mommymonster Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 Hi. In addition to homeschooling my 7 yr old son, I volunteer with our local public school and run a math and science tutoring program for middle schoolers. I usually work with struggling students, and my math skills are perfectly sufficient to get them through their homework. Today I had the delightful opportunity to work with a group of gifted kids who just need lots of enrichment, as they are bored silly with the grade level work their teacher has been working with their class. These kids are just passionate about math and are eager to learn. It is a bit embarrassing to admit, but I don't remember enough of my high school maths to challenge them (I haven't done high school maths in about 20 years). I'd like to refresh my memory, but I'm not willing to spend a few hundred dollars on this venture. Are there free or low-cost algebra books out there? How about similar probability/statistics resources? I would like a book with problem sets and a bit of background/context (more for understanding how to discuss something, as opposed to "Our is not to question why, just invert and multiply!" <-- which is how I was taught). Thank you! Mel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dereksurfs Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 Wow, there are so many good free and inexpensive Algebra resources especially now with the internet. I'll name just a few and I'm sure others will add in as well. 1. Khan Academy - they are pretty hard to beat when it comes to free, excellent, clear instruction. They also have a problem bank which corresponds to the lessons. 2. AoPS free Algebra videos - they are both conceptual and practical. Alcumus problems can be used for free as well which can follow their Algebra book. 3. TabletClass - excellent free instruction http://homeschoolmathonline.com/ 4. Many classic Algebra texts which can be found used for pennies on the dollar including Foerster, Dolciani and Jacobs. 5. Open Library if you are in a state which participates: http://openlibrary.o...s_fulltext=true Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 Today I had the delightful opportunity to work with a group of gifted kids who just need lots of enrichment, as they are bored silly with the grade level work their teacher has been working with their class. These kids are just passionate about math and are eager to learn. They can have fun with the questions from Math Kangaroo as enrichment http://kangaroo.math.ca/index.php?kn_mod=samples I would like a book with problem sets and a bit of background/context (more for understanding how to discuss something, as opposed to "Our is not to question why, just invert and multiply!" <-- which is how I was taught). You can try Alcumus http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Alcumus/Introduction.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nansk Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 Many classic Algebra texts which can be found used for pennies on the dollar including Foerster, Dolciani and Jacobs. :iagree: I think this is your best bet. I found a book called GCSE Maths Guide by Kjartan Poskitt for a dollar. It has an overview of Algebra 1, 2, Geometry and Trigonometry. It was a great refresher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymonster Posted May 10, 2013 Author Share Posted May 10, 2013 Thank you! These resources are great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 College texts often have more explanation than high school texts. The best one IMO is Woodbury's Elementary and Intermediate Algebra. I like the 3rd edition more than the 1st or 2nd (they made some good changes in graphing by translation), but any edition is a good one. You can also get online practice at InterAct Math. It's got practice for most of Pearson's texts. It won't save where you ended, but you can use a ton of different books. Purplemath also used to be a really good site for explanations. I like it less since she's monetized it and made some changes, but she's got some good explanations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaKinVA Posted May 10, 2013 Share Posted May 10, 2013 Just throwing this out there (because you already have some great resources), Homeschool Buyers Coop has a link to sign up with YourTeacher.com (I believe it's now Mathhelp.com), for free use of their on-line courses through August 31. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nansk Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 Coming back because I remembered that I posted links to two free Algebra online textbooks in this post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KimberlyI Posted May 17, 2013 Share Posted May 17, 2013 www.ck12.org has many free resources. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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