Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This was without doubt the best thing I ever did for my son ! I will start by telling you when he took his placement test at the beginning of second grade this year he scored easily into third grade level and almost fourth. Let me tell you how we did it! I ordered it the beginning of his summer vacation. When it got here I divided the number of days to when school started to the number of work pages and it came to 5 pages a day to finish minus Saturdays and Sundays. I got him a note pad and some pencils and erasers and every morning we did our 5 pages. Now granted if it was very hard pages we might do four or even three. But on the same note if they were very easy pages I would do six pages and sometimes seven. This is what I liked about the book. It went progressively. Meaning chapter 1 set the stage for chapter 2 and so on. The book did a great job in teaching skills that would make the next chapter make more sense. Also what I thought was genius on their part was they took a concept and presented it several different ways. For example on telling time it looked at what time is it, how much time is left, how much time would you need, time with pictures, time with word problems, time with games, and time with estimates. With every concept that was taught I felt confident that no matter how the test question was presented to him, he would have some exposure to it the way this book did it! Also what was very important which was a concern to me was always re exposing that which was taught. For example in chapter 3 I believe we worked on very basic addition. Every new section of the book would introduce it again and raise the bar a bit so it got just a bit harder. So through out the summer we worked on basic addition a few days rather than just a few when you got to that section. And it was like that for every concept he learned. Always bringing it back up later so it was not forgotten and took to a bit higher level in difficulty. Let me tell you what he thought of the book. He at first HATED it ! He said it was not fair I was giving him home work on his summer vacation. He wanted to watch cartoons and play video games. I would however give him much praise when he did well and especially when he grasped a concept that was difficult for him. He began to like doing the book because he enjoyed the time we spent together and of course his great job hugs I would give him! He loved showing his grandparents what he learned and they were truly impressed! He absolutely loved the games and any of the problems in the book that had the robot in it! He would come in the morning with a smile on his face and say lets gets started! I loved that ! :) My three important suggestions to consider if you but this book. Buy your child a watch that it is not digital with all the numbers on it. For my child the telling time part time was very hard for him and this helped a lot. Make a point through out the day and night to ask them what time it is! Second let them handle money and help in the stores how to use cash. It will make the book make much more sense and stress the importance of this skill. I want to WARN every one in this book the nickles almost look identical to the quarters. I had to put my reading glasses on several times to tell the difference. This is my only issue with the book! Third is I get up very early and he was just not enough wake to be as attentive and alert and focused as he needed to be. I found if I gave him some time to wake up and what not he did much better and remembered quite well. I will definitely be getting more books for this summer and would highly recommend this book if your child is struggling in school currently! I got some other brand books for reading and writing and I GREATLY REGRET not getting the Sylvan brand, He is currently struggling with with reading and writing but is straight easy A's on math! I hope this helps ! ray333ray2001@yahoo.com