Customer Reviews

Mastering Essential Math Skills: 20 Minutes a Day to Success, Book 1: Grades 4-5

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Excellent book. Not only daily review, and work on number facts, but also lots of problem solving. A new topic is developed in each short daily lesson. A special section called "Helpful Hints" is excellent for students as well as parents. I like the way the book is set up in chapters. My son finally understands concepts he struggled with so much with his "regular" school textbook. All the important topics are included. Wholes, fractions, decimals, %'s, integers, geometry,
basic algebra, number theory, graphing, problem solving galore, and much more...

If your 4th or 5th grader is struggling in math, they need this book. A confidence booster for those who are doing well.

This book lives up to its title. My 4th grade son has always struggled with math. That is until we started using this book.
The lessons are short with excellent, easy-to follow instruction for each new topic. The daily review has really made a difference, also. I wish I had this book for my other two boys when they were in 4th or 5th grade.

My question is, why don't they have more books like these in our schools. The kids would sure learn a lot more.

This book gets an A++.

This book gets down to business from the first page, beginning with adding large numbers and progressing through geometry, algebra, probability and statistics (eek!) Thankfully, it comes with a Parent Handbook and Answer Key, but it doesn't give much accompanying topic instruction. I think I'll need to study up before we get to fractions.

Each page is a self-contained 20 minute lesson. It begins with review exercises from the last lesson, addition and multiplication speed drills, which my son loves, carries on with some hints for doing the lesson and ten problems to solve, and finishes with a word problem.

We've just begun, but I have a feeling I'll learn as much as my son.

My 11 year old child has been working through this book for homeschool math and it is very good. Every page is an independent unit, with review, explanation of new material, and new problems to solve. The explanations are concise and always understandable. This book could be used as a reference if you've forgotten how to do certain kinds of problems (for schoolkids).

My only criticism is that is does not have an answer key, although the back cover claims that it does. I guess they mean you can buy a SEPARATE answer key? So to check the work you have to work through each problem yourself.

Also it's only black and white and has no pictures, but I'm sure that helps keep the costs (& size) down.

I strongly recommend this book.

I bought this book to use in our homeschool and love it! It is a great book to use for review as well as an easy way to teach new concepts that we haven't covered. No more pages and pages of boring problems. My kids don't complain about doing math anymore and they're getting it! The drills are great for speeding up their computation skills. I highly recommend this book!

I am a self-proclaimed math illiterate and a fractions idiot. My poor teachers way-back-when used take alka-seltzer after a session and a B on a test was a chance for great praise. Now that my daughter is getting into math more complicated than adding and subtracting, I needed something to help me help her. I read this book and suddenly a lighbulb went on. I could actually understand the concept of fractions and adding and multiplying and common denominators. It had all been a murky mess before. This book is clear and concise with examples and a chance to practice. I highly recommend it!

I am a middle school teacher in an inner city. This book has provided the extra practice that my students need! It breaks down the topics step by step and the review exercises are helpful!!!! Definitely worth the money!

I use this workbook in my classroom for our daily math practice. The format provides a great way to maintain daily facts review and it ensures that you incorporate word problems regularly. Each page provides ten problems of work in one particular area, with a small reminder of the process involved. The pages are not too 'busy' or overwhelming in visual presentation. Each page also begins with a review of concepts taught previously, so that ongoing practice is incorporated. Of course, separate instruction, hands-on learning and other formats of work are essentail for rounding out the curriculum, but this is an easy format to follow for a year's focus of basic math curricula. This will be my second year using the book, and I have yet to try to 'new' edition. The older edition did have a few mistakes with problems given more than once on a page every now and then and the answer key sometimes provided wrong answers, but the students loved finding these errors! We have found as a class that the pages often take more than 20 minutes to complete. 30 minutes may be more accurate.

I am returning to college in a few months and know I will have to satisfy the math requirement to get my degree. I've been away from basic math, algebra and geometry for a LONG time, and after shopping a bit, found this book here on Amazon. It is VERY helpful to someone who would shy away from all but the most basic math and always reach for a calculator. I was very gratified to pick up long division in one evening (that's where they lost me waaaaay back in elementary school), and have been working steadily through the book every day since. The DVD is very helpful. I will say however, that I think a younger student (a student-aged student??) might need more thorough explanation for some of the material, but for me it is great and I highly recommend it.

One other note: there are typos/mistakes in the answer key. For myself, I can generally "prove" my work and find that my answer is the correct one, but for young kids it might be a little disconcerting. As someone else mentioned here, go through the answer key before checking your student's work just to make sure it all matches up. I took one star away from the rating just for the answer key typos. Otherwise, great!

I bought this book to brush up on basic math for a college assessment test I was going to take. I've noticed that some answers in the answer key were wrong. I needed my husband to double check these problems to make sure it wasn't me. Otherwise, the book really helped me.