Aleks math help

[emcap]

My son has been doing Aleks for pre algebra and since I haven't seen much about it here I did some searching and it seems not many people use it as a stand alone curriculum. It has been so great for him and for me to have him do his work independently. We both love it. Is it not enough? I want to give him a solid foundation and I need him to be mostly independent. I occasionally need to help him understand a topic, but he mostly does it completely by himself. I'm worried it's not enough and that my beautiful bubble is going to be burst :(

 

I looked into Derek Owens, but at $60/month it's pretty expensive for us.

[mumto2]

I am not going to be a great deal of help because we just recently discovered Aleks and my kids are both post Calculus! We bought it because of an upper level statistics course which both kids thought was great. They have gone back and "played" in some of the other courses. My dh and kids all thought Aleks was impressive and couldn't believe my board friends didn't use it. My kids are really mathy so their review has weight. To sum it up I think Aleks is a good solid program. Like any math program it needs to fit the user and it sounds like your ds is using it successfully. I wouldn't drop it just because it isn't popular.

 

Now the should you be supplementing question. What are your son's future plans? Does he have Stem plans? That is probably the deciding factor on if you need more because from my family's comments Aleks done to standard will make him competent. If you want to supplement in a slightly different way I would probably go for my kid's favourite which are the Life of Fred books. The pre algebra books deal with economics and biology. My kids enjoyed those but I think you could just start with the algebra book. When we did it the lots of problems book didn't exist, as a supplement could be skipped I think. My dc like Fred's story and have enjoyed the books.

 

I need to confess that my family owns lots of math curriculum. Most of it sits in the save pile so it would be really hard for me to say one is plenty.

 

Btw,Several of the higher level classes in Aleks can actually be used for ACE college credits, so rather like taking a CLEP exam. My kids received credits for their business statistics. That alone says solid materials to me.

[Grover]

We haave used it off and on for my math-whizz son.  I think it is solid, although I have seen complaints that it doesn't teach kids with enough repetition for some kids.  REpetition is not an issue for us here.

[SparklyUnicorn]

Well my only experience with it is very very limited.  I'm using it now to prepare for calculus.  I am not 100% sure if it'll be enough because I don't know what skills exactly I should have in place, but my plan is to look at a pre-calc book and compare the topics.  Beyond that, I feel as if it does a very good job getting me up to speed with the topics it does cover. 

Probably the one issue I'd worry about is that since it only requires the answer there isn't any emphasis on stuff like showing work and being organized with steps.  I'm disciplined enough to do that and it's something that I do without a problem, but for a younger kid no I would be a bit concerned about that part.  You could possibly deal with that by requiring him to work the problems in a notebook using proper steps and check that part of it yourself. 

 

I feel as if the repetition is just the right amount for me. 

[emcap]

Thank you so much! the idea of supplementing with a different approach is great, I'll look into life of Fred. He actually does his work in a notebook, I'll make sure I check it over more often to make sure he's working them correctly.

 

Life has been crazy in a bad way this year and the thought that my ma choice wasn't a good one was slightly devastating.

 

Thank you again!

[TKDmom]

My dd15 is using it for Algebra, and it seems great to me. Finally, something that takes me out of the equation (we butt heads over math), and that adjusts the amount of practice that she needs automatically. So if she gets concepts fast, she doesn't to do 20 practice problems. This is the first math program that has motivated her to pay attention to what she's doing. Sloppy mistakes mean more work, so she is (for the first time ever) paying attention to all those pesky details that actually matter (like negative signs).  She shows her work in a notebook because she has to be able to see where she went wrong. This is after 8 years of me badgering her to show her work. She never did before, because she never saw a reason why she should.

 

Having said that, I know she isn't going into any sort of STEM career. We are just using it to check the boxes. I don't expect to use it with my younger kids, because I want to be more involved in knowing they are getting math. I think it's a solid program, but I like to be involved in watching kids develop that flexible thinking that some other programs require. But, IDK. I may get tired and hand younger kids over to Aleks at some future date too. ;)