Review: Mathematical Reasoning A

 For kindergarten I decided to get Mathematical Reasoning Beginnings 1 and 2 just to have as extra practice for our daughter. Mathematical Reasoning A is more for a kindergartener so I use it as more of a confidence builder since our daughter knows everything in the book. Some reasons I like Mathematical Reasoning are because it is colorful, bright, fun and our daughter has really enjoyed doing the math work in it. I decided to keep it in a binder (2 inch) along with Mathematical Reasoning B. I tore out the perforated pages and hole punched them. We use a sheet protector so that we can reuse the pages for more practice and then I can use them for our second child when she’s old enough. 

The booklet starts off very simple with shapes, numbers and colors. I do like that it goes over even and odd because some of the other math books skip this. It also goes over 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc which I find very important because your student will need to understand this for lots of other things like writing stories. The book spiral so it will come back to previous lessons throughout the book. I find that since it is spiral done it allows you to make sure your child hasn’t forgotten any of the lessons. 

Your student will learn addition and subtraction. Even if you haven’t used this particular curriculum in the past Mathematical Reasoning A eases into both of these concepts. There are plenty of pages that go over adding and subtracting so your child will get plenty of practice. One thing I really like is that it goes over fractions. Our math curriculum hasn’t really worked much on fractions nor has it worked on number line usage. Mathematical Reasoning A gives a good amount of work on both of these. 

Some things our daughter finds fun are the pages that teach about using a graph, hours in a clock and counting backwards. Something I do in addition to this workbook is going outside and writing numbers on the driveway. Then our daughter can jump on them while saying the numbers to get more practice with skip counting and counting down. There are also some very simple pages to break up all the math work. Like picking which place a person would go based on what they are wearing or drawing a line segment to match the items with their seasons. 

So would I recommend Mathematical Reasoning A? Most definitely! It is really a lot of fun for kids. The workbook goes over so many different core concepts that a student will need to master for math. Even if you do not homeschool this would be a great book to use to enhance what your child is learning in school, especially if they need a little extra practice in math. I would use this book with a kindergartener but if you are in need of a higher grade Timberdoodle offers Mathematical Reasoning workbooks for a lot of other grades.