Looking for Life of Fred Geometry help or other curriculum idea

[Amica32]

Hi, everyone. We've been doing Life of Fred all the way from the beginning and have liked it up until Algebra II. We just started Geometry, which I remember as being really fun in high school, but this book is... kind of a mess and all of the questions the author asks are hard. It's not any fun at all.

If anyone has any Life-of-Fred-specific suggestions, I'd appreciate it. I'm also seriously thinking of just moving to a different curriculum. We have enjoyed LOF because the "real-life" examples help give meaning to the math, so any curriculum that offers real-life examples would be great. Barring that, any curriculum that does a thorough job explaining a concept and then gives problem that aren't so hard that you can't solve them without cheating by looking at the answers. Thank you! 

[EKS]

I am not a fan of Fred, but if you want to continue with it, my suggestion would be that you (as the teacher) work through all of the problems ahead of your student so that you can anticipate any problems.  Then you can teach whatever is missing in the text before any problems are attempted.  Note that I would give this advice regardless of what text is being used.

I haven't seen the geometry book.  Are there proofs assigned?  If so (and I assume there are), you should know know that it is very common for students to need a lot of input that goes well beyond whatever input the text is giving to master them.  This means that the teacher needs to master them and then use that mastery to help the student.  

[Amica32]

Yeah, due to this book also being hard for me, I don't think that approach is going to work. Any other curricula you could recommend?

[Porridge]

Derek Owens has a good asynchronous geometry course.  

[HomeAgain]

Love Fred as a supplement, I detest it as a stand alone program.  It's insufficient in its explanations.

You might look at Jacob's Geometry.  We found it to be lovely, relatable, and easy to understand.

[Cecropia]

3 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

Love Fred as a supplement, I detest it as a stand alone program.  It's insufficient in its explanations.

I agree, we did Fred mainly as a supplement.  My kids needed math to be more "fun" to be interesting, and they love reading fiction, which is why LOF was a big hit here for several years. 

We have had good success with the Thinkwell online math courses taught by Edward Burger.  With geometry, we used an older Holt geometry textbook and found accompanying free video lessons by Mr. Burger (he was an author of the textbook).  This was a while ago!  So it wasn't the current online geometry offering, but the two could possibly be very similar/identical.  Geometry was our first experience with that teacher, and my older kids decided to stick with him ever since through Thinkwell.  He throws in enough corny humor and enthusiasm to keep them engaged.

One thing I will mention, though, about the Thinkwell math courses -- and this is far down the line, I know -- My 17yo just finished the "Calculus AB compatible with AP" course and found that some material on the test was not covered in the course.  He used other AP books and online practice to be better prepared by test time.  The point being, these courses may have some gaps in comprehensiveness, if that is important to you.

[EKS]

11 hours ago, Amica32 said:

Yeah, due to this book also being hard for me, I don't think that approach is going to work. Any other curricula you could recommend?

Teaching Textbooks has good explanations.  I used the old edition (prior to autograding) with one of my sons.  It is a solid non-honors level course.  I'm not sure how the autograding has affected that.  I suspect that the proof parts aren't as good because they must be using some sort of menu method for producing them.

[EKS]

10 hours ago, Porridge said:

Derek Owens has a good asynchronous geometry course.  

DO is great when parents aren't up to the task of teaching and/or grading (grading geometry proofs properly is quite difficult since it can't be done with an answer key).  I hesitate to recommend the geometry course because I don't think it gives enough input on writing proofs if there isn't a human in the room that can help as needed.  Also, in general, I believe that DO is better for strong math students, and it wasn't clear to me whether that was the case here.

But yes, I might try DO before resorting to TT in this case, if the student is generally a strong math student.

[Amica32]

Thanks, everyone. A couple of my friends had recommended Math U See Geometry. Any thoughts on that? I notice none of you mentioned it and wondering if it's substandard or not great.

 

[HomeAgain]

27 minutes ago, Amica32 said:

Thanks, everyone. A couple of my friends had recommended Math U See Geometry. Any thoughts on that? I notice none of you mentioned it and wondering if it's substandard or not great.

 

It's good.  They don't go as deep into topics as other programs, but I know they're redoing the high school levels to address that.

I like the method and it's a system my oldest excelled with.

[EKS]

1 hour ago, Amica32 said:

Thanks, everyone. A couple of my friends had recommended Math U See Geometry. Any thoughts on that? I notice none of you mentioned it and wondering if it's substandard or not great.

If it is the same product as it was about 10 years ago, then it is substandard.  I am talking about the geometry materials specifically.  I think that the elementary materials are good.

Edited June 5 by EKS

[Amica32]

35 minutes ago, EKS said:

If it is the same product as it was about 10 years ago, then it is substandard.  I am talking about the geometry materials specifically.  I think that the elementary materials are good.

! Oh, wow! What makes you think so? I looked at it online and I felt like it was reasonable in its expectations. Have also looked into the online suggestions people have made but I'm just not sure how much online stuff my son wants to do. It's kind of like... we'd like to have a book, but it would also be nice to have a teacher explain things. That options doesn't seem available. 

[EKS]

8 minutes ago, Amica32 said:

! Oh, wow! What makes you think so? I looked at it online and I felt like it was reasonable in its expectations. Have also looked into the online suggestions people have made but I'm just not sure how much online stuff my son wants to do. It's kind of like... we'd like to have a book, but it would also be nice to have a teacher explain things. That options doesn't seem available. 

I don't know if the new version is better than the one I (extensively) reviewed (but did not use).

With regard to having a book and a teacher to explain things, that used to be how Teaching Textbooks was.  Can you still get a book?  We ended up working from the book because my son couldn't stand the guy on the videos because he claimed that he sounded like the guy from Blue's Clues (which is true).

MUS does have a textbook.  In fact, it used to be that the videos were for the instructor to view before teaching the student.

[Amica32]

6 minutes ago, EKS said:

I don't know if the new version is better than the one I (extensively) reviewed (but did not use).

With regard to having a book and a teacher to explain things, that used to be how Teaching Textbooks was.  Can you still get a book?  We ended up working from the book because my son couldn't stand the guy on the videos because he claimed that he sounded like the guy from Blue's Clues (which is true).

MUS does have a textbook.  In fact, it used to be that the videos were for the instructor to view before teaching the student.

I saw Teaching Textbooks at a homeschool curriculum fair years ago and it looked extremely "busy" to me and visually overwhelming. Unless THAT has changed in the past 15 years lol. Am still curious what you found insufficient about Math U See Geometry. 

[EKS]

13 minutes ago, Amica32 said:

Am still curious what you found insufficient about Math U See Geometry. 

One thing is that it confines proofs to a few weeks at the end of the course.  To write a proof in geometry properly is something that take a long time to develop.  Not three weeks.  More like months and months.  If you want to eliminate proofs, that is certainly ok, but just know that in doing so you are eliminating the essence of geometry study.

More broadly, the hallmark of a good geometry course is that it challenges students to actually think.  I don't mean to execute procedures or memorize vocabulary, but think.  I just now looked at the sample chapter at the MUS website and found a lot of problems that were ridiculously easy.  And my impression of it back when I reviewed it more extensively was that it was essentially a glorified elementary (K-8) geometry text with a bit of easy high school stuff thrown in. 

That said, if you think it will be a good fit for your family, then that is what's important. 

Regarding TT, you're right, I can't stand just about everything about it, and IMO, it has gotten a whole lot worse since we used it 15 years ago, at least when it comes to forced autograding and those ridiculous pop up characters (which I hope you can turn off).  Hopefully the explanations are still the same.

[Amica32]

Yeah, the questions being "easy" was one of the things I liked. Because Life of Fred is the exact opposite. It gives ONLY hard problems. I had also looked at the Jacobs' because several people had recommended it (and Derek Owens, who someone above recommended, uses Jacobs'), and it is described as "using real-world problems" to help you understand Geometry and I've also heard it doesn't do a lot with proofs either. The "real-world problems" is just like Life of Fred. I was beginning to think curricula were moving away from proofs. It seems like maybe the online courses still include them a lot but maybe the book curricula don't? I don't know if this is an accurate take-away. I just want something that isn't going to make us feel despair every time we try to learn. I loved Geometry in high school and was good at it, but I need a refresher. We started LOF Geometry and the book is crushingly painful. We shouldn't have to look up every answer to understand how he wants us to answer! Anyway... my son is smart but we need something that is more like a standard math class than what LOF offers. I think the suggestions above about using LOF as supplemental material is useful. He DOES explain concepts well, he just... he just uses problems to teach which should absolutely be a no-no. You shouldn't be sweating over a problem only to discover that he's using it to teach you a new concept. <facepalm> Anyway...

[EKS]

33 minutes ago, Amica32 said:

I had also looked at the Jacobs' because several people had recommended it (and Derek Owens, who someone above recommended, uses Jacobs'), and it is described as "using real-world problems" to help you understand Geometry and I've also heard it doesn't do a lot with proofs either.

DO is proof based.  Jacobs 3rd edition has fewer proofs than the 2nd edition, but it is considered to be proof based.

33 minutes ago, Amica32 said:

The "real-world problems" is just like Life of Fred

To be clear, good real world problems are going to be difficult. 

33 minutes ago, Amica32 said:

I was beginning to think curricula were moving away from proofs.

They are moving away from proofs because proofs are difficult to teach and difficult for most students to master. 

33 minutes ago, Amica32 said:

Anyway... my son is smart but we need something that is more like a standard math class than what LOF offers.

When I was in your position (and I was, though it wasn't with LoF; it was with Jacobs 3rd edition), TT was what ended up working for us.

33 minutes ago, Amica32 said:

...he just uses problems to teach which should absolutely be a no-no.

This can be a very powerful teaching tool, but it has to be done correctly.  Jacobs 3rd edition has a similar issue.  It only works when there is a teacher present who can fill in the gaps when the student can't read the author's mind.  I was not able to do that with my older son, but after going through TT with the older one, I could be that person with the younger one.  

Edited June 6 by EKS

[HomeAgain]

7 minutes ago, Amica32 said:

He DOES explain concepts well, he just... he just uses problems to teach which should absolutely be a no-no. You shouldn't be sweating over a problem only to discover that he's using it to teach you a new concept. <facepalm> Anyway...

One of the things with Fred is that the work is often explained in an algorithmic heavy manner, when a lot of kids benefit more from seeing it conceptually as well.

Art of Problem Solving has a method of teaching how to puzzle through problems as you are working through the chapter, giving help as you go along, but it can be frustrating if you're not in a puzzle solving mood.  However, we do really enjoy their free online practice called Alcumus, where I can set it to my kid's math level.  It shows him how they figured out each one after he does it, which is both good reinforcement and helps him remember a few tricks.  It's a very nice supplement to his math.

[EKS]

18 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

One of the things with Fred is that the work is often explained in an algorithmic heavy manner, when a lot of kids benefit more from seeing it conceptually as well.

Algorithmic--yes, ridiculously so.  I haven't seen the geometry text, but the LoF texts I have seen are not only algorithmic, they have the additional problem that the author seems to think that everything is easy.  The fractions books particularly egregious when it comes to this stuff.

22 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

Art of Problem Solving has a method of teaching how to puzzle through problems as you are working through the chapter, giving help as you go along, but it can be frustrating if you're not in a puzzle solving mood.

AoPS is surely the king of the discovery approach. 

[Amica32]

26 minutes ago, EKS said:

DO is proof based.  Jacobs 3rd edition has fewer proofs than the 2nd edition, but it is considered to be proof based.

To be clear, good real world problems are going to be difficult. 

They are moving away from proofs because proofs are difficult to teach and difficult for most students to master. 

When I was in your position (and I was, though it wasn't with LoF; it was with Jacobs 3rd edition), TT was what ended up working for us.

This can be a very powerful teaching tool, but it has to be done correctly.  Jacobs 3rd edition has a similar issue.  It only works when there is a teacher present who can fill in the gaps when the student can't read the author's mind.  I was not able to do that with my older son, but after going through TT with him, I could be that person with the younger one.  

I just took a look at the TT webpage and it looks like they don't use books anymore! It looks like it's all online!! Does that sound right?

[Amica32]

5 minutes ago, EKS said:

Algorithmic--yes, ridiculously so.  I haven't seen the geometry text, but the LoF texts I have seen are not only algorithmic, they have the additional problem that the author seems to think that everything is easy.  The fractions books particularly egregious when it comes to this stuff.

AoPS is surely the king of the discovery approach. 

Yes! The author of LOF both thinks things are super easy and also seems to enjoy having an edge over his students. Why else would you "teach" something in a problem after giving repeated warnings that you'll "learn more" if you try to solve the problem yourself, which isn't possible when he hasn't taught you something yet! Oh, don't get me started lol... we enjoyed LOF all the way through Algebra 1. Then we did Algebra 2 and it was just... hard. I did it with my son and *I* had to look up the answers a lot of times, and wasn't always sure how he got to a certain answers. 

[EKS]

5 minutes ago, Amica32 said:

I just took a look at the TT webpage and it looks like they don't use books anymore! It looks like it's all online!! Does that sound right?

It's possible.  But there is this: https://www.teachingtextbooks.com/discs-and-books.  Scroll down to find the geometry offerings.  There is a textbook and answer key there.

[EKS]

Just now, Amica32 said:

The author of LOF both thinks things are super easy and also seems to enjoy having an edge over his students.

Yes.  Also, there's this.

[Amica32]

33 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

One of the things with Fred is that the work is often explained in an algorithmic heavy manner, when a lot of kids benefit more from seeing it conceptually as well.

Art of Problem Solving has a method of teaching how to puzzle through problems as you are working through the chapter, giving help as you go along, but it can be frustrating if you're not in a puzzle solving mood.  However, we do really enjoy their free online practice called Alcumus, where I can set it to my kid's math level.  It shows him how they figured out each one after he does it, which is both good reinforcement and helps him remember a few tricks.  It's a very nice supplement to his math.

The Art of Problem Solving looks like you can get it in book form, so at least that's nice. What do you recommend about it?

[Amica32]

3 minutes ago, EKS said:

It's possible.  But there is this: https://www.teachingtextbooks.com/discs-and-books.  Scroll down to find the geometry offerings.  There is a textbook and answer key there.

Yes, you're right. Looks like they've dropped the frenetic covers they used to have on their books. Are they crazy "busy" on the inside or has that calmed down too?

[EKS]

1 minute ago, Amica32 said:

The Art of Problem Solving looks like you can get it in book form, so at least that's nice. What do you recommend about it?

AoPS is the opposite of MUS.  And, from what I've heard, the geometry book is one of the most difficult in the high school sequence.

[Amica32]

3 minutes ago, EKS said:

Yes.  Also, there's this.

Gah. Well, I had gathered from some of his books, especially the pre-Algebra "Pre-Algebra with Economics," that his politics and mine were not compatible. Fortunately that doesn't show up much in the books. 

[EKS]

Just now, Amica32 said:

Yes, you're right. Looks like they've dropped the frenetic covers they used to have on their books. Are they crazy "busy" on the inside or has that calmed down too?

From what I remember, the book we had wasn't too bad in that regard.  But I haven't seen it in ages because it mysteriously disappeared not long after we finished with it.  I am sensitive to visual clutter, so for example, I can't stand looking at Math Mammoth because of it.

[EKS]

Just now, Amica32 said:

Gah. Well, I had gathered from some of his books, especially the pre-Algebra "Pre-Algebra with Economics," that his politics and mine were not compatible. Fortunately that doesn't show up much in the books. 

Yes!  We used to use Fred as a fun story, but I stopped reading the economics book in the middle because he was annoying me so much.  I don't mind different views.  What I do mind is smug certainty.

[Amica32]

10 minutes ago, EKS said:

From what I remember, the book we had wasn't too bad in that regard.  But I haven't seen it in ages because it mysteriously disappeared not long after we finished with it.  I am sensitive to visual clutter, so for example, I can't stand looking at Math Mammoth because of it.

The book versions are still able to be bought "with discs." It's unclear if the discs are videotaped teaching or if they are just CDs (presumably with teaching). Do you have any idea which it is?

[EKS]

Just now, Amica32 said:

The book versions are still able to be bought "with discs." It's unclear if the discs are videotaped teaching or if they are just CDs (presumably with teaching). Do you have any idea which it is?

When we used it, the discs had video lessons on them.  The lectures were like the ones in the samples.

[HomeAgain]

7 hours ago, EKS said:

AoPS is the opposite of MUS.  And, from what I've heard, the geometry book is one of the most difficult in the high school sequence.

This, @Amica32.  It's a great program for students who enjoy it.  It's a great program if you use it like my oldest and I did their algebra, with the caveat that anything said during math hour, any yelling, wouldn't be held against either of us.🤣  Intro To Algebra taught him how to work through frustration very well, helped land him on his high school's math competition team for number sense, and helped him really get to the meat of it all.

It's not one I would ever use for a student who did not like math, though I think they would benefit from Alcumus.  I have one right now who may spend her summer with me doing a mixture of Patty Paper Geometry and shoring up algebra skills, but as a full high school level program, I'd go with one of the other recommendations in this thread.

[Amica32]

17 hours ago, EKS said:

Yes!  We used to use Fred as a fun story, but I stopped reading the economics book in the middle because he was annoying me so much.  I don't mind different views.  What I do mind is smug certainty.

Yes, the smugness is just too much.

[Amica32]

Well, I'm leaning toward either TT because it looks like a good program and comes with teaching DVDs (although they are phasing those out come September--presumably to sell an online version), or MUS, because that looks OK and like the antidote to Fred. Also getting a hand-me-down copy of Jacobs' so I can look first to see if that will work for us. Some other people had recommended online options that also looked good but I think a lot of college is (unfortunately) going to be online stuff so I'd like to hang out with books as long as we can. 

I'm surprised there are so many good options. It's hard to choose!

Thanks, everyone, for your help and input. 

[8filltheheart]

17 minutes ago, Amica32 said:

Well, I'm leaning toward either TT because it looks like a good program and comes with teaching DVDs (although they are phasing those out come September--presumably to sell an online version), or MUS, because that looks OK and like the antidote to Fred. Also getting a hand-me-down copy of Jacobs' so I can look first to see if that will work for us. Some other people had recommended online options that also looked good but I think a lot of college is (unfortunately) going to be online stuff so I'd like to hang out with books as long as we can. 

I'm surprised there are so many good options. It's hard to choose!

Thanks, everyone, for your help

Has MUS updated the geo book? Last time I looked, only alg 1 had been, but that was probably a yr ago. If they haven't, I would not use MUS. It is an incredibly weak program. (I use their non revised alg 1 and geo texts in a single yr as pre-alg and pre-geo. I personally wouldnt use TT, either, bc I know way too many kids who lack basic skills and use TT. (Whether their geo program is an outlier, I dont know.)

My favorite geometry text (and it has thorough explanations....LoF is another program I would personally never use) is Geometry by Koeberlein.

[Amica32]

20 minutes ago, 8filltheheart said:

Has MUS updated the geo book? Last time I looked, only alg 1 had been, but that was probably a yr ago. If they haven't, I would not use MUS. It is an incredibly weak program. (I use their non revised alg 1 and geo texts in a single yr as pre-alg and pre-geo. I personally wouldnt use TT, either, bc I know way too many kids who lack basic skills and use TT. (Whether their geo program is an outlier, I dont know.)

My favorite geometry text (and it has thorough explanations....LoF is another program I would personally never use) is Geometry by Koeberlein.

I'll take a look at it; thanks!

[Amica32]

24 minutes ago, 8filltheheart said:

Has MUS updated the geo book? Last time I looked, only alg 1 had been, but that was probably a yr ago. If they haven't, I would not use MUS. It is an incredibly weak program. (I use their non revised alg 1 and geo texts in a single yr as pre-alg and pre-geo. I personally wouldnt use TT, either, bc I know way too many kids who lack basic skills and use TT. (Whether their geo program is an outlier, I dont know.)

My favorite geometry text (and it has thorough explanations....LoF is another program I would personally never use) is Geometry by Koeberlein.

Is Geometry by Koeberlein a college text? That was the only thing I could find that had that name in it. 

[Amoret]

28 minutes ago, 8filltheheart said:

My favorite geometry text (and it has thorough explanations....LoF is another program I would personally never use) is Geometry by Koeberlein.

Where do you find answer keys for books like this? There are so many college-level texts I would love to use and that would be a great fit for my kids, but answer keys are impossible to find and publishers won't give homeschool parents access to online answer keys (I have asked). I have deep expertise in some areas, but geometry is not among them.

Edited June 6 by Amoret

[Amica32]

32 minutes ago, 8filltheheart said:

Has MUS updated the geo book? Last time I looked, only alg 1 had been, but that was probably a yr ago. If they haven't, I would not use MUS. It is an incredibly weak program. (I use their non revised alg 1 and geo texts in a single yr as pre-alg and pre-geo. I personally wouldnt use TT, either, bc I know way too many kids who lack basic skills and use TT. (Whether their geo program is an outlier, I dont know.)

My favorite geometry text (and it has thorough explanations....LoF is another program I would personally never use) is Geometry by Koeberlein.

The MUS just lists itself as the "American version." It has the pyramids and Sphinx on the cover. I don't know how old the "older" textbooks are that you are looking at. 

[EKS]

1 hour ago, Amoret said:

Where do you find answer keys for books like this?

For college texts, you can usually find student solution manuals that have solutions for the odd problems.  And you can frequently find instructor solution manuals that have solutions for all problems on the used market for older editions of the text.  Sometimes you can even find pdfs of instructor solution manuals online. 

Another source for solutions can be a site like Chegg.  But you need to be careful about these solutions because they can be wrong or just not done the way that is being taught in the book that they are supposedly for.

Another way to find a solution is by entering the problem word for word into google.  

For solutions to algebra and calculus problems, there are tons of online calculators that will show you step by step solutions. 

That said, for proofs, solution manuals are generally not helpful unless the student just happens to come up with a proof that matches the one in the manual.  Because of this, grading geometry proofs as a homeschool parent is a daunting task.

[8filltheheart]

I looked on MUS's store page and only alg 1 has a "Legacy" ed (what they are calling their pre-revised ed) listed, so I'm guessing that geo has not been revised.

You can look at the elementary geo book online for free though internet archives. You just need to log in with an email address. https://archive.org/details/elementarygeomet0002alex I think the 2 texts are the same, just different covers. There are SM's available for the Chalkdust book (and the dvds). If you like what you see online, you could order a SM and see if they match. 

https://www.amazon.com/Geometry-Complete-Solution-special-Company/dp/0547010931

Edited June 6 by 8filltheheart

[Amoret]

20 minutes ago, EKS said:

For college texts, you can usually find student solution manuals that have solutions for the odd problems.  And you can frequently find instructor solution manuals that have solutions for all problems on the used market for older editions of the text.  Sometimes you can even find pdfs of instructor solution manuals online. 

Another source for solutions can be a site like Chegg.  But you need to be careful about these solutions because they can be wrong or just not done the way that is being taught in the book that they are supposedly for.

Another way to find a solution is by entering the problem word for word into google.  

For solutions to algebra and calculus problems, there are tons of online calculators that will show you step by step solutions. 

That said, for proofs, solution manuals are generally not helpful unless the student just happens to come up with a proof that matches the one in the manual.  Because of this, grading geometry proofs as a homeschool parent is a daunting task.

I can and have done most of these things. I was just hoping that maybe there was some secret source for acquiring instructor's manuals that I didn't know about.

Edited June 6 by Amoret

[EKS]

2 minutes ago, Amoret said:

I can and have done most of these things. I was just hoping that maybe there was some secret source for acquiring instructor's manuals that I didn't know about.

It has gotten much harder to get instructor's solution manuals since the publishers stopped printing them.  Even for older editions.  It used to be that if you went back an edition or two, there would be tons of them.

[A.M.]

You might find this review by Maria Miller, author of Math Mammoth, useful. 

https://www.mathmammoth.com/complete/geometry_guided_inquiry

 

Edited June 6 by A.M.
correction

[Amica32]

1 hour ago, 8filltheheart said:

I looked on MUS's store page and only alg 1 has a "Legacy" ed (what they are calling their pre-revised ed) listed, so I'm guessing that geo has not been revised.

You can look at the elementary geo book online for free though internet archives. You just need to log in with an email address. https://archive.org/details/elementarygeomet0002alex I think the 2 texts are the same, just different covers. There are SM's available for the Chalkdust book (and the dvds). If you like what you see online, you could order a SM and see if they match. 

https://www.amazon.com/Geometry-Complete-Solution-special-Company/dp/0547010931

Wouldn't the fact that the Algebra has a "Legacy" edition suggest that all the others have been updated? (i.e., aren't "Legacy")

[Amica32]

Also curious what people think about the "Learn Math Fast" books. My son was a late reader and late math learner and he's actually heading into his senior year. He had wanted to squeeze Trig and Calculus in but a French class we took last fall ate up all his time and he got virtually no math work done. I should clarify that he's done Algebra I and Algebra II. He wants to learn well but he also wants to learn quickly. 

[8filltheheart]

24 minutes ago, Amica32 said:

Wouldn't the fact that the Algebra has a "Legacy" edition suggest that all the others have been updated? (i.e., aren't "Legacy")

No. They have said they will continue to make the original editions available. Legacy is how they are marketing the originals. 

[Amica32]

49 minutes ago, 8filltheheart said:

No. They have said they will continue to make the original editions available. Legacy is how they are marketing the originals. 

I'm sorry, I'm not understanding this. Where have they said they will continue to make the original editions available. And if they're marketing the originals as "Legacy," then anything that DOESN'T say "Legacy" presumably isn't an original edition. That would be my assumption and I'm unclear on your reasoning otherwise. 

[8filltheheart]

1 hour ago, Amica32 said:

I'm sorry, I'm not understanding this. Where have they said they will continue to make the original editions available. And if they're marketing the originals as "Legacy," then anything that DOESN'T say "Legacy" presumably isn't an original edition. That would be my assumption and I'm unclear on your reasoning otherwise. 

No. There is no Legacy edition listed. There is only 1 book. They dont rename it to Legacy until they publish the revised version.  Alg 1 has both books available since it is the first book (and apparently only one so far) they  edited. (And it isn't just minor revisions.)

[8filltheheart]

Here is the link discussing the differences between the 2 editions. There is a pdf you can download that compares the 2 based on standards.

https://demmelearning.com/support-center/whats-the-difference-between-algebra-1-courses/