MUS for mathy 7th grade son

[Luypie]

I just purchased MUS Prealgebra for my 7th grade son. I looked at the sample pdf and thought it was going to be a good fit. I was looking for something that he can do on his own. 

As I received the package, I realized it is easy. He did RS up to G and Beast Academy. He didn't want to do RS G anymore. Life happened and I just couldn't teach him much. I signed him up to a tutoring centre and they taught him math up until now. He's in a competition class and made it to honor roll at local competition.

This year, his math is plummeting. (maybe not plummeting, but he definitely has gaps.) I was really surprised when he said he didn't know how to divide fractions. He's missing little bits and pieces here and there. The tutoring centre gives him 15-20 challenging questions/week and they take it up during the class. I don't think they are really teaching new concepts. 

MUS is getting done at home. I think I should have started him on algebra 1, but it's okay. He's doing it independently and without complaints. He does tell me it's too easy. 

I gave him AoPS Prealgebra. He does it without complaints too. But I don't think I can really grade his work and help him. It is very time consuming. When he gets it wrong, I don't have the mental energy to figure it out and explain it to him. 

I love the simplicity of MUS. They watch a lesson, and do worksheets. I grade them. The questions are simple enough, I can grade them in a minute. He's currently doing two-three lessons per week in MUS.

I'm wondering if I should have him advance quickly in MUS first, perhaps alg 1/gem/alg 2, and then do something more challenging to solidify them. Or should I just switch now and do maybe Saxon instead? I figure that we can do video lessons with Nicole the Math Lady and Saxon workbook together. 

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you!

Edited March 13 by Luypie

[HomeAgain]

My oldest did MUS pre-A as a main, and AoPS' Alcumus on the side.  It worked out well for him - getting the easy 'meat' of a lesson, then hitting the material on speed with Alcumus.  When he got something wrong the program would work it out and then give him a similar problem.

He continued using Alcumus when he slid into AoPS Intro to Algebra.

Because you already have both MUS and AoPS Pre-A, I don't think you should switch again.  It might be more in your interest to use Alcumus as a way to feel out how he's doing with the AoPS material and give him feedback on the way he's solving the problems.

[Luypie]

On 3/13/2024 at 4:54 PM, HomeAgain said:

My oldest did MUS pre-A as a main, and AoPS' Alcumus on the side.  It worked out well for him - getting the easy 'meat' of a lesson, then hitting the material on speed with Alcumus.  When he got something wrong the program would work it out and then give him a similar problem.

He continued using Alcumus when he slid into AoPS Intro to Algebra.

Because you already have both MUS and AoPS Pre-A, I don't think you should switch again.  It might be more in your interest to use Alcumus as a way to feel out how he's doing with the AoPS material and give him feedback on the way he's solving the problems.

Thank you so much! I didn’t realize they have these wonderful resources - free videos and practice questions. 

I am planning to do AoPS with the videos there. will also complete MUS since I already bought it. Will see how it goes.

Thank you!