Curriculum Changes Part 1: Geometry

We have made some curriculum changes here at the Dragonfly Academy. Digger started Jacobs Geometry in November after doing fabulously well with Jacobs Algebra. We were using the new (3rd) edition of Jacobs Geometry which is in full color and has lots of real world overlay in the problem sets. Well, the color was nice, but having essentially every problem wrestled into some sort of real world application simply wasn't working for Digger. Digger's dyslexia made it very difficult for him to get to the heart of the problems. In fact, *I* was having trouble figuring out what many of the problems were getting at, and I had to have the answer key open full time to be sure of what was going on.

It got to the point where I was having to sit with Digger, read every problem aloud to him, and then interpret every problem for him before he could attempt to do it. Now, I don't mind going over the lesson and doing several problems with Digger to be sure he is getting it, but it's not working if I have to help him every step of the way.

So I figured either he is too young to be doing geometry or we need to try something else. I was frustrated because Jacobs Algebra had worked so well that I figured the Jacobs Geometry book would have the same approach. Luckily, I was able to get a copy of the 2nd edition at the library and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! It's like night and day! The 2nd edition is like a geometry version of the algebra book. So, we're starting over with the 2nd edition and after some grumbling on Digger's part, he is liking it and he is getting it.

Best of all, *I* can teach it easily, though I have come to the realization that that ALEKS geometry course that I took last summer isn't cutting it. I'm going to have to do all the problems in Jacobs the weekend before I teach the lessons to Digger. At this point, the book isn't as transparent to me as the algebra book was.

So there you go. New isn't necessarily always better. Sometimes old and tattered is just right.