Gamom3 Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 i am thinking about using Epsilon for my dd next year. I read online that I will need the Fraction overlays instead of the manipulative boxes..is that right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamom3 Posted January 20, 2008 Author Share Posted January 20, 2008 dd will be able to transition easily to Chalkdust Pre-Algebra when that time comes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollyDay Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 Epsilon does need the fraction overlays rather than the unit blocks. The entire year is focused on fractions. It is really well done, but it is not an easy year. Dd started struggling around lesson 22 or 23. She just flat got stuck. In MUS you cant go forward until you master the lesson you are one. So we stayed stuck. I did pick up Saxon and that really helped. I dont know if they explained it differently or not. But, I do think just leaving it alone for a time and doing different things really helped. When we met the troublesome concept again later, she progressed forward. As far as transitioning into Chalkdust, I dont know. I think alot would depend on what her math background looks like. Epsilon does not teach decimals or percentages. Those concepts are taught in the following year. Does Chalkdust have a placement test?? Perhaps you could give her the placement test at the end of next year and see what she is lacking (if anything) and make it up over the summer. MUS is a totally different scope and sequence. It is a great concept and works wonderfully for many children. But, it is limited in that it teaches only 1 major concept at a time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hen Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 I would say- what Holly said. We are using Epsilon right now, and you do need the overlays. We haven't gotten as far as Holly did, so I don't know if we will get stuck, we did have a lesson my dd had trouble with, and I just explained it in a different way than the video and that seemed to do the trick. We just switched this year and this is the first year my kids don't groan over math- and yet we do have to do yearly standardized testing for our charter school and I'm getting kind of weird about it and I just picked up a few workbooks at B & N to make sure they haven't forgotten everything else they learned and to make sure my oldest dd can do a few things that will be expected of her grade...I'm planning on adding that lightly tho, I think it is totally doable and hopefully no groans. I wrote a little review over at my blog about Math U see, here's the link, http://homeiswhereyoustartfrom.blogspot.com/2008/01/math-u-see-homeschool-show-and-tell.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milseain Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 We are using Epsilon right now, and you do need the overlays. Ds is on lesson 28. He is not having any problems with it. We have use MUS from the beginning. Math is his favorite subject and he is math smart. You do have to master the lesson before you can go on and it only focused on fractions. If You do the systematic reviews and the test (as reviews) it will review everything you learn in the other books. We don't do the reviews all the time but what we do is enough. Hope this helps. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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