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DS10 worked through the AoPS pre-algebra with me this fall, using book (well OK, *I* used the book) and Alcumus (what he did). He had completed grade 4 math, no trace of enrichment of any kind (grr), so was rather light on prep going in. The course was not over his head, but with his focus on just doing the Alcumus problems, pretty much every question required learning a new concept or two he'd never seen before. My guess is your DD would be fine - the book really starts from scratch and assumes virtually no prior knowledge, so it's quite self-contained, but not slow. Everything is derived from first principles (now I actually know why reciprocals exist); I was very impressed with the book and AoPS in general. And the videos were fun (though DS stopped watching after chapter 1 - he was in a hurry).

As just noted on another thread, AoPS without the classes (book + Alcumus + videos) can work very well, if credit is not required. But may be labour intensive on your part depending on how much of a self-starter you have.

P.S. We're signed up for the actual online Algebra starting next week, so we'll find out how heavy the workload can get for a younger kid with limited background.... As quoted above, AoPS says 5 - 7 hours a week including class time, but it would be easy to spend longer if you're dealing with a lot of new material as well as the more complex problems.

Yes, AOPS videos are good, very informative, but also entertaining. (Nice to alternate with the printed text.) DS liked and used them a lot when he was doing Prealgebra (by books). Rusczyk has personally made most (if not all) of them, and he is a great presenter.

BTW, Alcumus shows references to the books and to the relevant videos with each problem's soultion.

We are, in theory, using AoPS Pre-Algebra for homeschooling this year, but so far DS9 hasn't really taken to it. Because he usually didn't see the "trick" in the problems immediately, he became frustrated and gave up. But I otherwise really like the format of the book.

Our fallback, for now, is Khan Academy, which DS sees as less daunting.

I read a lot (!) of reviews before going with AoPS, and the general consensus seemed to be that the kids that really liked it tended to be the highly visual-spatial, "start with the big picture and then derive the details" kinds of learners. It may not work so well for those that prefer to build up the details piece by piece to make a larger concept. One Mom perfectly captured the spirit of the comments I kept seeing, noting she tried AoPS with he twin boys, and her "whole to parts" learner loved it, while her "parts to whole" learner found it frustrating and unhelpful.

Our sequence was SG Maths K thru 5 (she skipped the 4th grade one because she passed the final test). Then she did Lure Of The Labyrinth for fun. About a month after her 9th birthday she started AoPS PreAlgebra. I worked with her for the first couple of weeks because stood in stark contrast to SGM and her B&M public school 4th grade curriculum. It is dry and rigorous but very engaging nevertheless because there are no frivolous distractions to be found here.

After the first fortnight she hit her stride and was able to teach herself from the book, she enjoyed the tutorial session but felt that was not necessary if she had done the prep beforehand. The real value was in the set challenging questions and in the one written question set each week. The feedback on the written problem proved to be where the true value of taking the actual online course was for my DD it has taught her the value of showing her work as the articulation of a logical train of thought somebody else can followinstead of being an onerous chore.

The only downside (and this would not apply to a homeschoolers) is that it took its toll on her time in addition to regular homework so we got her Maths teacher in 4th grade to agree to let her do the week's bookwork in class time after the group work was done. She still did all of the regular class work but during the individual work/practice time she did the AoPS work. This way the teacher was assured that she would do well on the EOY test while we in turn were reassured that our DD was still being challenged. We photocopied the weekly chapter sessions so our DD didn't work on AoPS too conspicuously.

My DD will be taking the Algebra1 next week. We had the meeting with this year's Maths teacher last Friday and she was very supportive of our DD doing the AoPS work in class time. This was primarily because last year's teacher had already briefed her and was positive about how things had gone last year. Reading some of the horror stories here showing how some (bad) teachers deal with gifted kids makes us realise just how lucky we are to have had teachers that have not battled us or our DD. God willing, long may this last!

I hope this helps.

Sorry to leave this incomplete earlier was waiting for a tow truck that arrived so I had to cut it short earlier.

I have never read or heard anything like this, and this is not my understasnding of AoPS at all. I don't think they'd describe themselves anything like this either.

What is true is they try to get the student to learn something by solving a problem about it, rather than simply being told how to solve that type of problem first. That won't work for all students. But the student's "discoveries" are still somewhat incremental. They are not ever expected to have an epiphany where they suddenly see the whole big picture in a single vision.

Sorry 22B - I've explained it badly. As best as I can understand, some people learn best by building up smaller tasks into a larger picture (most teachers work this way), from simpler to more complex. Others (my DH and DS among them) learn best by starting with a big, general concept, and then trying to fit facts in/ derive the specifics from it. If they start with the simpler facts, they seem to have nothing to attach them to, and struggle to hang on to them. Most people probably benefit from working both directions, but some seem to work much better from one end over the other. Having a family split between the extremes, that Mom's words in the review really resonated for me.

With AoPS, I agree, it builds up incrementally, and certainly expects no epiphanies! I guess for us it feels more like a tendency to start with, for example, a larger concept like "we're trying to solving this kind of problem, but we seem to need a way to turn any number into "1", and since we don't have one, let's invent one and call it a reciprocal. OK, so now what can we do with this thing?" Instead of the way I was taught, more like "a reciprocal is 1 over a number, and here's how you use that in increasingly complex ways". Perhaps it would make more sense to say they have a tendency to start with the conceptual idea, and then see how it can be used to help deal with specific tasks and problems? Ah, probably just digging myself in deeper...

AoPS always starts with the problems, and then brings in techniques. Conventional teaching starts with techniques, and then exercises them on problems. Is that what you're getting at, Michelle?