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We signed up for EPGY open enrollment a few weeks ago. DS7 mostly enjoys it, but has gotten stuck on addition/subtraction of money this weekend. We sat down with pencil and paper and explained it to him.

It seems like the EPGY program asks questions on topics that it's given no instruction for. I don't think it explained about carrying or borrowing (which he's done before, but I think the decimal point threw him for a loop). Isn't this supposed to be a self-contained curriculum that teaches the kids and tests them on what they've been taught?

Did I misunderstand?

When my son was doing the final exam for Grade 3, he was asked about subsets. I'm pretty sure he hadn't seen them before. Luckily, it's a pretty intuitive concept so I explained the concept to him and he was fine. Also some of the notation appears before it is introduced. There are still bugs.

Sounds like its working as intended. Sometimes you have to expect the unexpected!

Well here we are. After spending the weekend teaching him how to deal with all the complicated addition and subtraction of money stuff, the Integers strand has kicked in with:

Introduction to Grouping By Tens and Ones (preparation for learning to carry).

DS was literally scolding the computer for giving him the problems in the wrong order. I think someone must have made a mistake when they programmed the levels of each lesson into the software.

I had a similar issue with Aleks last weekend. Which presented two topics side by side in the 3rd grade Fractions unit: Writing a Decimal and a Fraction for a Shaded Region and Tenths and Hundredths Decimal Place Value. My son saw the word fraction, went with the familiar and #1. Then called me to explain what those tenth and hundredth were about. Once he completed the topic I noticed that the other one had been available all along. Aaaaaargh!

We will note that he had already done money and addition of. Meaning that he had been handling tenth and hundredth already, although the decimal point and its meaning were never explicitly covered. Which is why I think Aleks is still very far from perfect... and apparently EPGY also has some way to go...

I agree with your programming comment and EPGY can be frustrating. My DD8 started EPGY math at Grade 3.5. Because I started her in the middle of a year, she missed some of the basic requirements and had to go through EPGY for clarification on certain problems. You can actually submit your concerns, but make sure you note the problem number in your correspondence. They will actually address issues if they are aware of them.

My DD had the biggest issue with geometry, in that the instructions were not very clear. She finally figured out what they were looking for, but EPGY actually had to e-mail her step by step instructions to get her through. This comes around the 3.5 grade level, so don't be surprised if your DS runs into additional complications.

EPGY is a learning tool for gifted children, so don't be surprised by some of the curve balls. The good news is that you can hit the lecture button and search for the appropriate lecture to get through the problems.

Good luck!

Thank you. I actually hadn't noticed the lecture button, and did kind of wonder why there wasn't more instruction. Guess we know who DS gets his inattentive tendencies from :-)

That should help a lot. Thanks again.

I was just thinking of putting my youngest back in EPGY for algebra after doing math at school this year, your post brought back repressed memories.

My son was so frustrated with EPGY last time he did it. the program would have problems using a concept not yet taught that he didn't understand. The thing that drove him crazy was that it took forever to getting a tutor to call him back (don't know if they cut tutoring staff or we just had really bad luck getting them to respond) and explain it or he'd reluctantly ask someone in our house for help only to have click through the lesson and all the teaching problems on the concept a few sections later.

There are so many things EPGY does better in math than my children's K-8 classes. I love how they give the kids a deep understanding of numbers and how they interact rather than just rote skills but some of it...
Thanks for reminding me