Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I just went through this book to put together my 8th grade son's curriculum plan for the year. I went through the lessons/format etc and the reviews. This book is AMAZING. It really is basic algebra, the one-world language of math. LOVE IT. The crazy backwords crap they tried shoving down his throat (aka COMMON CORE NONSENSE) in our California public school system left him still confused and, though he passed the class with a B, he still feels like none of it is 'clear' in his head, and he gets re-confused when problems he hasn't done in a while are re-introduced (a problem he NEVER had before the common core movement). This is a GATE kid who knew his ABCs at 18 months old, and reads 3 grade levels ahead, and common core math confuses him (and me, I'm a college grade who LOVES algebra and even I don't get common core lol). So we are starting over, homeshooling this year, with good old fashioned regular old MATH, and this is PERFECT! Now he will remember it for life the way I do, and he'll do great in high school geometry & trig. UPDATE!!!! We are on to the second quarter, and he is doing so well. On units that are easy for him, we do one unit per day. On more difficult units, we spread it out to two days. Rarely, we'll spread it out to a third day. He's doing great. This book cannot be more simple, organized and straight-forward. It's not too easy, it is regular algebra, but there are no frills to distract or confuse. A couple of times we ran into their way looking different than our way, which we thought was easier (like greatest common factor, in unit one-review), so we did it our way. All the answers are in the back of the book so I can check his math work. They give you a website log-in with every book, so you can access their website for help or contact them, but we haven't had to use it. If you're a parent who doesn't know algebra, this will probably help a lot. :) If he comes to a section that's a new concept or difficult for him, I'll sit down with him and we'll do the problems together but on our own separate papers. I'll say, ok what do we do next? And if he doesn't know that step, I'll explain it as I do it, and he listens and works the math problem as I guide him, explaining each step and why we're doinf it, and on the next problem I'll ask "what do we do next?" And he quickly gets it and tells me as he goes. Then we'll check our answers to see if we are right. That way, if he gets stuck, I know exactly where and why, and I can help him before he has a chance to feel overwhelmed or get upset. This book could easily be spread out between two grade years. It would be perfect to start at 8th grade and go through 9th grade. Just count the number of total lessons in the book, divide the total school days (180 per year) by the number of lessons and you'll get how many school days you can spend on each lesson. Now that we're out of review and into straight algebra, one lesson per day is starting to look too rushed. They need lots of practice to get to know it like the back of their hand. Every unit has lessons. The lessons have a page that explains the concept in words, then gives several examples. It's best to write the examples and tell yourself what they're doing while working it our yourself as you read it. Then you're ready to practice! AND at the end of each lesson, there are 4 review problems at the bottom on past lessons so they don't get rusty on past concepts but it's not overwhelming. I JUST CANNOT SAY ENOUGH GREAT THINGS!