My son has finished Horizon's math 6A. We have always supplemented with things like Life of Fred and Keys to series. As I was looking over the Horizon's math 6B, I felt like most of the book was review. I think Horizon's reviews A LOT. I decided I would just skip over Horizon's math B, return it to the store, and get preAlgebra instead. It looked like there would only be a couple new topics, and those were not ones that are very important to do right now. One was bisecting an angle. But all the calculation type topics and even graphing topics had been covered. I left the book laying on the table to take back to the store this morning. I got up and found the book missing. I went looking, and found that son took the book in to his bedroom to get a head start. Yep, he had written in the book! Now I am torn, should I just have him do this book and then maybe skip over a future book? I am a bit tired of all the review. I have read before that prealgebra tends to be just a bunch of review. I can see some new topics in it though, mostly related to graphing, so I don't need to do an entire year of math to get that. Or should I take the 6B math and set it aside for a younger sibling and still move on to the preAlgebra? I obviously cannot return it anymore.
Sounds like you bought a math book. I would let him keep it and finish it. Many children like review. They like repetition and the success they feel when they can do it and do it well. What matter if he is repeating math problems or levels on a video game or watching a movie for the third time. As for school, just mark out the areas you do not need him to do officially and move through the book faster that way then move to the next. Another thought that comes to mind is whether or not your child new of your plans to trade that book for a pre-algebra book. IF so perhaps he is intimidated by "pre-algrebra". If you you can find one that does not say that on the cover.
Ironically, he had wanted to skip up to prealgebra but I had told him no. Then, after he had gone to bed, the night before we were supposed to start the new book, I was sitting down going over it again and decided it was mostly review and we could move on. He was in bed so I did not tell him. Then he got up before me and got to start right away on his school work.
We skipped 7th, because we completed teh 6a and 6b of horizon and found we were at the middle of 8th, level so I went to 8th grade (pre algebra) I would finish the year with horizon though. that mastery approach takes review and re do a lot but its good for the years ahead.
Something I became aware of last night is that my husband, in teaching him computer programming, he is using negative numbers and graphing..and even 3D graphing with X Y and Z coordinates. I think we will finish this book and then I will give him a new placement exam to find out where he belongs before we move on.
We don't use the same program as you but I found that my oldest was getting her math done with little effort and was cruising through. SO we skipped 7th grade math and it has been the best decision ever! She is not a natural math person but she is doing well and is learning a lot.
