shinyhappypeople Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 If you put AoPS on one end of the Spectrum and Teaching Textbooks on the other, where would JA land in terms of difficulty? Feel free to plot MUS and whatever other programs you like, too. I'm considering Jousting for my kiddo who has struggled in math because of some cognitive glitches but tends to grasp overall concepts pretty well. She wants to use TT. I'm not feeling the love for it, and want something more creative for her. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdj2027 Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 In my personal opinion, JA is a great compromise between AOPS and other curricula if you like the AOPS style. I found it to be a rigorous set of books (JA is actually just the first in a series of 3) that are somewhere between pre-algebra and algebra1. I did AOPS pre-algebra with my 6th grader and when he was stuck we would bring out JA which had the same style but less wordy and more direct explanations which simpler problems. For him it was sort of a translation of AOPS. I also very much liked the "Notes to self" which made him spell out his thoughts, something he has great trouble with (still does, he spent about an hour per week on the homework problems in his AOPS classes, got an almost perfect score but for his life cannot explain in coherent words how he came to his solution. He does struggle with English whereas math and sciences are intuitive for him). The other reason it was perfect for my son is that he hates to write; he is not going to sit and do 50 problems. The JA series made it easy to approach math in form of discussions using a white board. We liked the humorous style, it does remind one of of Jacobs on which it is partly based. I used it with my son who liked the discovery approach and again with my daughter who hates to think but is actually quite good at math. Her attitude towards math has changed quite a bit after using JA because she came to see it more of a game, like solving mysteries which she loves to do. I did not need the teacher manuals which only show the way other kids have solved the problems. I have them because I am interested in how children approach math and problem solving. They are not solution manuals in the AOPS sense. Feel free to pm me if you have more questions. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkT Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 (edited) deleted Edited October 31, 2016 by MarkT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinyhappypeople Posted October 31, 2016 Author Share Posted October 31, 2016 wrong group please use correct forum this is HS level Excuse me? Your reply is extremely rude. This is exactly the right group since the series (JA, etc.) is a pre-algebra/algebra program and I'm planning to use it for my daughter's high school education. Seriously, what the heck?! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theelfqueen Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 Many people definitely do pre-Algebra and/or Algebra 1 (The content of the three Arbor books) in High School -- I think you're in a fine place. Also people (rare) who have done all three Arbor books are more likely to have kids past Alg 1 level :) and be over here! We're using JA right now (my youngest) and loving it but I don't feel like I have the wide experience to answer your questions. We haven't researched all of the other programs thoroughly. We are transitioning out of Public School and JA had a high appeal level for my DS when I had him work through the sample lessons and felt more appealing than others we looked at to me. So we just jumped in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 wrong group please use correct forum this is HS level Dude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkT Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 Excuse me? Your reply is extremely rude. This is exactly the right group since the series (JA, etc.) is a pre-algebra/algebra program and I'm planning to use it for my daughter's high school education. Seriously, what the heck?! oops sorry I thought you were looking for middle school advice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted November 1, 2016 Share Posted November 1, 2016 Easier and more fun than AoPS - more engaging, feels more like a conversation. It is discovery like AoPS, but a much gentler progression - you are led step by step toward a discovery but then allowed to have the epiphany on your own, rather than being asked to solve a problem and then figuring out how it worked after. I didn't see any tendency to look for tricks to solve the hard problem, which I and others have seen with AoPS/Alcumus. A totally different animal than TT, although I've only seen elementary levels of TT, so I can't really compare its PreA/Algebra to TTs. My dd did all three books in 7th & 8th grades. It served her well as a foundation for further algebra studies. She did not come out of it with a complete mastery of quadratics, polynomials, and advanced graphing topics. So for us, I wasn't willing to do the three books and then move on to Geometry/Algebra 2 (although the shaky topics there at the end would be reviewed at the beginning of an Alg 2 class). We opted to review Alg1 and cover Alg2 using Videotext in 9th grade. So far all the material that was covered in the Arbor books has proved to be well-mastered, and she's sailing through VT so far. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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