530.00 Math - Teaching Textbooks

[staceycoll]

Hi all-
My dd is pretty bright in math... she tested very high on the state standardized tests.

I'm trying to decide on our curriculum for 8th grade math through all of high school (we'll be on a boat so I have to decide and buy it all in advance). I let her try the demos for TT, Life of Fred, and the DIVE cds with Saxon texts. She preferred the TT by a very wide margin. She liked the explanations of things in real-life terms (why schientists use different numbering systems, instead of just Learn This Numbering System...) as well as the presentation.

I'm inclined to go with TT for that reason- if she likes it maybe we'll hear less moaning about math! But I'm just a little worried about it not being challenging enough. I guess we could skip ahead as needed.

This is my tentative plan:
8th grade - TT Algebra 1 and TT Geometry
9th grade- finish TT Geometry, TT Algebra 2
10th grade - TT Pre-Calculus, Saxon Advanced Math
11th grade- continue Saxon Advanced Math, then what? some sort of calculus??

Thanks for any advice!
Stacey

[ForeverMom]

Originally Posted by staceycoll

Hi all-
My dd is pretty bright in math... she tested very high on the state standardized tests.

I'm trying to decide on our curriculum for 8th grade math through all of high school (we'll be on a boat so I have to decide and buy it all in advance). I let her try the demos for TT, Life of Fred, and the DIVE cds with Saxon texts. She preferred the TT by a very wide margin. She liked the explanations of things in real-life terms (why schientists use different numbering systems, instead of just Learn This Numbering System...) as well as the presentation.

I'm inclined to go with TT for that reason- if she likes it maybe we'll hear less moaning about math! But I'm just a little worried about it not being challenging enough. I guess we could skip ahead as needed.

This is my tentative plan:
8th grade - TT Algebra 1 and TT Geometry
9th grade- finish TT Geometry, TT Algebra 2
10th grade - TT Pre-Calculus, Saxon Advanced Math
11th grade- continue Saxon Advanced Math, then what? some sort of calculus??

Thanks for any advice!
Stacey

My dd was also very bright in math, but she went through before TT and mostly before I had heard of Singapore, so she used Saxon (before the Dive CDs). She went through all of Saxon (through Calculus in 11th grade). In 12th grade, I let her just "play around" with some of the advanced Singapore.

All that said, I have a question about your proposed schedule. Why are you having your dd do both TT Pre-Calculus and Saxon Advanced Math? To me, that sounds like overkill and would bore any bright child. Why not pick one or the other? You could even get creative and see if she could enter any math contests. My dd participated in (and won ) one here that involved all area schools, public and private, (Number Sense??).

If she finishes early, go on to Calculus. If she finishes that early, you could look into college courses. You could also probably find some on-line courses or resources for the senior year. Maybe, you could even find a math tutor or mentor for her who would take her beyond the normal realm of high school. Of course, you could also let her "play around" with advanced Singapore texts. Anyway, just my .02.

[staceycoll]

Thanks, Forevermom-
I have heard that TT's Pre-calc is not really as thorough as Saxon ADvanced Math; in fact I heard that TT's Alg 1, Alg 2, Geometry and pre-calc basically equal Saxon Alg 1 + 2. So it seemed logical to move on to Saxon Advanced Math (obviously skimming areas we'd already covered well enough in TT) next, to make sure she had all the necessary prerequisites for Saxon Calculus and beyond.
Thank you for your comments!
STacey

[ForeverMom]

Originally Posted by staceycoll

Thanks, Forevermom-
I have heard that TT's Pre-calc is not really as thorough as Saxon ADvanced Math; in fact I heard that TT's Alg 1, Alg 2, Geometry and pre-calc basically equal Saxon Alg 1 + 2. So it seemed logical to move on to Saxon Advanced Math (obviously skimming areas we'd already covered well enough in TT) next, to make sure she had all the necessary prerequisites for Saxon Calculus and beyond.
Thank you for your comments!
STacey

Makes sense! I haven't tried Teaching Textbooks, yet, so I didn't really know how they compared.

[snowmanlvr67]

My son (now 15) did Algebra 1 (ABeka), Geometry and Algebra 2 (MUS) before entering high school this past year. For our district, that meant he had all his "required" high school math classes done. KNowing he plans to go to college, I encouraged him to take more math classes so he wouldn't get rusty before taking his ACT's his junior year. He did pre-calc this year and hated the teacher (this boy is a math whiz but just could not grasp ths teaching style presented) and he is taking trig this coming year. With a little review then before ACT's, I think he will be well prepared. He doesn't plan to major in math so if he forgets half of the advanced stuff (like I did!) I think he will be fine!

Becky
wife to Dave for 21 years

mom to
ds Zach (18 years)
dd Sara (16 years)
ds DJ (15 years)
dd Anna (13 years)

also mom to 2 furries--Yogi (woof) and Molly (meow)