Math advice needed for my senior

[8FillTheHeart]

To attempt to give a condensed version of our ds's history.....

He is very bright, but he is an Aspie and has had numerous emotional problems the past 2 yrs. He took pre-cal at a private school last fall but we had to pull him out of that school and sent him to a boarding school for the spring semester b/c of very serious behavioral issues. At the boarding school he was so far ahead of all the other students that he did zero academics the entire semester (unless you call sitting in with student doing basic skill level material academic.)

We are now homeschooling him again. I purchased Larson's Pre-cal and the Mosley DVDs for him to use this yr. I had assumed that since he had a 98 in pre-cal before we withdrew him that the beginning of the book would be review and he would have no problems.

Well, unfortunately, he hasn't been even been able to do the beginning of the book w/o significant help from me. This is a very uneviable position for me b/c my brain is a pile of pregnancy mush!!

We have no clue what this child will do long term. He is no where near ready to attend college or function on his own. He may never be independent. We simply do not know.

So........

I have been looking at the Thinkwell videos thinking that this might be a more appropriate approach for him. But.......considering he can't even do the review sections at the beginning of the pre-cal book (basic functions), I don't know what level I should even attempt. Should we go back to college algebra, do trig, attempt their pre-cal??? (I am so confused b/c he has never had ANY trouble with math before, but intellectually he does seem to be regressing.)

B/c his transcript is a complete disaster (homeschooled 9th, 1st semester 10th, one school 2nd semester 10th, different school 1st semester 11th, boarding school with no academics that I would even want to list 2nd semester 11th).......I am not worried about what is on his transcript. I just want to have him complete a level of math where he is actually learning and able to succeed.

[Quiver0f10]

Do you think he could do a CC math class? What about CD Alg II as a review for the pre-cal ?

[8FillTheHeart]

Do you think he could do a CC math class? What about CD Alg II as a review for the pre-cal ?

We discussed a CC class, but we decided against that route for this semester. We REALLY want to avoid him incorporating inappropriate behaviors again. (which is what he has done in previous school settings) We are really hoping that we can make leaps this year in self-direction and social skills training.

I think he is beyond alg 2......:confused: I already have 2 doing Foersters alg 2, so it would be easy enough to bump him in with them, but I would like to see SOME progress. :tongue_smilie:

[Jann in TX]

Instead of making him go back and 'redo' all of Algebra 2, I suggest purchasing the Dr Mosley videos that go with the Algebra 2 text and having him watch the last half of the program as a 'review'. You can pull out occasional practice problems from the Foerster book--not too many though.

Dr Burger (Thinkwell) is a great teacher--but a FAST talker--your son may or may not be able to follow him--or put up with the distractions of puppets and such!

You can get the Dr Mosley (Chalkdust) videos for around $25... you might try these first.

[8FillTheHeart]

Instead of making him go back and 'redo' all of Algebra 2, I suggest purchasing the Dr Mosley videos that go with the Algebra 2 text and having him watch the last half of the program as a 'review'. You can pull out occasional practice problems from the Foerster book--not too many though.

Dr Burger (Thinkwell) is a great teacher--but a FAST talker--your son may or may not be able to follow him--or put up with the distractions of puppets and such!

You can get the Dr Mosley (Chalkdust) videos for around $25... you might try these first.


Hi Jann,

Right now I am even more confused. He is also doing physics and has had no problem doing the math......so he definitely has sin, cos, etc. mastered......he breezed through the physics problems today in a matter of minutes.

FWIW......he does not like the idea of reviewing alg 2 (there are already lots of sibling issues. For example, his 15 yos is getting her permit in a couple of weeks but we won't let him drive. His 8th grade brother is doing alg 2. The fact that we have had to make him acknowledge the fact that he is not ready to be independent is a huge ego thing.......the alg 2 is just one issue that I don't want to have to force on him)

He watched the Thinkwell videos and liked their presentation better than Larson.

So, if we wanted to step back some, but not completely, would college algebra or trig be appropriate? I could also try to find a tutor to see if they can evaluate where he really is and see if they could work with him on Larsons text b/c I simply can't manage it right now.

:tongue_smilie: This is not going to be an easy year no matter what I do!!

[langfam]

Just some thoughts that may or may not be helpful. DD started CD Precal. last fall and got through Chapter 3, but really disliked the text, though she loved Dana Mosely. We switched to TT Precalculus because she asked for something different. I know there's alot of criticism of TT, but it worked very well for her. When she took the COMPASS test for math placement for her college Freshman year, she placed into Calculus. TT was very easy to implement. She finished the course without any help from me even though she started it in October.

Wanted to add that though she placed into Calculus. I advised her to start at Precal. this fall.

[Jann in TX]

Well...
If he liked Dr Burger then you can always try Thinkwell. I have it and I've enjoyed watching some of the lessons... (I also have the Dr Mosley ones because my dd did not like how fast Dr Burger talked!)

The Thinkwell set does not have enough practice for me--but it may be enough for your son--the 'companion' is a HUGE HUGE text--but it also includes every slide from the videos. Maybe a more 'creative' teacher like Dr Burger will capture your son's attention....

[Janice in NJ]

Hi! Take a look at the College Alg line-up of video lectures and then compare it to the PreCalc lectures. They are almost identical with the PreCalc lectures going a but further with the topics. I made the mistake of buying the College Alg materials along with the CD's so we would have the lectures even after our subscription expired and I should have just picked up the PreCalc set instead.

Just a quick FYI if you decide to go that route.

Peace,
Janice

[Brenda in MA]

prior to starting PreCalc since he's able to do the math for Physics? Here's a link to their one-month free trial:

http://www.aleks.com/webform/c12

HTH,
Brenda

[8FillTheHeart]

Thanks for that idea Brenda. I signed him up for this this morning. At the bare minimum, it will give him something to work on while I decide what to do!