Customer Reviews

PreAlgebra Blastoff!: Understand Positive and Negative Numbers, Grades 3-8

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I am 39 and have some learning disabilities. Positive and negative numbers have ALWAYS confused me. I felt like I understood adding and subtracting and then they changed the math universe on me when they introduced the concept. I am not someone who can just do math by rote, I have to understand WHY it works the way it does, and if I don't I just cannot retain the rote rules they wanted me to memorize. This book explains negative numbers in a way that I really get it for the first time in my life.

The book is written for children, and I think it would be wonderful for kids, I so wish I was taught the concept like this to begin with. They use manipulatives to cement the the concept, which it really useful for kids. It takes an abstract concept and brings it into the real world. Being an adult I didn't actually use the manipulatives, but the explanation about why they work was invaluable to me.

They use a comic book style to explain each new step, and start out really simply, but if you were taught the traditional way it is a shift in how to look at negative numbers. It blew my mind a little at first, but in a really good way! As an adult the comic book part is a bit weird at first, but it really is a great way to show what they want you to understand without the risk of confusing someone with paragraphs of text, this is true especially for kids, but since it was a major shift in the way I understood the numbers it was very helpful for me to see it illustrated and not just written out.

The problems are broken up into a set of manipulative work with a mat you can copy and use, if you need it, and then a set to just do on paper. When you switch to the paper work you are given a rule to help you remember how to handle the problem, which is helpful for retention. Since I didn't need the manipulative practice, I just did both sets on paper. Every problem has the answer in the back of the book, so you can check to see you are understanding the concept correctly.

One improvement I would make to the rules is his set of ways to remember what to do when you are doing problems like +4-(-)7 or -10+(+)4. This happens near the end of the book when you really understand how to handle the straight up problems like -4+8 or +7-20. I wont go into what he says because for me anyway it is harder to retain than the way he explained it in a later book "Algebra Survival Guide" (Which I also recommend, but don't skip this one if you are having problem with adding and subtracting!) The other way is simply that you can view a + as something good and a - as something bad. So if you are taking away something bad, that is good -(-)= + If you are taking away something good, that's bad -(+)= - If you are getting something good, it is good +(+)= + And if you are getting something bad, that's bad +(-)= -. I hope this didn't confuse anyone, but I thought it was the simplest way to remember what to do that I have found, and it isn't in this book.

Over all this book is WELL worth the money and has helped me to understand something I never have before. If you child is having problems with adding negative numbers or if you have always struggled with them GET THIS BOOK! It has actually made me exited about this math concept, a small miracle at the age of 39! I just wish that he would have done one on multiplying and dividing!

Enjoy pre-algebra with the positrons and negitrons. I got this to help my son learn pre-algebra. He really enjoyed the comic at the front of the book and wanted more. Unfortunately, there were no more.

The book opens with a cool comic about positrons and negitrons (positive and negative number creatures), and then is followed by some lessons and tips. There are 2 games at the end of the book.

Each magic tip has a lesson to go with it. The book outlines everything very carefully and moves at a slow pace. We skipped in some areas but some students might need more and it's there. My son wanted to do some lessons and get another comic but the book didn't work that way.

There are a couple games in the back of the book though. I didn't think they were anything special but my 8YO thought they were amusing.

This book does not ship from Amazon. Ours was shipped in a brown paper envelope which allowed the book to get all bent up. I had to put it under some heavy books for a few days to get the wrinkles out enough to use it. Try to get if from a local bookstore if you can.