to the algebra level. (What do others think about that? I haven't tried to map those topics to a prealgebra text, though my guess is that a prealgebra text would be more complete or more thorough on the instruction of those topics at the prealgebra level.) Within the Jacobs exercises, there is a bit of discovery/stretching. My understanding is that the JA series was modeled on Jacobs' algebra text and his other text, Mathematics, A Human Endeavor. I think I posted on some other thread that AoPS Prealgebra is my favorite math text ever, if that tells you anything. I do like Jacobs, though. All of it...lol. This is a whole new realm for me. My son is only in 4th grade (9 yrs old in December) and I have purposefully "held him back" in order to prevent him from advancing too fast. He absorbs math readily, has rarely struggled, but has the maturity and interests of a typical 8/9 yr old boy. As in, he would much rather be climbing trees, playing with Legos, and creating "zombie pig men" in Minecraft, than utilizing his mathematical abilities, lol. So far, math has been pretty straight-forward. But I see the writing on the wall and our math journey is going to get more complicated in the near future. I'm not really sure where to begin. I'm not even sure what the end goal is for him. And I definitely do not know all of our options. I do know that I have loved AoPS' Beast Academy. It has really stretched our son's mathematical reasoning. But I wouldn't want to just fall onto AoPS without first exploring what else is out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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