There are several things I really like about the Singapore Approach to math and this workbook in particular.
1. It's all in black and white on the inside pages, which allows the student to focus on the MATH concepts / problems rather than being distracted by lots of flashy color and activities.
2. There is a terrific variety of problem types. Students do basic addition and subtraction in different formats, learn to use picture and bar graphs, figure out how to "translate" items into units, compare numbers, learn to regroup, telling time, counting money, solve basic word problems and much more. Normally I would think this was a bit much for a first grade book, but the concepts are added in a sensible order so that students progress at a reasonable rate.
3. There is plenty of review. Students are not bombarded with the same problems over and over, but the author does include enough review exercises so that the student will not forget the material in previous lessons.
4. The ONLY thing I didn't like about the book were short sections where the student had to write the particular mathematics "rule" for a function. Although I thought this was a bit too much to write for first graders, we got around this problem by simply letting our first grader TELL us the answer out loud (rather than write it down) so the book still gets five stars!
I wish all public schools would use this book. It makes learning math so much easier. As for homeschoolers - you have a choice! Don't hesitate. This is a wonderful product and if you have more than one child close to first grade level, you could let them all work through it together. You don't HAVE to use it just for first grade.
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