Elementary Algebra (Teacher Guide - Revised - Download)

I got this Algebra course because our children will be needing it in a few years and we were excited to see Master Books offer an Algebra course. My husband recently completed a few college degrees (business related), and his toughest courses were pre-reqs - namely, biology and algebra. He thinks he would have done better on his CLEP if he had worked through this course first.

Overall, the course looks good and does a good job explaining the concepts of Algebra. The reason I’m giving 4 stars is because I was a bit disappointed that the biblical worldview is not incorporated into this course the way it is in most other Master Books courses, including Principles of Mathematics. In this Algebra course, there are some comics and funny stories sprinkled in, but they are simply fun little doodles and are not designed to point us to God. I think it is key for our children to remember that math is thinking God’s thoughts after Him, not man creating these facts and formulas. Having watched the preview of the Master Books Academy video supplement for this course taught by Katherine Hannon (author of Principles of Mathematics), I am sure we will want to add that when we use this course. While it will provide additional explanation and instruction, I like it primarily because she does so well at constantly reminding the student that math shouts out the faithfulness of God. These formulas all work because God designed His creation with order and consistency, and because He is faithful, the formulas are reliable and consistent!

Our family is very excited to be continuing math with Master Books. We have done all levels of MLFLE, POM 1 and 2 and are now stepping into algebra. I am very thankful for the revised edition with everything available to me as a teacher inside the teachers guide. I have also chosen to use MB online course through the MB academy along with the books since they worked so well with my daughter through POM 2. I also can tell by looking through the material that having my daughter do both levels of POM in her 7-8th year is really going to help her with this course. She was able to get a start on a lot of the material that is in this book and I am thankful that it is not going to be overwhelming for us. We have already gone through it and enjoy the little stories and did bits at the beginning of each lesson that bring the topic to the real world. I am so pleased that she is not dreading getting started with this course!