Math Essentials Math Refresher for Adults Review

My family had the privilege of trying Math Refresher for Adults from Math Essentials for this review to use in conjunction with our own homeschool curriculum. This is a Homeschool Review Crew Review. All opinions expressed are my own or those of my family.

Math Essentials was created by Richard W. Fisher, a math instructor for the Oak Grove School District in San Jose, California, for over 31 years. This company creates award winning math materials to help teach and learn mathematics. These are easy to use and easy to understand. Rick creates books, DVD’s, and a world-class online instructional program.

The Math Refresher for Adults...The Perfect Solution is a physical, softcover book by Richard W. Fisher. It is part of the Mastering Essential Math Skills series. This book goes through and gives a refresher course for anyone that needs one. It covers: Basic General Math, Geometry, Problem Solving, Pre-Algebra, and Algebra. Each lesson is short, concise, and easy to understand. Each lesson has review exercises, two sample problems, and a small section to take notes. There is a corresponding video tutorial for each lesson in the book taught by Rick Fisher. This book is perfect for those that: have forgotten the math that they were taught, struggle with math, have been away from math too long, want to teach their homeschooled kids math, want to be able to help their kids with math homework, have a math placement/competency test coming up, or are English Language Learners learning math.

General Math Main Chapters include:

• Whole Numbers
• Fractions
• Decimals
• Percents
• Geometry
• Integers
• Charts and Graphs
• Word Problems

Pre-Algebra and Algebra Chapters include:

• sets
• integers
• positive and negative numbers
• exponents
• square roots
• order of operations
• properties of numbers
• scientific notation
• ratios and proportions
• percents
• number theory
• number lines
• coordinate systems
• slope
• graphing linear equations
• equations
• algebra word problems
• probability
• statistics

How We Used This and Our Thoughts:

I used Math Essentials Math Refresher for Adults for myself as a refresher in math; primarily in Pre-Algebra and Algebra and as a math refresher for my kids. I also used this book with a neighbor child that I am tutoring this summer to get his math skills up to where his level should be. This book is very efficient in teaching the math skills we all need to know to succeed. Math is super important to learn and apply in our lives. Math is so easy to forget if we don't keep using what we learned. Unfortunately the overuse of calculators and other technology to do the math work for us is helping make people lazy and forgetful. This book is wonderful for not only adults that have forgotten math or were not taught it well, but children/teens that need this refresher as well.

Changing improper fractions to mixed number or whole number.

For now I focused on fractions with the kid that I am tutoring math to because that was where he was having the most trouble. This book has been a great help for both me and him. He is now grasping the concepts so much better. I liked how it recommends that you write the problem out in a notebook or on a separate sheet of paper along with your work so you don't have to write in the book.

The book also says it comes with video instruction, however; finding which videos went with this book was a bit difficult since they do not have this book listed under the video section yet. After some looking into, we did find that the videos for the other books still correspond with the information in this book. The videos are to the point and easy to understand without any bells and whistles. The book goes in a great sequential order that is wonderful for relearning basics, pre-algebra, and algebra.

Math Essentials Videos

I highly recommend this book for anyone needs a refresher on math. It is a great tool to help remember the math you learned years ago...or teach struggling math learners. It is also very affordable for anyone to purchase.

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You can purchase the Math Essentials Math Refresher for Adults book for $28.95.

Read other homeschool curriculum reviews for Math Essentials Math Refresher for Adults...

Learning Resources STEM Code & Go Robot Mouse Activity Set Review #learningresources

Learning Resources STEM Code & Go Robot Mouse Activity Set is a fun toy that teaches sequencing, coding, and programming. This toy challenges players to sharpen their analytical thinking, critical thinking, logical thinking, and problem solving skills. For ages 5 and up and grades Kindergarten and up.

STEM

• Science: exploring the science of coding and programming with hands-on activities!
• Technology: building and using tools for amazing discoveries!
• Engineering: designing solutions for real-world problems!
• Math: measuring, recording, and comparing data to draw conclusions!

83 Piece Set Includes:

• 1 Robot mouse named Colby: has a switch on the bottom with 3 positions (off and two speeds: normal to use on plastic maze base grid pieces and hyper for use on carpet and other more uneven surfaces). Colorful buttons on top make him do things in the order they are pressed and are: forward (blue arrow that points towards his nose, makes him move forward 5"), rotate right (purple arrow that points right when he is facing away from you, makes Colby rotate right 90 degrees), reverse (yellow arrow that points towards his tail end, makes him move backward 5"), rotate left (orange arrow that points left when he is facing away from you, makes Colby rotate left 90 degrees), action (red circle that makes him either: move forward and back, squeak loudly, or chirp 3 times with lit up eyes), clear (yellow circle clears all coding if you make a mistake or want to do another sequence, has confirmation tone), go (green circle that is the last command to be pressed when the sequence (up to 40 steps) is completed and Colby is set down on the maze). Takes 3 AAA batteries, not included.
• 16 Plastic maze base grid pieces: connect together to form a larger board or any configuration that goes together.
• 22 Plastic maze walls: to be placed around the grids in the crevices so that the mouse can go through the maze to get to the cheese.
• 3 Plastic tunnels: can be placed on the grid or surface for the mouse to go under and through.
• 1 Plastic cheese wedge: to be placed at the end of the maze for the mouse to find. This is magnetic and sticks to the mouses nose when touched by it.
• 30 Double-sided coding cards: have one side with just the arrow and the other side with the mouse and the arrow. These help you plot and track the mouse's path and order in which the code needs to be pressed on Colby for him to get to the cheese in the maze.
• 10 Double-sided activity cards: help you build the mazes from pictures on the cards. These are made in order of difficulty, 1 being the easiest and 20 being the hardest.
• 1 Multilingual activity guide: is instructions and directions for how to play.

How To Play:

1. Pick an activity card with one of the challenge mazes.
2. Build your maze from the picture on the card or just build your own: by connecting the maze grid pieces together and adding the walls, tunnels, and cheese.
3. Use either side of the coding cards to create a step-by-step path for Colby to find the cheese.
4. Program the sequence of steps with the buttons on the mouse.
5. Set Colby down where he is suppose to start in the maze, press go, and watch Colby race to find the cheese.

Teela and Zari playing with the Code & Go Robot Mouse Activity Set.

What We Thought:
My daughters who are 6 and 8 tried out the Code & Go Robot Mouse Activity Set. This is a neat toy. It teaches some very important skills and I love that it is educational and that my girls enjoyed it so much. We love bringing this toy out for when we need a break from book work during homeschooling. The girls liked making their own mazes and figuring out what code to program into Colby, the mouse. They also thought that it was funny that the mouse made little sounds occasionally and loved that you could program an action into it to make the mouse do random things. Someday we'd love to get the purple mouse, Jack, that is sold separately, so we can have even more fun with this set and race the two!

The Code & Go Robot Mouse Activity Set is fun and educational! I recommend it to people that love games, puzzles, and educational toys! This is also a great addition to any homeschool environment. It is a great family centered toy and wonderful to teach and improve STEM and mental skills.

BUY IT


DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received this product for free to facilitate this review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review. Affiliate links can be found in this post. Thank you for your support of this blog!

Learning Resources Mental Blox 360° 3-D Building Game Review

Learning Resources Mental Blox 360° 3-D Building Game is a game of 3-D shapes that the player tries to stack and place in formation to resemble a 2-D picture. These brain-boosting puzzles challenge players to sharpen their spatial visualization, critical thinking, logical thinking, and problem solving skills. It takes concentration, attention to detail, logical thinking, abstract thinking, analytical thinking, and precision to build and solve 3-D shape puzzles from the different visual perspectives and points-of-view. You can play by yourself or with friends or family members for even more fun. For ages 5 and up.

Everything included in the box.

What Is Included:

• 15 colorful plastic blocks: These blocks are best played with on a hard flat surface is optimal with these so they stack well. These are sized well for little hands to grasp.
• 40 double-sided cards: These feature the puzzle on the front and the solution on the back. The picture cards show a 2-D viewpoint to be built in 3-D. The cards are language-free so players who do not read yet can still play. 3 levels of play: green cards are easy, yellow are medium, and red is difficult. Top right of the card has a cube that is representative of which point of view or angle is being shown (top, front, behind, sides). Left of the line on the card is all pieces needed t make the build. Right of the line is how the structure looks when completed from the point of view indicated in the above cube. Check accuracy on the back of each card.
• Activity Guide: This is the instruction booklet. It describes how to play the game.

Teela and Zari playing with the Mental Blox 360° 3-D Building Game.

What We Thought:
My daughters who are 5 and 8 tried out the Mental Blox 360° 3-D Building Game. This game makes them think outside the blox :) My eight year old daughter could do the green and yellow cards without difficulty. She was challenged on the red cards, but quite willing and up to the challenge without giving up. My five year old couldn't quite grasp the concept of the different viewpoints so she instead stacks the blocks in fun ways. Mental Blox 360° is a great boredom buster. It helps expand my kids' ways of thinking. I am quite amazed at how much attention they pour into this game. It keeps them very occupied for quite a while.

Mental Blox 360° is fun and educational! I recommend it to people that love brain games, puzzles, and other games! This is also a great addition to any homeschool environment. It is a great family centered game and wonderful to teach and improve STEM and mental skills.

BUY IT


DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received this product for free to facilitate this review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review. Affiliate links can be found in this post. Thank you for your support of this blog!