Elementary School Math for a Flying University - Books and Worksheets
Under the "Resources" tab, we have begun posting workbooks and worksheets for our "Elementary School Math for a Flying University" series. These materials are designed to help African-American and other nonwhite homeschooling parents and families who are not being well served by the public school districts in which they live.
These books are licensed under a Creative Commons non-commercial license, so anyone can freely download them for their personal use. These books teach math in a direct, easy-to-understand format that is very different in many ways from the Common Core approach.
Why Do These Book Teach Math The Way They Do?
A solid foundation in math requires people to know how to use basic algorithms. An algorithm is a rule for solving a certain kind of math problem. These algorithms are first learned in basic arithmetic, and are expanded when people start learning algebra and calculus. If you don’t know these algorithms well, you will have a very hard time with all of math. Problems that should take only a few seconds to solve will take you hours instead. Many schools in the United States don’t teach the basic algorithms anymore, so many people who go to these schools get out of school without knowing how to do math. By contrast, kids in China, Singapore, and Korea learn the algorithms early, and they know more by the time they get to middle school than many American kids have learned by the time they get out of high school.
In this book, we give basic explanations of the algorithms, and then we give students lots of practice in learning each algorithm. You can’t learn the algorithms without lots of practice – just like you can’t learn to play the piano or get really good at soccer or skateboarding tricks without lots of practice. If you want to get good at math, you must spend at least an hour a day practicing. If you are a kid, it should be easy to find an hour a day for practice. Your parents can help you find the time. As the math gets harder, you will need to spend more time practicing.
Families who use these books will at the end have children who know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide!
Is there more coming?
You bet. We have completed Books 1 and 2, and we are about to start on Book 3, covering multiple-digit multiplication and the division algorithm. Stay tuned…
These books are licensed under a Creative Commons non-commercial license, so anyone can freely download them for their personal use. These books teach math in a direct, easy-to-understand format that is very different in many ways from the Common Core approach.
Why Do These Book Teach Math The Way They Do?
A solid foundation in math requires people to know how to use basic algorithms. An algorithm is a rule for solving a certain kind of math problem. These algorithms are first learned in basic arithmetic, and are expanded when people start learning algebra and calculus. If you don’t know these algorithms well, you will have a very hard time with all of math. Problems that should take only a few seconds to solve will take you hours instead. Many schools in the United States don’t teach the basic algorithms anymore, so many people who go to these schools get out of school without knowing how to do math. By contrast, kids in China, Singapore, and Korea learn the algorithms early, and they know more by the time they get to middle school than many American kids have learned by the time they get out of high school.
In this book, we give basic explanations of the algorithms, and then we give students lots of practice in learning each algorithm. You can’t learn the algorithms without lots of practice – just like you can’t learn to play the piano or get really good at soccer or skateboarding tricks without lots of practice. If you want to get good at math, you must spend at least an hour a day practicing. If you are a kid, it should be easy to find an hour a day for practice. Your parents can help you find the time. As the math gets harder, you will need to spend more time practicing.
Families who use these books will at the end have children who know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide!
Is there more coming?
You bet. We have completed Books 1 and 2, and we are about to start on Book 3, covering multiple-digit multiplication and the division algorithm. Stay tuned…
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