PreAlgebra in our Homeschool

One of our readers emailed with a question about Prealgebra.  She said that she saw our free PreAlgebra lapbook pieces that I mentioned on FB the other day and was wondering what textbook we were using.

I thought I’d share what is working for us right now for math. The kids use more than one math book!

prealgebra-homeschoolLD (8th Grade/age 13)

  • He is in the last chapters of Prealgebra (4th Edition). (affiliate link) He started using this last year and is finishing it up. Last year (and at the end of 6th grade) we used the Art of Problem Solving Prealgebra (affiliate link) and read that together.  The explanations are amazing. Other homeschoolers have used it with amazing success… and we bought it based on the raving reviews we heard from other homeschoolers. The problem for LD is that there weren’t enough easy practice problems.  So, we read through quite a number of chapters and he has a great grasp of the reasoning behind prealgebra.  But the Blair, Tobey, Slater textbook is working really well for him. I’m really glad we switched over to that for him.
  • He is simultaneously using Beginning Algebra (affiliate link) and is doing the review problems at the beginning of the book. (Because I wanted him to do the linear algebra problems towards the end of Prealgebra.)  I considered the Intermediate book, but thought that might be too challenging for him… though Beginning Algebra is on the easy side after completing 85% of Prealgebra.  Still, he’s doing well with math at this pace, so it’s working for us/him. (I notice that there is a combined Beginning/Intermediate edition that might have been a good next step.)
  • Note: I bought the earlier editions because the price is considerably lower. I bought them used. 🙂
  • I did not purchase a teacher’s edition because the problems are easy enough for me to check them for him.
  • If I had to do it over again, I would probably have done his 6th grade a bit more like I’m doing with DD below with a combination of books and a slow introduction into prealgebra.

homeschool-math-for-grade-6DD (6th Grade/age 11)

  • She is in that awkward period where she was done with much of the arithmetic, but still needs some work.  She is using three math books this year!
  • She is using Mathematical Reasoning (Level G) (affiliate link) because it provides practice and review of many of the math concepts she already knows in a relatively entertaining format. It’s colorful, consumable book.
  • She is using Primary Grade Challenge Math (affiliate link) because it offers some critical thinking. This level is on the easy side for her, but she’s enjoying it so we’re finishing this one up. There is a Challenge Math (affiliate link) which is for elementary and middle school that she’ll move into soon.
  • And, she is starting Prealgebra (4th Edition) (affiliate link) and doing the very beginnings of Prealgebra.
  • She has a math notebook and I write down the pages and problems from those books.
  • DD used McGraw Hill Math (grade 6) to review for the end of year test.  (affiliate link)

So that’s the crazy way we’re tackling math this year!

See you again soon here or at our Homeschool Den Facebook Page! Don’t forget to Subscribe to our Homeschool Den Newsletter!

Happy Homeschooling! ~Liesl

Disclosure:  Please note that some of the links above are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase.

You might be interested in these Prealgebra Posts:

Order-of-Operations-Worksheet

free-fall-math-fact-game-board

Pre-Algebra-Exponents-Worksheets-Interactive-Notebook-Pages

 

 

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