Algebra....

[mskogen]

I have been trying to make a decision as to which way to take with my oldest son on Algebra. We finished 6B, he did not excel but he did not struggle. Some was harder than others. We finished Module A of VT. He bombed the final review. We are doing the Pre-Algebra from No Nonsense Math. I just finished reading Carrie's recommendations for math. She states that if a child struggled with 6a/6B they should do a pre-algebra course. My question is the no nonsense pre-algebra sufficient? I would like to start him in the Forester's Algebra but want to make sure he is ready. He is doing great with the pre-algebra. Thanks

[Tabitha]

My dd used this and did fine. She also did TT Pre-Alg. What happened for her is that she had a hard time with TT about 3/4 the way through. We stopped and went through Understanding Mathematics from Counting to Calculus to help her with some stumbling areas. She resumed TT but slowly. Due to the cheap price I bought No-Nonsense Pre-Alg. and had her work through that. After this she went on and finished TT. All this over about 1 1/2 years.

I think with all you have used that the No-Nonsense will be fine. My dd is now in the No-Nonsense Algebra, and is seeing it's weak areas in depth. To combat this and make sure her Algebra is rounded out, we are using CTC Math online. When she has gotten stuck in No-Nonsense, she has used CTC Math for a similar lesson and gotten through her stumbling block. I can see where Carrie says No-Nonsense is good but could use more. I plan to have dd start Foerster Algebra 2 next year, and we will continue with the CTC Math for extra help.

One complaint about the No-Nonsense maths that I've read online and found to be true is that there are typos. Some answers in the key are wrong. Even in the Algebra one, there is not a video for each lesson. A few times the videos were mixed up and put to the wrong lesson. These complaints go back a few years for the Pre-Algebra one, and up until what we ordered last year those errors were still in the book. I'd be happy to see them do some revisions to fix that. Anyway, that is the one thing I'd look out for when you are grading your child's work in No-Nonsense.