Customer Reviews

Rays Arithmetic Series (8 Volume Set)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am delighted with the Ray's books and my daughter who is in 1st grade seems to be less distracted by doing these books that the litany of workbooks and more flashy things we have used. I like that it is repetitive in a way but since it uses a lot of word problems(which I read to her or help her read at this point) it is not boring.
I am less satisfied that Amazon was not very clear in listing the specific titles in the series and we ended up purchasing a seperate Key which came with the set after all so we wasted our money there.
Just as a FYI, the titles include:
Parent-Teacher Guide (by Ruth Beechick)
Primary Arithmetic
Intellectual Arithmetic
Practical Arithmetic
Higher Arithmetic
Key: Primary, Intellectual, Practical
Key to Higher Arithmetic
Test Examples in Arithmetic

Ray's Arithmetics offers the best of all I liked about other popular homeschooling programs (and more) at a fraction of their cost. The lessons are sensible and practical, and they will take us through the eighth grade, from learning to count and read numbers to doing college-level business math. The teacher's guide, which is written by Ruth Beechick, provides an outline and tips on teaching each grade level. Here is her entry for the chapter on Grade 2 : "Teaching Second Grade - A Typical Day - A Typical Week's Schedule - Planning Guide - Progress Record - Testing Second Graders - Test Schecule - Unit Tests - Answer Key for Unit Tests." She offers outlines for fitting lessons into a 36-week year. She also includes a chapter on interesting projects and games that help teach everything from counting to geometry and measures. The books are compact and well-made, so they will fit on my already-crowded bookshelf and they will last through all our children. This eight-book set is perfect for parents who are not impressed with bells and whistles and slick packaging: Ray's Arithmetics look old-fashioned, inside and out. The exercises are practical word problems written using 19th-century prices and situations, which is charming and could be used to enhance a unit study on that era. Ruth Beechick recommends taking care in the eighth-grade year to strengthen any weaknesses that are apparent before going on to algebra, probability, navigation, and so on. I'm excited about learning along with the children. I see many things in these books that I wish I understood, but never was taught, not even in college. When we're finished, the children and I will KNOW math, and I will no longer feel helpless when it comes to our insurance and investments. I highly recommend Ray's Arithmetics.

I love this series. It's practical, productive, and, most of all, interesting - it keeps my children's interest. I have natural mathematicians and struggling ones in our homeschooling family, but this suits all of them equally. Math is no longer avoided by the ones that find math challenging. The natural development of the mind is addressed by this unique but "old-fashioned" style. The parent's guide offers clear instructions to assist the learning schedule and process.

This is well worth the investment. As others have stated it covers 1st - 8th grade. Primary Math (1st, 2nd) covers basic addition, basic subtraction, basic multiplication, and basic division. Practical Math (3rd, 4th) takes these to the next level and includes fractions, decimals, metric, etc. Some things that are marked as 3rd grade are covered in 2nd grade (or even 1st) in some current curriculum (basic fractions, basic geometry, 2 or 3 digit addition and subtraction, etc.) Therefore, look at the lessons in the 3rd grade even if your child is at a younger grade.

Practical Math is 5th and 6th grade, and it is way more in depth than I remember my math class being. It covers business math. Higher Math is 7th and 8th grade. From an initial look, it is very similair in structure to the Practical Math, but the problems are more difficult.

The teacher's manual is also great. The test examples book look like they are for 4th grade or above. Adding together 5 numbers of 5 digits each are the easiest problems. The teacher's manual has test examples for younger grades.

This is a wonderful series!!!

They even give a basic understanding of the stock market (from an 1800's point of view) that is still very applicable today.

I wish I had been given some understanding of the stock market when I was in grade school or high school.

Personally, I believe that every person should have a good, general review in mathematics and all of the basics like English grammar and composition, penmanship, and reading like the McGuffey Reader series.

Home schooling series like this one are excellent essentials that every person's library should have.

I personally have the Ray's Arithmetic series, the McGuffey Readers and the Spencerian Penmanship theory book with the 5 copy books to practice in.

Just the basics.....reading, writing and arithmetic.

Margaret May

I purchased this book (Primary) and the parent guide for my 1st grade daughter to use as our homeschool curriculum for math. It is much different than the typical worksheet curriculum. Having used McGruffy, Math U See and K12 curriculum with my 4th grader over the years, Ray's required a complete paradigm shift for me to use effectively. Don't tell any one, but I didn't touch it with my daughter for the first month because I was intimated without my workbook safety net.

There are no workbooks, work sheets or standard manipulatives (Lord knows I already have more than enough of those from other programs). Rather than teach a concept and shove a worksheet it requires a little more effort. Ray's focuses heavily on practical application (word problems) and mental math which my daughter is very good at. I will teach her the concept sometimes using manipulatives - sometimes not then she works the problem in her head usually but will sometimes use the manipulates. Sometimes I'll have her write the answer in a spiral but typically not. When you think about it, it makes much more sense to teach this way when possible. When we're out in the real world, no one hands us a worksheet to figure out if we're going to have enough cash to pay for all the stuff we're buying at the grocery, right?

My father is a wiz at mental math and I think it's because he was taught with a similar approach. We are finishing up with subtraction and the next step is multiplication - yes - multiplication! It is a logical progression with lots of oral drilling. The other wonderful note about this curriculum is the price. You can buy the entire set through year 8 for less than one year of most other curriculums. That's a deal!

My only beef is with the illustrations. A very few of the lessons are based on looking at an illustration and making calculations - but the illustrations are very bad quality to the point that I skip those entirely. It is bothersome but would in no way deter me from recommending.

The only caveat to recommending is to consider your learner. While my daughter is thriving and learning skills not typically learned until the end of 3rd grade - it is not a curriculum I think I would use with my son who is doing quite well with Math U See. Completely different learners need entirely different approach. If you have a child inclined to mental processing, and you're okay with shifting from the worksheet mentality - don't hesitate.

I was reading David Barton's book about 4 centuries of education and was shocked at the difference between the 1800's and now. One of the math problems that elementary kids did in their heads was "there are 60 animals on the farm, horses, cows and sheep, there are 2 cows for every horse and 4 sheep for every cow, how many of each animal were there". The kids of today learn nothing like that!

I puchased this set of books, which are exactly the same that was used in the 1800's and am so happy that I did. My home schooled daughter is learning more of the basics and will be stronger with them than her counterparts in school. One of the 2nd grade activities was to count down from 100 by 8's, 7's, etc, it's not easy for adults, and this was from 2nd grade!

By the time you get to the 8th grade, it will knock your socks off, it teaches about the stock market, compound interest, dividends, etc. It is closer to today's college math, and a lot of people (including myself) didn't learn it in college.

I am looking forward to learning with my daughter as she gets to the higher math. The price seems a little high, but if you figure that it is the only math books you need until high school, it is very little cost.

I really, really like this curriculum. The kids seem to like it too. It's very teacher involved, no endless seat work. Great price. All answers are provided.

I purchased these in order to simplify the teaching of mathematics to my children. They will work well for that, however, I will have to re-write portions of the book or more likely instruct them orally in order to make these work. My biggest complaint was that two of the books were NOT hardcover. So anyone that cares, beware...