Going back to the original question: Aleks for Algebra.
I personally like Aleks because it is very structured - you know what is expected, you know what the consequences of wrong answers are, etc.
My 5th grade DD is doing Aleks for pre-algebra (not doing it very religiously though :-) and while she hates the fact that Aleks assessment takes her back a few points each time, she knows that she really has to understand the subject/problem matter. I will make sure she sticks with it for occasional after schooling. It is good for her.
My DS was jealous of his little sister taking an online class and he requested I sign him up last summer. I did. He had just completed Geometry at school that year and he wanted to sign up for Algebra 2. I said no, take the Geometry test first.
He did and he scored at about 55% of the Geometry pie. So he started doing the problems. And it was not easy! At school he did not cover all of the material that was covered by Alex. And he eventually gave up Aleks, choosing an AoPS class instead. I did not insist.
I think a person that will succeed with Aleks has to be very organized and very motivated. Mathy kids tend not to be like that :-)
My daughter does get bored with repetiveness (sp!) of Aleks, but AoPS is way above her at this point. Aleks is good. Aleks is for your "normal" smart child :-)
Also, I have to point out that I had absolutely no problems cancelling my DS's Aleks account. They did it within a few minutes. And like someone else said before, you can't beat the price ! So try it out for a month - and cancel if you do not like it. One word of wisdom - kids tend to LOVE it at first, but the affection goes away after a while.
