My dd11 is taking Algebra 1 right now. She is about 1/2 way through the class. I think AOPS suits her as she had already worked through the Key to Algebra workbooks which gave her a nice foundation before she started this very intensive class. AOPS packs all of Algebra 1+ into 16 weeks. The once a week online class works surprisingly well. I thought she/we would miss hearing an instructor's voice, but it actually easier to concentrate without all the noise of intruction/questions/answers. The online class is very engaging; she's been known to laugh out loud at things the instructor says. The instructor posts the answers the students get for problems given during class, but only if they got it right (there is no "penalty" for giving a wrong answer). I usually sit with her during class, and sometimes when she is doing the question database (Alcumus). At this point I mostly am there to remind her to read the question twice, ask "what kind of question is this?" etc. In the beginning, it was a little difficult to have to re-write the problem from the computer screen before she could solve it -- she wanted to do more of it in her head. At this point, I think she's found the happy medium. The textbook is very readable; I highly recommend it. The database gives questions on the topic at hand (generally) at varying difficulty levels. It also gives you a visual representation of how far along you are in each topic.
