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The purpose of this program is to teach math, leading up to algebra, in a way that will be more fun, and to get students to do the practice that they need through game playing. After teaching low-level middle school and high school algebra students for over twenty years, I've come to know what the main problems are. The biggest problems: The times tables (so they can multiply and divide faster so it's not such a task) Place value (so they line up digits correctly when adding them) Decimal place value (which they use everyday when they buy things) Fractions (most people don't know what 2/3 means or that 3/4 is the same as 3 quarters, which is money) Variables (which are really just shortcuts such as calling 3 apples 3A) The distributive property (which is just dealing with groups) Negatives Graphing. Most of these concepts can be (and frequently are) taught at simple levels starting with Kindergarten. Unfortunately, even though students understand using money to buy things, they don't relate this to their math problems. It's not that algebra is so hard. When related to things students already know, it's not that hard at all. A big problem is that too many students don't put in the time to practice what they're taught so they don't remember it from day to day. This program was designed by taking the general math concepts, using the California math standards as a framework, adding in ideas from the Singapore curriculum (the most successful math program in the world), putting in ideas that I have used with my own students, and putting it together in a game-like format that is fun enough to get kids to do it enough to learn it because they spend enough time on it to learn it. As a math teacher who also taught elementary students, I have seen that there are some pretty good programs out there. Some really get students to have fun while learning. The problem is that such programs typically work well for one or two concepts and that's it. There is nothing prior to them to teach needed skills and there is nothing as a follow-up to teach subsequent skills. This math program does that. Since the skills start in the Kindergarten curriculum, it is even good for students to start at that level to learn skills in a simple manner before going on to them in more complex ways. By the time a student does the Kindergarten through third grade program, they have actually covered a great majority of the concepts needed for algebra, which is often an eighth grade class! Is all this theoretical? No, much of this has been successfully used in the classroom for over twenty years and improved each year along the way, but not in the more fun game-like manner that it is now. Lastly, this program is meant to be inexpensive enough for almost anybody to afford. All too many programs cost much more and just don't do the job. |
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