Your impressio was that Aleks doesn't cover the material as well as might be needed, or that there was enough review? I looked at it briefly, but have no experience.
It's hard to tell. He definitely learned it - and his SCAT score went up about 35 points b/n 2nd and 3rd grade spring. Maybe with more repetition he would have become faster, but then again, he'd tolerate the program less. I just wonder how much he got out of a program that took less than 2 mos. for 4th grade, when he didn't work on it everyday. Then again, there is so much repetition b/n grades - all elementary curriculum seems to spiral. After third grade, he placed into about 4.5, after 4th grade, he placed into 5.6+. Also, he did no math over the summer, and this fall he couldn't exactly remember how to multiply large numbers (3 digit by 4 digit or whatever). Now, we're doing an assortment of everything, as it's very hard to switch b/n math curricula as they teach in different orders and different subjects in different grades.
Also, for whomever asked the question, we're homeschooling. He was in public school for second grade, and since he knew most everything they were teaching, I had him do EPGY3 and Elementary Problem Solving I through CTY b/c I didn't want him just sitting there. But the acceleration (which was really only picking up where his previous private school had left off in first grade) created more problems for him in the classroom.
It's never easy, is it?
fyi, our public school allows the kids in 4th and 5th to work on Aleks in the classroom once they demonstrate that they know the topic being taught that week. They do in-class differentiation. As it was explained to me during our tour last spring as we considered our options for this year, if DS already knows long division, he'd be expected to listen to the instruction as to how to do it, but wouldn't need to work the same problems the class was using. He'd be given other more interesting/difficult problems that would involve long division, and then would be given Aleks time - or something like that. Our district has no gifted services other than in-class differentiation until 6th grade honors math.
I just mention that b/c I wonder what other options there are other than acceleration in schools which won't accommodate the advanced and/or gifted kids. It really was a tough decision for us - let him sit there and be miserable, or let him move forward and be miserable...
