After Singapore 5 - Would VideoText work for this child?

[Porridge]

DS9 is halfway through Singapore 5B and I'm trying to figure out what he will move to next. DD11 is doing well with AOPS, but I'm fairly certain it won't be a good fit for DS. I think he has some learning differences (we were in the middle of an eval but that's on hold due to the COVID-shelter-in-place mandate for our area) that I haven't been able to fully figure out. He is very bright, but not interested in math beyond a get-it-done, and can-I-use-it-to-code-a-website-or-prank-my-sister mentality.  

I was considering staying with Singapore and moving to their Dimensions series, but then I heard about Videotext. My friend, who was a high school math teacher, felt that Singapore Dimensions would be a solid middle school algebra course, but that the student should move to a formal Geometry course after completing Dimensions 6-8.  He also is a kid who needs a lot of review. For Singapore we had been using Standards for our primary curriculum, then using the IP book half a year behind for review. Dimensions does not seem to have any supplemental options for review, so I'd have to figure out how to provide the "spiral" that DS needs.  VideoText is attractive because it claims to cover Alg 1, Alg 2, and Geometry.  They have supplemental problem sets that can be used for review. I'm also thinking that having a teacher / presenter who isn't me might be helpful as we approach the tween years.  The VT website seems to recommend it more as a middle / high school course. Do you think it would be suitable for a 9 year old? Actually, he'll be 10 by the time we start it.

He is not the kind of kid who can self-teach from a text. He tends to read way too quickly and miss important details.  All efforts to help him learn to pace his reading have so far been unsuccessful. I actually think there may be a visual or processing issue. These are issues I had hoped to elucidate through the evaluation, but I'll have to wait to find out. 

@Momto6inIN and @Paradox5, I think your kids have used Videotext, and I'd love any feedback!

 

[Momto6inIN]

Possibly the first module which is prealgebra? But I'm not sure I'd use the rest of it with a 10 year old.

My kids all used it starting in 8th grade. My oldest is very mathy and probably could have handled it earlier than that,  but he was in ps until 8th so we never tried it before that. For him VT was a good prep for switching to AoPS when we finally discovered it in 10th grade. But he is the type who enjoys spending hours thinking about theoretical calculus, so I'm not sure he's an average example to follow  😉

My next 2 do well in both math in general and in VT in particular and understand it fine but do not love it. I don't think they would have done well with algebra before 8th grade. Their brains were still developing analytical skills and they still made tons of silly arithmetic errors because they liked to go too fast and not show their work, even though conceptually they understood just fine. I think it would have been frustrating for all of us.

Geometry especially would have been a challenge as the proofs require advanced logic level skills that my very bright but not math motivated kids would not have been ready for before high school.

We used Math Mammoth before VT, including their prealgebra. So the first module of VT was an easy review, but necessary because the concepts are presented in a unique way that build upon each other in later modules. I don't have any experience with Singapore, so I can't speak to that, sorry.

If I was you I would consider solidifying skills with some "fun" resources and possibly investigating some lesser known branches of math like number theory and probability and maybe some geometry constructions like Hands on Geometry and maybe a different prealgebra from a different publisher to see how he does coming at the same topics from a different perspective. And just basically let his brain mature a little bit before moving on to algebra. But that's just me, you know your kid best.

Hope that helps, let me know if you have any other questions and I'll try to answer!

[Porridge]

Thank you, @Momto6inIN- your feedback is super helpful. I was wondering if DS would be mature enough for it, and I think your suggestions sound pretty wise. Maybe we'll stick with Singapore Dimensions for now. I'll also look at MM7. I also have Patty Paper Geometry and Hands On Geometry collecting dust on my shelf, so maybe I should use them!