Doubling up on algebra lessons?

[Perry]

We just finished up Chalkdust pre-algebra, and think I've decided on Foerster's for Algebra 1 next year. I'm looking through the book, and it looks like much of it is a review of what we did in pre-algebra. I'm thinking about doing 2 or 3 lessons a day, and just picking out the harder problems from each lesson. Has anyone done this? Or is it really more in-depth than I realize?

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

I have found that doubling lessons doesn't allow enough time for the information to "perk" or "process" in the brain. We've tried to double some lessons but it just doesn't work for us.

I would suggest going over one lesson per day and assigning select problems. It the beginning is truly a review then maybe you will only assign a few problems to work per day. Or perhaps you could review by working through some problems together.

If you do decide to double lessons, I would do one lesson early in the day and another later in the day. It takes time for the math to "sink in."

IMHO,
Pam

[Kathleen in VA]

I have found that doubling lessons doesn't allow enough time for the information to "perk" or "process" in the brain. We've tried to double some lessons but it just doesn't work for us.

I would suggest going over one lesson per day and assigning select problems. It the beginning is truly a review then maybe you will only assign a few problems to work per day. Or perhaps you could review by working through some problems together.

If you do decide to double lessons, I would do one lesson early in the day and another later in the day. It takes time for the math to "sink in."

IMHO,
Pam

:iagree:

[Perry]

I wouldn't double up if the material is new, but it looks like review, so it shouldn't need to sink in. They already know it. Am I off base here? Other Chalkdust prealgebra users, did you find Algebra 1 to be mostly new material or lots of review?

[Cedarmom]

Have your son look at it. Does he feel familiar with the material? If he feels like it is review, then double up, or if it is super easy- gasp-you could even skip the material. If he gets stuck or doesn't have something down, review then. This is one of the reasons why homeschooling is so wonderful.

[In The Great White North]

In the beginning of Foerster, we did the chapter test as a pretest.

He was coming out of school, so I had no idea what he had done in algebra. I did know what he hadn't done, even though they called it algebra, which was why we were doing algebra 1 again anyway.

Turned out a few chapters could be skipped entirely.