For a mom who's somewhere between "rigor" and rigor mortis in math...

[Laurie]

Yesterday may not have been a good day for me to visit this board! I was too chicken to post when I saw the "rigor" discussion, but I really need some help.
I need to make a decision about math for my ds. He's finishing up Saxon 8/7, and this is the first year that we've used the Dive cd's. I had planned on continuing with Saxon into Algebra 1, although I would be interested in trying the Teaching Tape dvds instead of Dive. After reading some posts over here, I'm also interested in the Chalkdust Math series.

Right now, ds and I read through the Saxon lesson together, and we sometimes use the Dive cd for reinforcement. Then my ds does all the practice problems, we check those, then he moves on to the assignment and we check it when he's finished (and most or all are correct). Dh can help out in the evening if ds and I get stuck on something. As for me, if I didn't go through the lessons with ds to refresh my memory I probably wouldn't be able to help him! Even if we switch to dvd-based lessons, I'll be watching them along with ds.

I've looked at the demos for both the Saxon and Chalkdust dvds. Would there be any problem going from Saxon 8/7 to Chalkdust Algebra 1? Or, if anyone has used the dvds along with Saxon, what did you think of them?

Thanks for your help!

[Sharon in MD]

:D

[Veronica in VA]

I love your title,too! I don't see why there would be any problem switching to Chalkdust Algebra I. We only went up through Saxon 76, and then switched to Lial's BCM. But we did use the DIVE CD's for 76 and they were very good. Why are you considering changing to Chalkdust? Is Saxon still working for your child? If not, Chalkdust is a good program. We didn't use it for Algebra, but my son used it for geometry and liked it.

Hope that helps,

Veronica

[Laurie]

Saxon works well for my ds, and I hadn't planned to switch until I saw the Chalkdust dvd demo. I was thrilled to see a teacher standing in front of a real chalkboard! Given my growing lack of confidence, I really like the idea of watching someone else teach the concept. The Dive cd is okay but, honestly, if I can see the person and not just hear a voice I'd like it even better! I was looking at the Rainbow Resource website and Saxon is now offering their own cd-roms. I preferred the way the screen looked, so that's another option for us.

I had read about Teaching Textbooks in a catalog and thought it looked interesting. After reading some of the discussions on this board, I'm hesitant to switch to something that may not cover as much material. Someone had said that Chalkdust uses the same textbooks that some public/private schools use, so I thought I should find out more about it. We live near a community college, so that's likely where my ds will go if/when he's ready for Calculus, so I want to make sure that he's got a solid/complete foundation.

Thanks for your help!

[Beth in SW WA]

Saxon works well for my ds, and I hadn't planned to switch until I saw the Chalkdust dvd demo. I was thrilled to see a teacher standing in front of a real chalkboard!

Yes, Prof. Mosely is wonderful. We just started CD PreAlg following TT7 and love it! Ds 12 is taking it slow and steady. W/ TT he was in the habit of quick bite-size lessons. Now it takes days to finish a section (longer when dh makes him go back and correct sloppy work).

[Karin]

I'm also posting because I LOVE your thread title. You may also wish to watch the VideoText free samples. We're leaning to something like Chalk Dust for challenging days (hormonally wise--I'm 48, dd is 12 and my 9 yo has them, too, in the earliest stages) unless I can figure out a good bartering system (from another thread). Now that we've received our new medical insurance rate (up a mere 20 percent:eek::mad: and it was already 4 digits a month) I'm really thinking through the bartering system.