Amy C. wrote:Hi! Its been awhile since I have been on here. Life is so busy! I have added a couple of part time jobs along with homeschooling and then life in general.
I have a question about geometry. Jacobs Geometry is not really working out that well for us. My son who is normally an A student is struggling with the tests. He says that he understands it but just has trouble taking the tests. Honestly I don't know if he understands it or not. With homeschooling 4 children and trying to work these PT jobs, I have not found Jacob's to be user friendly so I have not really been able to help him with it that much even though I have tried. It may be a great geometry program, but I am thinking it is not working well for us. I really don't even know how or what to tell you is not working about it for us. I am just needing a little more user friendly geometry program.
Anyone else have this experience? If so, what did you do? Does anyone have another geometry suggestion for us? I want to make sure he understands it. At this point, I am thinking a program that includes geometry with Alg 2 might be what we need for this next school year. Also, my second son will be ready for geometry next as he is doing Alg 1 this year. I am thinking we will need to use something different with him as well.
Can anyone help me out?
TIA!
Amy C.
Hi Amy,
Nice to "see" you here!
I have a few thoughts right off the bat. For one thing, no worries, it is pretty easy to switch Geometry programs in the middle, since they all tend to be fairly similar. You may be able to just go to the same unit in another program. There are some programs now that are designed for homeschooled families that might work, not sure.
On the other hand, since you already have Jacobs, I'd be curious as to where he's having trouble. Is he doing fine in the geometry calculations but having trouble with proofs?
If the proofs are the culprit, is he having trouble remembering all the postulates and theorems he can use - would a cheat sheet help? (My opinion is that understanding how to use the theorems is the point, rather than memorizing the names, kinda like grammar terms vs. writing well.) Or is he having trouble grading them because his proof looks different than the answer key?
If it's the calculation portion that has errors, then I remember at least one test set that had the domino effect - if my son got the first one wrong, then all the rest were wrong. I actually emailed Mr. Jacobs back-in-the-day, and he admitted that was a mistake to set up a problem set with the potential for a domino effect, so you should give your son a chance to correct all the others after he understands the first one. In fact, I've read of math teachers who give half-credit for each answer that the student is able to correct on his own (just told that it's wrong, or if he uses the answer key then he has to show why his new answer is correct), and I followed that advice.
Geometry is a different egg than most other math. Often kids who love algebra will not love the wordiness of geometry proofs, and vice-versa. Again, I think of it like advanced grammar - understanding the concepts and the foundational sensibility of math is important but in later life, the details can be looked up as needed.
Just some random thoughts,
Julie