BuyThisBookToo < Kitchen

BuyThisBookToo

Posted on May 17, 2005 @ 14:49 by CatherineJohnson

As long as I've got you overspending on math books, you may as well pick up a copy of Math on Call to complete the set.

The Math On Call series is targeted to the school market, though the books are priced well enough that parents can and do buy them, too.

I'd love to know what the sales rep's pitch is.

Essentially, the books cover every topic your child is going to encounter in every level of math, explaining each one directly, conceptually, and procedurally -- and very likely using the same vocabulary, illustrations, and sequence of subtopics his or her school will use to boot, thus putting a stop to the nightly 'I can't help you with your homework, I didn't learn it that way' exchange.

I'm wondering whether schools that have invested in constructivist math purchase these texts as direct-instruction back-ups, for the parents as well as for the kids. [update: I just noticed that there are Parents' Guides available for all of the books.]

This is a less frequently noted problem with constructivist math. If parents have forgotten their own math (that would be me), they're not going to remember it looking at a discovery text.

Which brings me to one of my favorite reader reviews on AMAZON:

My son's 7th grade math teacher recommended this. I don't know what we would have done without it. The school's math textbook was useless. If there was any problem not understanding a math concept, we would just whip this baby out and it was easy to understand. Math homework couldn't have been any less frustrating.
My younger son now takes it with him to school for doing his math work at school. It is invaluable.

One last thing. If you have younger kids, you might want to start with the earlier books in the series. They're easier to deal with when you have a lot of catching up to do yourself.

Grades 1-2