Math 1 Makes Learning Fun!
Written: Mar 30 '03 (Updated Nov 20 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Colored pages, reward stickers, educational, inexpensive math supplement.
Cons: Doesn't go into enough depth about time and money.
The Bottom Line: Not exactly a standard workbook, this one is a great supplement for homeschoolers or those looking to get a jump on first grade math concepts.
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| Freak369's Full Review: Math 1 |
My boys are all home schooled so that means that I have tons of workbooks and supplements in the closet, some never touched and brand new and some with pages falling out from over use. A few days out of the week I watch my next door neighbors daughter so she can spend some extra time with her son who is recovering from a serious injury. When Annabelle comes over she usually likes to color or paint but for the past few months she has been working on her alphabet, numbers and basic words. The boys took notice of this and started helping her with basic addition skills. I had some older workbooks from the boys but none of them were cute and colorful, just boring black and white pages [oddly, those were the only kind they really liked]. When we went to Wal-Mart I spotted a few of the pre-school and first grade primer math books and thought those would be the best for her.
The Math 1 book is a great sampler of what a child might learn in a conventional learning environment. These present the basics of single and double digit addition, greater than and less than, a few ‘connect the dot’ pages, single and double digit subtraction, measuring items on the page, basic time telling, coin values and one page of word problems. Each of the above mentioned areas are covered with a few pages but an adult will have to explain some of the sections to a younger child. The one thing to stress is that this shouldn’t be used as a main learning tool but as a supplement to introduce or reinforce basic math principals. This is great to use for younger kids so they can get a feel of what they will be learning in the future or as a way to test them to see what they already know.
Reward Stickers
In the middle of the book there are two small thin sheets of stickers that are stapled into the spine. These are very nice small rewards for completing a page with no errors or when a child corrects a mistake. They vary from ‘excellent’ to ‘terrific’ to ‘great job’ along with some cute smiley faces and yellow stars. The stickers are almost all animal themed but a few have flowers or rainbows. Annabelle really liked the stickers – so much so that she started to peel them off and put them on pages that she hadn’t done yet. If you are working with a younger child you might want to rip out the stickers and set them aside for when they complete a page or two.
Making Learning Fun
The book has a real aquatic theme to it; the pages are filled with cute “fishies”, crabs, sea horses, shells, sand dollars, sharks and dolphins. The first few pages start off slowly with matching up the correct number of fish or other underwater life forms with numbers. It then jumps to the greater than / less than section that might be a little confusing to smaller kids. The ‘connect the dot’ pages are from 1 – 20 as well as 5 – 100 [counting by fives]. There are helpful hints on some of the pages like number guides. If I had one complaint about the book it would be that the answer squares are a little on the small side and more often than not a child will be writing outside the square so make sure you tell them that its alright to be a little messy at first.
The addition and subtraction pages start off with single digits then progress to double digit problems. Along the way kids are encouraged with tons of illustrations and mini problems at the top or bottom of the pages. These mini questions are often based on what was learned on previous pages so it helps to reinforce what they have already learned as well as giving them a sense of accomplishment. There are anywhere from six to twelve problems per page so don’t expect this to provide any drill work for them. There are only two pages of clock faces where a child is asked to look at the time and write it under the clock. This only provides the basics of hour, half hour and 15 minute increments so you might want to invest in a good time telling workbook to teach all the aspects that are needed. Money is touched upon with two pages – not really enough for a child to master coin counting or how much an item will cost – but it is a good introduction. One minor complaint, the coins in the book don’t reflect the true color of the coins in real life so you might want to have some change handy for these two pages.
The last few pages of the book contain the answer key for all of the pages in the book. Just like the sticker pages, you might want to remove these so an adventurous child doesn’t stumble upon them. I suggest cutting out the pages rather than ripping them out so that the first few pages of the workbook don’t fall out. The last page has a nice questionnaire that you can fill in and mail to the Home Learning Tool team to provide them with feedback about your childs experience with the book. Be sure to check out the inside flaps of the workbook for valuable learning tips as well as other activities that you can your child can do to make learning fun.
The Bottom Line
So far Annabelle has been having a great time with this workbook and I think the boys are having just as much fun helping her. I usually try to limit her to about fifteen minutes at a time with the pages so she doesn’t feel like she is being pressured into learning. I let her set her own pace and when she wants to take a break or stop for a while she lets me know. The boys really get a kick out of having a ‘student’ in the house and have started to show her some ‘fast math’ adding skills. I look forward to picking up other books in the series for her to use when she is at my house as well as some of the older books for my boys to check out. If you have a small child at home I highly suggest checking out this book or possibly the Pre-K or K level books. It’s never too early to get kids motivated to learn and when it is presented in a fun manner it helps them retain more information and hardly seems like “school work”.
If this sounds like a book you might be interested in you can check the educational section of bookstores or in the toy section at Wal-Mart for this book. Since there is no photo supplied, look for the red, white and blue series of books with the gold “Home Learning Tools” seal on the top right side of the workbook.
Stats
Name: Math 1 / Grade 1 Math
Published By: Home Learning Tools, Dalmatian Press
Pages: 32
ISBN: 1-57759-147-X
UPC 00639 92032 0
Price: $ 1.97 / $2.99
As always, thanks for the visit…
^V^ Freak ^V^
© 2004 Freak369
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Recommended:
Yes
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