I had the opportunity to review a physical copy of the Math Refresher for Adults by Math Essentials.
If you homeschool, math is something you are always going to have to deal with when you are teaching your children. Most parents can make it through teaching the basics: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Once you move past the basics and start adding negative numbers, fractions, percentages and combining operations, it starts getting a bit tricky. If you are a parent who loves math (like me), you probably have no problems when it comes to tackling those challenges. If you are a parent who does not really care for math or struggled with it in your youth, you probably need all the help you can get. Math Refresher for Adults, which is published by Math Essentials, may be just what you need.
Math Essentials was created by mathematics instructor Rick Fisher who has dedicated his career to instructing fifth and sixth grade math students. Fisher created a math teaching system that when used by his students, enabled many of them to skip the seventh grade and move on to eighth grade level mathematics. We have used other Math Essentials books and like the math instructions and review it offers.
Fisher has taken all of the great ideas and knowledge he already uses in his other publications and has written a math book that is, “The Perfect Solution!” for parents and English Language Learners who need a review (or refresher) in “general math, geometry, problem solving, pre-algebra or algebra”. You know when children ask you, “When am I going to use that as an adult?” Well, math is one of those subjects. The math skills refresher book is not only a great tool for parents wanting to help their children with their school work, but is also effective for people returning to the
workforce, preparing for the GED or just wanting to keep their brain moving and working to its best.
I guess I could always purchase one of the other Math Essentials books for review, but I love that Fisher has written one specifically for people like me; not a student, but an adult who just wants to review.
The book is laid out just as all of the other math skills books. The lessons are brief, but thorough and cover so many areas of math that include general math – whole numbers, fractions, decimals, percents, geometry, integers, charts and graphs, and word problems – and pre-algebra and algebra. If you start from the beginning and work your way through the entire book, you will definitely learn everything you need to know to hold your own as a person who knows general math and some pre-algebra and algebra.
Along with the material that is written to the student, you have your own personal instructor, Richard W. Fisher, who walks you through each lesson and each problem, step-by-step in the video lessons. That is the beauty of the Math Essentials studies. It really does not get any better than that. So, if phobias, nerves or just embarrassment (absolutely no need for any of those emotions) have kept you from learning math, your personal instructor will teach you.
Fisher shows you the right way to do the math. I like that he does not skip any steps in his explanations. Detail (crossing out numbers and making checkmarks) make it easy for you to follow along for a good understanding of the lesson. Fisher knows math and you will too.
I moved around in the book, because I have one student taking pre-algebra and another one working through algebra. I also wanted to try my hand at fractions. That was fun. My youngest is also doing a little bit of geometry. Those sections were helpful to me for helping my children. They also got a kick out of seeing Mommy do math (school work). One thing I made sure of was for them to see me showing my work; all of it! Fisher teaches that math should be “written out”. I totally agree! Math is a thinking subject, just like literature and writing. Math is not “call and response”. There is a path that starts at a beginning and finishes at an end; in between the beginning and the end are the steps that one takes. Math is very logical.
Do you need refreshers in general math, pre-algebra or algebra? The Math Refresher for Adults book will be a wonderful tool to get you there.
Social Media Links
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PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
You may purchase Math Refresher for Adults for about $28.95.
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