cross posting..sorry if some of you see this on multiple forums! Tell me about Teaching Textbooks. Pros, Cons, good, bad? I've heard some people say it is a year or more behind other curriculum levels, but couldn't that be fixed by just taking the placement tests and putting them in the right level? I will be homeschooling 3 kiddos plus a wild preschooler AND new baby with 3 of those kids in different maths. We are switching to HOD for other subjects because I need a more set schedule. But I am really hoping to outsource Math a bit. My 1st grader just finished up Saxon 1, he placed in the TT 3. My 3rd grader is still completing her year of Switched On Schoolhouse Math 3, which she has done great with self teaching, but gets very frustrated with all the "bugs" and input methods. It frustrates me too! Does TT have those issues? And then my 5th grader is finishing up his Saxon Math 6/5 which he has pretty much self taught with the Saxon Teacher Dvds on the computer. So what do you think, would TT be a good fit for my 3 kids? I don't want them getting behind incase they go back to their Christian school the following year (which uses Saxon). I just hate Saxon at home. Thanks! "
If you test into where they are, and disregard the grade. It SOUNDS like it would be a good fit. I'm wishing I'd used the placement tests for my oldest. AND I wish I'd skipped TT 7 with her and gone right into Pre-Algebra. However, we love TT in this house. My youngest tested into TT3 in the end of her 1st grade year also, so she does TT3. And will do TT4 next year. I don't necessarily think TT is "behind" I think it's a more normal pace. But it also seems to lay groundwork so that when the harder stuff comes, it's easier to grasp. I don't know if that makes sense or not.
I agree 100% with Krista. It's not behind, it's just not advanced like homeschoolers have grown used to (you know because we all think we should be raising rocket scientists). Most HS focused math is way ahead of traditional math programs, TT stick with the traditional level. Placement tests fix the whole "it's behind" issue. I love TT, but want to caution you, it doesn't mean you can forget about math. You do need to make sure they are doing the work and understand it. I think that its best if they work the problems in the workbook or keep a math notebook with all problems worked out in it. I thought I was in the clear when it came to math after TT, I quickly learned I was very wrong, so I think it's important that others know that.
I do think it really depends on how the kid looks at it. My oldest, for example, will do the workbook each day and then once a week enter it all. She checks it every day and if she has one wrong, she reworks it until she gets the answer in the book. She's a stickler that way. She'll only ever watch the lecture first IF she's not understanding it in the workbook (the workbook has all the lecture written out). My middle does the workbook and checks it WITH ME (because he'd just change the answers if he was wrong, and not rework it!). Then he enters it. My youngest likes to watch the lecture and do the workbook AS she's doing the computer side of it. If she gets one wrong, she gets it wrong and moves on, then we look at it afterwards. LOL She's not as worried about having wrong answers! LOL You do need to help sometimes, but I would say only once or twice a week am I truly "involved" in their math. It saved my relationship with my oldest when we switched. She used to cry EVERYDAY over Math.
It has been a while since we we used TT. I liked it, my daughter could take it or leave it. Actually, she'd rather leave it!
My kids all love TT. I do not use the CD's for the lower grades (up to Pre-Algebra). My dd11 (TT6) is able to read the instructions and understand mostly on her own. Dd9 (TT4) is getting there. Both work out problems on paper, and I help them work through any trouble spots. Dd14 (Pre-Alg) and ds16 (Alg. 2) use the CD's but work all problems on paper. They check their work with the CD's and make necessary corrections. They still come to me if they get stuck. DD14, my struggling student, said just the other day that she loves TT. I agree with the others not to get hung up on the grade level. Do a placement test and go from there.
It's interesting how everyone seems to use TT a little differently. Here's our way (I've posted this a lot lately, so maybe you already know :lol: ). Dd is doing TT3 and we watch the lecture on the CD together. We then do the lesson in the workbook (sometimes I'll generalize the "lecture" in the workbook if I think I need to explain things a little more...but often we just go right to the problems). Sometimes I read some of the problems to her, often she just does everything herself. When she's finished we go back to the computer. She tells me her answer, I put it into the computer (so far they are always right, so I just click the No button...meaning we don't need to see how to work the problem out). When I click No it immediately goes to the next problem and I click the stop button so we don't have to hear the problem read. I input her answer, click No, click stop....we have this down pat and it goes really fast. For us...this is the best of both worlds...she is still doing math with paper and pencil, but we get the benefit of the CD and all it has to offer too. Personally (and I mean no offense to the person who does otherwise), but I can't imagine using TT without the CD's, even at the lower levels. The CD's are really what make the program. I love the automatic grading. In TT3 (not sure what other levels offer this) there is a game round every few lessons which is pretty fun. Dd loves switching up her buddies that cheer her on. I think the TT CD's are brilliant. So, to make a long story short (too late!), I would definitely recommend TT....but you need to keep on top of it. I think a lot of people want to try TT because they think, like you, that they can just have their kids do it on their own and it will free up some of their time. But, I don't really think it's a program you should hand to your kid and let them do it on their own....I think eventually you could have some potential problems doing that. Just my opinion. ETA: Thinking more on your situation....I think maybe you could have each kid watch their lecture on the CD and then work their problems in the workbook. You could kind of oversee this part of it and make sure they understand what they are doing. If they seem to have no problems, then they could go to the cd and input their answers as a self-check. This way you aren't with each kid for the entire lesson, since you want to free up some time and be with the little ones. But, you are also keeping on top of it too. If they've already done the work in the workbook, they could just turn the sound down on the CD so they don't have to hear every problem read. I don't recommend just doing the work on the CD and skipping the workbook, this is what we did for over 30 lessons and then I realized we were really missing something without doing the math on paper.
For me, it's because of the cost. I can't spend that amount of money per math program for 4 kids. This way, I can keep them in the same math program for years without the high expense. I've never seen the CD's for the younger grades, so I don't know what I'm missing. Grading takes only a minute (I do have the solutions book.), and then we go over any missed problems together. It's what works for us.
I've been lucky enough to have a friend with a daughter a grade above my oldest and another a grade above my son. So I've always borrowed the disks and only bought the workbooks. I gave in and bough the Pre-Algebra last year because my oldest was ready for it before my friend's daughter was done with it. I also bought TT3 this year for my youngest (but those are much cheaper than the higher levels). THANKFULLY, I'll be buying Algebra soon (buying the updated one for the grading!), and will only have to buy TT4 next year. I'm going to see if my son can do the Pre-Algebra - I'll just need to get him the workbook. If he's able too, than I'll just have to buy the workbok for him each year. and he'll go right into what my oldest is done with. I do love that the CD's hold their value! Last year I sold a set of CD's for almost as much as you can buy them online brand new!
Both of my girls are using TT. My older daughter has used it for four years. She uses the CD's and then writes her answers in a notebook. She has the workbook, but doesn't write in it so that I can sell it when she is done. My younger daughter is just starting TT4. She doesn't use the workbook at all, just the CD's. I can't say enough about TT, it has totally saved my relationship with my older daughter.
We LOVE TT!!! My boys used to hate math, and now they actually ask to do extra math lessons. My boys do their work on the computer, and I check the grade book either daily or every other day. It is a god send to our family. It requires minimal input from me, and no grading math papers!!!
Hi All I was homeschooling my daughter last year and at the beginning of the current school year but due to a variety of circumstances we returned her to private school a few weeks into the year. She is a 7th grader. I was concerned about her math skills so I asked the school to place her in the 6th grade math class. They use Saxon Math. She has done pretty well. She would like to try to move into the 8th grade math class next year when she is in 8th grade. That will mean skipping 7th grade math altogether. My idea is to have my daughter work through about 8-10 lessons per week in TT Pre-Algebra over the summer to prepare her. I compared the TT Pre-Algebra table of contents to Saxon Course 2 (7th grade). The concepts covered in both programs match up pretty well with one another. We'll do the placement tests of course but in looking at them I'm sure she'll place in Pre-Algebra just fine. I am wondering if doing this over the summer will be enough to skip 7th grade Saxon Math in school altogether and plunge into 8th grade Saxon. Any thoughts? I would appreciate the input. I am going to post this out in a new thread to also solicit advice from the Saxon experts.
We love TT. It frees me up to teach other subjects, and no grading papers. I do monitor their grades on a daily basis and make them re do any corrections, but its so much easier than grading math papers and less time consuming for both myself and my boys. They are done with math in half the time it used to take to do Saxon math, which we all hated. It is expensive, but can be used for all of your kids when they reach that grade level. So if you average the cost. It's not too bad.
We really like TT here. But I will tell you that if you think you might ever put your child in school, then you do need to be aware of the pace. My daughter used TT from 3-6 and then this year she went to public school for 7th grade. They put her in the higher math track and it was absolutely miserable. The other students were familiar with concepts that she had not yet covered in TT. Part of the problem is that the school uses a different curriculum than TT and each curriculum decides when to teach what. BUT...I would have done it differently if I had known she was going to go to public school. We ended up putting her in a lower level math and she's getting A's and is much less stressed, but it means that she is probably now on a different math pathway then she would have been. No biggie. She's probably not going into a math/science field. My advice to you would be to use the placement tests (we never did), but also to do math in the summer. That's what we did for my older boys. I would not rush TT because you want them to be on the same track as the public school...rushing would defeat one of the purposes of homeschooling. Give them all the time that they need to learn. And know that that might include summers. We are not a year-round homeschooling family, but for our boys who were going into science fields, we needed them to be ready to take the community college classes at a certain point. So somewhere around 8th grade they ended up doing some math in the summer. But I really do like TT. We like the fact that there is a lecture, so they get to hear as well as read the lecture.
