My daughter is math minded and looking toward a math based career. How is Teaching Textbooks for this? She is ready for geometry.
We've had lots of discussion about TT on here. Rachael has done Geometry, Algebra 2, and (this year) pre-Cal. But while it's been great for her and she's doing well, we've discovered that it's not really as high a math as you would think. For example, if you take both Alg. 1 and 2, you really haven't covered as much material as you would have in your typical Alg 2 class.
Jackie - since she is taking the Pre-calc does that make up for the algebra II? Sometimes kids don't take pre-calc, they just go into calculus, and I heard that college pre-calc is like an advanced algebra II? Will she slip right into calculus for college? I am wavering on TT since this year (pre-algebra) I don't care for it as much as the younger grades. Sometimes they teach things in such a stupid way I have to tell him to ignore them and do it the way I taught him. So far though, I don't think there is a better math program for independent learning. If anyone knows of one please chime in.
I don't know how it works exactly. Carl and I need to really what to do for her Junior and Senior year. Since this is the LAST TT book (and, like you said, I think pre-cal brings you up to at least Algebra 2 level), we may switch to Life of Fred. I'm not quite ready to think about that, though!!! BTW, Faythe is using an old Merrill pre-algebra book. We used this with Rachael, and it's worked very well with both girls, though Faythe has to work at it more, and I'm getting more worksheets off the Web for her.
The beauty of TT is that help is a click a way, and for most home schoolers who need help with high school math, that's good news. That being said, I've had many reports that students entering into college level math are under prepared. Saxon now has a similar cd program that sells for $90.00. It's not the DIVE CD. You may want to check it out. Curt
I have the one that Curt is talking about for Jacob and Algebra I. I am getting the one for Algebra II for my foster girl this summer (she needs to take summer school to get all her credits in so we are planning on enrolling her in Seton for the 1 course). It goes through EVERY problem and shows you step by step how to solve it. I like it for that - and the lectures are good as well from what Jake has said. I have heard awesome things about TT but I heard that sometimes they are counting it differently when you get into college (this was a side conversation of a friend of mine and I don't remember the whole thing - but she was a little upset) Oh - Saxon has a new Geometry course that came out last year - haven't heard the reviews yet, but I think Jake will be taking it next year.
Jackie , can you take a look at what they offer in Alg2 in SOS and see how it stands up? dd is doing both MUS and SOS alg2 We found that the books all seem to cover differet things? None actually cover the exact same concepts in most areas.. its more dificult learning in SOS but there are some concepts that it goes over that MUS does not... and ds 18 tested into highest level of Math for College after sos?
I'll ask Carl to do that; he's the high school math teacher! None of it makes any sense to me after Geometry!
I would not use TT for a math minded child who wanted a math based career. It is significantly weaker than even traditional math textbooks. The best math curriculum I've seen for a mathy kid, is Art of Problem Solving. You can find it at www.artofproblemsolving.com. My dd is doing Intro to Geometry right now and it is amazing. You need to keep in mind that their Introductory Algebra book and Intermediate Algebra book, do not correspond to typical Algebra I and Algebra II classes. Intro to Algebra will cover Algebra 1 and a significant chunk of most Algebra II classes. Intermediate will cover the rest of Algebra II and some trig. They both include some topics skipped over in traditional algebra classes. If you go with AoPS, you will want to go through the last half of Intro to Algebra before moving on to Intermediate Algebra, if you used a more traditional text for Algebra 1. It is a great site and even if you do not end up using their textbooks or classes, you should check out the Alcumus resource, while it is still free! Good luck!
