"Elementary Algebra" by Harold Jacobs?

[ccitrini]

Does anyone have past experience using Harold Jacob's curriculum for math, in particular Algebra 1? Did it work well for your family? How would you compare it to other curriculae that you considered or used?

My son is a rising 8th grader and has used both Saxon and Abeka math curriculae in each of the grade up to 6th grade. We used Glencoe in 7th grade.

Thank you for any insights you can give.

Christine in GA.

[LoriM]

My younger dd used Elementary Algebra for two years, in 7th grade, through Chapter 8, and then again in 8th grade (starting over), for Algebra 1. I think it's a great introductory algebra book for a young student; it's funny (corny) and entertaining. Pretty wordy, so if you have a reluctant reader who wants to "just get it done" it may not be his favorite.

Anyway, I think it was a good fit for us. I have loaned my copies to several other families who have used it as well. The natural follow-up is Jacobs Geometry, but my older dd did that book, and my younger dd did something else. :) (I wrote a course, and used a variety of resources.)

Anyway, Jacobs Elementary Algebra is a fine resource for Algebra 1.

Lori

[Lori D.]

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[MyThreeSons]

Jacobs' is my favorite text for Algebra I.

I tutor math students who use other texts, and I will often go to the Jacobs text for an explanation that makes more sense to a student.

[Sharon in MD]

My son did Al 1 in 8th grade as well and it was a perfect fit for him. He loved the cartoons and corny jokes that added a little fun to the text. I appreciated the way Jacobs explains the whys of math so well. We moved easily from Jacobs to Foerster for Al II and then Foerster's precalc. We switched to Chalkdust for Calculus because I needed the video support.

Jacobs lays a great foundation!

[Karin]

It's a gentle approach. It didn't work well here, but if you follow all those links given, you'll find more on this by me and many others :). Wow, what a lot of links, and I would even be surprised if there are more.

In answer to your second question, Lial's was better, and 1965 Dolciani seems to be the best for her so far. Dd is doing Dolciani to do Algebra 1 a second time (she was done by 13 the first time). That said, my next one is going to do LoF Algebra and then Dolciani Algebra 1 (mine are ready for it early, so I have them do it twice to get a better understanding of the thinking and theory of it.)