Carrie-which math essentials?

[mom2fiveboysnc]

Carrie, I know you posted a link to the math essentials you are using/used for your son and when i click on it all it brings up is a website with many links to it. Are you talking about the Mastering Essential Math Skills by Richard Fisher? I can't find anything with exactly the name "math essentials". Thanks for your help! Cheryl

[gotpeace91]

I'm wondering too!

[deltagal]

Here you go....

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5500#p40432

[gotpeace91]

Thank you Florence. It appears to me though that the website linked in that thread is not what she was talking about. It looks like maybe the domain name has been bought by someone else. I could be wrong though but when I clicked on some of the links on that page it just sent me to a bunch of links for other Math sites. Does that make sense?

[mom2fiveboysnc]

That's the link I followed but it just takes you to almost a search engine type of site. When I type in " math essentials" it brings up the "mastering essentials..." stuff. I just wanted to make sure this was the right thing. Thanks! Cheryl

[mom2fiveboysnc]

Bumping so Carrie or Julie can see

[Carrie]

I haven't forgotten you ladies! It just took me a bit of time to sort out what's happening with the Math Essentials before I posted a response. I got a chance to visit with the author Rick Fisher, who is wonderful gentleman by the way, and they had a glitch with their website which cannot be fixed. So, they are now located at a new website: http://www.mathessentials.net

As far as which program of his to use, if your child needs some firming up on the basic skills of math it would be best to send your child through the Elementary Grades Math Essentials with DVD. After that your child could head into the Pre-Algebra with DVD. My son easily completed both and was still able to begin Algebra in the final months of last year going that route. We simply set the timer for 50 minutes each day, and he watched the video and did the lesson and watched the next video segment and did the lesson and so on. It went very quickly and also ensured his math foundation in all of the basics was strong prior to heading into Pre-Algebra. With this particular son of mine, I'd done more switching math program-wise than I'd care to admit, so I needed him to review the basics for my peace of mind to know he hadn't missed large concepts with my switching.

If you have a child that is very mathy and has had a strong, consistent math background, you could instead do the middle school/high school Math Essentials with DVD, and then head into the Pre-Algebra. Either route will work.

I also wanted to mention that Math Essentials is developing an Algebra I program. The DVD's are already done and the corresponding book is half done with the rest to be completed in the next few months. This is an interesting development, as we liked the Math Essentials courses very much. Our only quibble with the program is that the answer key is incorrect at times, causing a bit of head scratching. Should we choose to include this program as an option in our future guides, we would note the corrections we discovered as we used it.

Mr. Fisher is an excellent teacher, the lessons are short and to-the-point, as well as clearly presented. His years of experience and track record of turning out students who understand math goes before him. We really like the idea of offering this option to parents to pursue with their children after completing 6A/6B of Singapore (or any other math program), prior to heading into Algebra. We are excited to get a better look at the Algebra I before commenting on that!

Blessings,
Carrie