Math-U-See Alpha Student Kit (Complete Kit) [Spiral-bound]

Steven P. Demme (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2005

The Student Text has six worksheets per lesson. There are three Lesson Practice sheets focusing on the new concept. These Practice sheets include word problems which are designed to apply the concept being taught in that lesson. There are an additional three Systematic Review worksheets that cover the new material in each lesson, and provide practice of the math concepts previously studied. The word problems in these pages reinforce math concepts mastered in previous lessons. The Test Booklet has one test per lesson (thirty lessons), four unit tests, and a final exam. These may be used to help determine mastery, or as extra worksheets. Kit Includes: Student Text and Test Booklet.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound
• Publisher: Math-U-See Inc. (2005)
• ASIN: B001C89X98
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,261,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars used to be better but still ok, June 25, 2010

By 

E. Willis - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Math-U-See Alpha Student Kit (Complete Kit) (Spiral-bound)

We're in our second year of using this program with our two homeschooled children. Last year it was great but this year when we ordered our new books we received the 2010 updated books. They are not like they used to be and none of the changes have been for the better. The books are no longer the nice spiral binding with large font pages only printed on one side. Now they have regular binding, difficult to remove pages, small font, small answer lines, excessively large font for the lesson number, goofy pictures, two sided printing, and holes drilled for those who use binders. They took what was a wonderful math book and made it like all the others out there. I contacted the company and while they were nice about it they simply told me the changes were made to 'keep costs down' and make the program 'better for parents'. This doesn't make sense because the price has not changed, nor has the shipping even though the books are now lighter and smaller. I would have been willing to pay extra for the nice version but they no longer have them for sale. I'm now working on finding an unused copy but am not having much success.

Here are the issues with the new version:
- regular binding; the pages are difficult to remove and impossible to use without tearing out so now we have more papers to keep track of
- holes punched; not everyone uses binders and those that do always own three hole punches anyway so why force everyone to have pages with holes in them
- smaller font; the old edition had wonderfully large font, just right for little kids and great for parents who are helping from across the table, now I have to get up and stand right over the kids to help them, it also makes the pages seem cluttered and overwhelming and my kids keep saying there is too much on the page even though there is the same amount of work, just with more white space (I can only assume this was a move to save ink and keep printing costs low for the company)
- small answer lines; my kids are advanced in math but not in handwriting and the lines are now so small that they have difficulty writing numbers tiny enough to fit
- huge lesson number; for some bizarre reason the lesson numbers in the upper corner of the page are now in huge font, adding to the clutter and prompting questions such as 'what does the 13F go to?' when before the kids were easily able to ignore the lesson number and focus on the lesson
- goofy pictures; the old edition was nice and simple, no pictures to distract the kids, just dots or squares to represent sums, now there are pictures of dogs, marbles, etc. which doesn't add anything and only serves as a distraction and to make the math u see text just like all the other math programs
- two sided printing; the old edition had work printed on only one side of the page. this was wonderful because it left plenty of room for writing or drawing more examples and served to make the book overall feel easier and less intimidating. the new two sided pages make everything seem cluttered and have my kids becoming easily overwhelmed thinking there is too much work or it will take them forever to get through

The only other overall gripes I have with the program are the way the books are sold and the shipping. The shipping is very expensive and all the books arrived damaged. The books are sold in 'sets' with the required blocks a la carte. In the primer level the student text is sold alone but the only way to get the dvd is to also buy the teacher's manual, which we never used. At the alpha level the student text can only be purchased along with the activity book, which contains extras like dot-to-dots and is not needed but the tests are in the activity book so you must buy and use it (why couldn't the tests be in the regular book?). In alpha, as in primer, the dvd is only available with the purchase of the teacher's manual. The blocks must also be purchased on their own but at least they are sold as a starter set, completer set, and holder case so you can space out the purchase of them. We have the wooden holder case, which cost somewhere between $40 and $50 plus shipping. It fits the blocks very nicely but looks like it was made in someone's garage. The wood was splintery and required an hour of sanding to be usable and the small pieces of wood that separate the compartments are glued in a bit off, leaving gaps and glue drops. Very expensive for the quality. I didn't mind the cost of the blocks though since they are used for several years, are very sturdy, and can be shared by more than one child at the same time.

The program, overall, is nice and we will continue to use it but will keep looking for someone selling the old editions. One downside is that once you start math u see you are 'locked in' to using the program for years. If you want to use something else or send your children to school you must catch them up on some concepts while dealing with them being ahead in others. This is also an issue if your state requires that homeschooled children take standardized tests. In these cases parents must use additional materials to teach their children what will be on the test.