If Jousting Armadillos is not very challenging,

[Runningmom80]

Should we switch to AoPS?  Would you do their Pre-A before going to Algebra since JA might not be as challenging? This is NOT a math lover, which is why I went with JA.  If I stick with The Arbor series (Coconuts and Chuckles) what would you suggest as a next step?

 

Thanks!

Edited September 27, 2016 by someonestolemyname

[shburks]

Should we switch to AoPS?  Would you do their Pre-A before going to Algebra since JA might not be as challenging? This is NOT a math lover, which is why I went with JA.  If I stick with The Arbor series (Counting Coconuts and Chuckles) what would you suggest as a next step?

 

Thanks!

 

We did JA last year for pre-A and it simply wasn't a good fit. DS is very strong in math, but all the chatter and long word problems did not appeal to him at all. We opted not to do more in that series, but AoPS just felt too abstract for him. Based on several recommendations from here, we went with Jacobs Algebra and he has done very well with it. We're about to wrap up the book, and I feel much better about this book than I did for JA.

[AEC]

DD did JA between SM5B and AoPS.  She enjoyed the silly problems about weasels, but overall it wasn't very useful.

 

She felt like there were too many problems and they weren't hard enough.  Also, the span and depth of material covered is nothing like what's in the AoPS PreAlg.  I think it'd be tough to go from JA to AoPS alg.

[Loesje22000]

Dd is not a math lover, but AoPS is so far the only math she wants / is able to work with.

We do not the challenging problems unless on her request, we also skip most of the 'star'porblems.

We also don't use Alcumus, but are big users of the video's.

 

Unfortunetly the US math sequence differs from Belgium, so we will have to use something else after Intro to Algebra.

[Runningmom80]

DD did JA between SM5B and AoPS.  She enjoyed the silly problems about weasels, but overall it wasn't very useful.

 

She felt like there were too many problems and they weren't hard enough.  Also, the span and depth of material covered is nothing like what's in the AoPS PreAlg.  I think it'd be tough to go from JA to AoPS alg.

 

 

This was basically my question.  thank you!

 

I'm wondering if we should just switch to AoPS Pre-A now?

Edited March 5, 2016 by Runningmom80

[EndOfOrdinary]

My son is not about math. He is not into the whole STEM thing much at all. What he likes about AoPS is that there are so very few problems. They may be more difficult, but he does not have to do 35 of them. He looks at them like puzzles, not math. That helps too. He would have crashed and burned if we did not do extensive PreA work before AoPS PreA. Since he isn't a math lover, it would have been hard for him to grasp the concepts while enjoying the puzzles and learning how the curriculum worked. In our case, a run through of PreA before AoPS PreA was very beneficial.

[SierraNevada]

I agree with EoO about having a run through of pre-a before doing AoPS, especially with a younger crowd. It has made the transition so easy. We used JA for that and even though it was easy (and personally I didn't feel like there were too many problems at all--to me it felt light on problems) I feel like it made a great Pre-AoPS intro. I also wouldn't go from the JA series into AoPS algebra. I think it could be done and has been done. But with younger kids I think letting them have that soft intro to AoPS where they are already familiar with the topics and really just have to learn to stretch in the way AoPS stretches, it is best.

[Dmmetler]

We didn't use JA, but did use LOF PA before AOPS and I'm glad we did-it let DD develop a little more mathematical maturity and had her first run through PA be successful and not too challenging, which made AOPS an easier transition for her. (We buy the LOF book for each AOPS, and so far, DD has chosen to go through them over the summer. I don't know how many, if any, of the problems she actually does...)

[Runningmom80]

Ok that makes sense and it saves me some money in the short term. ;)

[AEC]

I think those are fair points.  We did JA to buy time, actually, with the intention of then doing AoPS preAlg.

DD finished SM5B and I wasn't sure she was quite ready.  JA took her ~4 weeks, so it didn't buy much time - but it might have softened the introduction.

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with finishing it out if you've started it - but don't jump from there to Algebra.