High School Math. Three words that are always interesting whether you're a homeschooler or not. I absolutely love math, but my kids do not. I'm always up for reviewing math products because there are so many different ones and they all have something different about them. For the last few weeks we have been working through No-Nonsense Algebra by Math Essentials, and Edyn has really enjoyed it!
Math Essentials was developed by Rick Fisher, a math instructor with over 31 years of experience! He has devoted his time to not only teaching his students, but also developing award winning math materials.
What did we receive?
We were given the No-Nonsense Algebra book which is a soft bound book and approximately 175 pages. When you buy the book, you get free access to all of the teaching videos, so we were given our code to be able to access them.
How does No-Nonsense Algebra work?
I am using this program for Edyn as a full curriculum, and she has done very well with it. It is actually perfect for her because the teaching method works well for her. It's very thorough to insure that the student understands the concept being taught. It uses a different approach than other programs by having 5 key parts:
- Introduction and Explanation
- Helpful Hints
- Examples
- Written Exercises
- Review
How did we use this in our school?
After opening up her book, and getting her pencil and paper ready, we read the Introduction to the concept she will be working on. Side note, I love how they stress the importance of writing the problems down and working them out on paper. I am a firm believer in this.
In the Introduction is where the concept is explained, and you will be able to find the Helpful Hints. These are super important to go over because they will contain the important tips and short cuts.
Next we watch the free video lesson that goes along with it. The videos are great. They are clear and very easy to understand. Each video that we have done runs somewhere in the neighborhood of around 10 minutes. It's nice to be able to stop, rewind, or completely rewatch the video if you need more instruction.
After she watches the video we move back to our book. We do go over the examples that are given because Edyn needs to be able to see those problems worked out. Also, those examples help her if she gets stuck on a problem that she's working out herself. It's just another tool she can go back and look at if she needs to.
From the Examples, we move on to the Exercises. The first thing I want to point out is that they give you the perfect amount of problems to work. I don't like when a program gives you 5 or 6 problems. That's not enough in my opinion for the student to become confident with. They need to be able to work enough problems that they can master the concept.
When she's done, we check them by finding the solutions in the back of the book. I love that!! It makes it so much easier to check.
Finally she works on the review.
What did we think?
I have to say I am very impressed with this program. It is simple and easy to understand for both parents and students. Not only do you get an ample amount of explanation in the book, you also get the videos with step by step instruction. I would call this program a solid program that is geared towards making sure the student understands what is being taught to them. I would definitely recommend No-Nonsense Algebra by Math Essentials to anyone who is looking for a complete Algebra curriculum.
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