Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Prealgebra and Algebra book recommendations

S/O of my other thread...Could I have some recommendations for Math books, especially those used successfully with younger students? I will probably look to AoP in the future. I am not as pleased with the Holt books I have and am giving in to letting my DD9 go forward with math. She will continue with EPGY but we need some textbook material. Someone on another board mentioned Jacobs but then a review mentioned the answers aren't very well written. We have LOF up to the Algebra I. I definately need good teacher materials to go with anything. Any advice?

If there is a thread on this please let me know...

I'm actually interested in info on pre-algebra or algebra too. Specifically from any home schoolers, who have transitioned from the elementary Singapore series.

Me too. We will be done with Singapore in a few months. While I see AOPS in our future I don't think it's the right time for it yet. Just this week I ordered the first part of the New Elementary Math (covers Singapore grades 7-10) to see if it's something I like.

I know that most of the people stop using Singapore math once they are done with 6B but I at the very least want to see what it is all about.

You'll have to post what you think of the New Elementary Math!

Has anyone used Jacobs, or Lial's BCM for prealgebra? Those were also mentioned on the high school board on another forum.

Life of Fred has an Algebra book. I was told awhile back that he was in the process of writing a pre algebra book. He told me it was scheduled to be released at the end of September so it might be out. We use Alek's primarily but supplement with LOF

LOF are good books. They are entertaining and teach math concepts in a fun way, but IMHO they cannot replace a math curriculum. I am definitely looking for something more challenging and complete.

We went from Singapore 6 almost directly to NEM.... Almost, because we spent a summer playing with a free Kinetic Books algebra download, which was cute but not really one I'd recommend if it weren't free. Also we had dabbled in Gelfand's Algebra, which I would love to have used straight through only it's challenging to the point of being almost harsh... and DS was only 7-almost-8. So we ended up with NEM.

The way we did it was to do the first two books, Algebra topics only, in one year. Then we took a year "off" (last year) to do Statistics... And this year we're back with NEM for Geometry. At this point it's almost too light, but we're adding in a separate book of Mathematical Logic which beefs it up a bit, and we're doing just about a whole curriculum's worth of problem solving, pieced together from AoPS books, Jacobs' Mathematics A Human Endeavor, online sources, MathCounts and Math Olympiad materials, old AMC tests, and two groups of kids... which comes to what, triple math? LOL

We're oddities in this, not just for the acceleration -- also for really excessive interest... But NEM isn't as scary as people make it out to be. The first four chapters are trying to kill you with a comprehensive review of arithmetic (LOL), but after that I think it's very reasonable.

We're using Thinkwell pre-algebra and DS loves it. First math he's liked in years. It was the math evolver game that got him excited about pre-algebra.

I've also heard people mention Teaching Textbooks as a good curriculum for younger students.

Thank you, Erica. That sounds like a good plan. If I like NEM we would most likely end up following the book and not going for algebra only. That's the way I was taught math and since it worked pretty well ...

Do you know why people find NEM too hard? Till now I thought that most of them didn't like the format. I selected NEM for review because it's supposedly the most difficult one out of the 4 Singapore curricula available. I am definitely not looking for anything easy.

I am also considering spending a few months on logic once we are done with 6B.