Schoolhouse Review: Pearson Homeschool enVisionMATH

In the midst of summer break, we still try to fit the 3 R's into our daily schedule several times a week.  The crew was given the opportunity to review several homeschool subjects from Pearson Homeschool.  Since we now have a new 6th grader in the house, I chose enVisionMATH 6 to review.  Stephen, my 6th grader, is like his mama in Math - we both love it and find it fairly easy to learn.  

What stood out to us both in this curriculum were the stories included in the text.  
For example, in Topic 1, there is a beautifully illustrated picture of a coral reef with this question - 


Coral reefs are formed by tiny marine animals, known as coral polyps, that live in colonies.  About how many coral polyps could form 1 square foot of of coral reef?  You will find out in Lesson 1-5.


This really peaked Stephen's interest as he headed into Topic 1 - Numeration.  There were other story intriguers as well.  Each topic included them.  The student text comes in a hardbound, non consumable, text book.  It even smelled like the textbooks I remembered from school.  Not sure that is a good thing though.  :)  The book includes 20 topics which are broken down into sub-topics and those sub-topics are your daily lessons.  The topics include...

• Topic 1: Numeration
• Topic 2: Variables, Expressions, and Properties
• Topic 3: Operations with Decimals
• Topic 4: Solving Equations
• Topic 5: Number and Fraction Concepts
• Topic 6: Decimals, Fractions, and Mixed Numbers
• Topic 7: Adding and Subtracting Fractions and Mixed Numbers
• Topic 8: Multiplying Fractions and Mixed Numbers
• Topic 9: Dividing Fractions and Mixed Numbers
• Topic 10: Integers
• Topic 11: Properties of Two-Dimensional Figures
• Topic 12: Ratios, Rates, and Proportions
• Topic 13: Solving Proportions
• Topic 14: Understanding Percent
• Topic 15: Equations and Graphs
• Topic 16: Measurement
• Topic 17: Perimeter and Area
• Topic 18: Volume and Surface Area
• Topic 19: Data and Graphs
• Topic 20: Probability

Each topic consists of 5-11 daily lessons.  Each lesson contains the concept being taught, guided practice problems, and  independent practice problems.  Some of the lessons also include social studies, science, and algebra connections as well.  The teacher edition CD-ROM which is included in the homeschool bundle, guides you through each lesson.  It includes scripted questions to help you engage your students.  It also has printable worksheets on it such as an assessment at the end of each lesson.  Depending upon your child's assessment, you are then given further instructions including reteaching strategies and more practice problems if necessary.  You do not move on until your child is ready!  At the end of a topic, the student is also given a test containing questions from each of the lessons in the topic to ensure complete mastery.


I found having to refer to the teacher manual on CD quite time consuming for me.  I would prefer a print edition but the CD is filled with so much information that I can see why they chose that route instead of print.  You do not need every sheet that is available so it will save you money in the long run and it is FULL of information.  It makes it very simple for the teacher to teach their child math.  The concepts are explained and you are given many teaching strategies.  It really is a gold mind of information but it does take some time for navigation.


Also included in the homeschool bundle is the Mindpoint Quizshow CD-ROM which allows your student to compete against the computer, siblings, or even you!  It is fun way to reinforce what your child is learning and is broken down by the same topics.  It is also a great reward tool.


Your student can certainly read this curriculum and do the work independently but it was not designed to be used that way.  My thoughts are this seems to be an advanced math curriculum and if your child struggles even in reading, you will need to have a more hands on approach.  We actually implemented both ways and found both easy to do but as I stated earlier, Stephen is strong in math and also in reading.  Also, being the homeschooler that I am - didn't assign all the independent practice problems.  I chose which ones and if he struggled then we would complete the rest.  If he didn't, we moved on!  So, for us some lessons were completed in a day and some it took several days to complete depending upon his mastery level.


The homeschool bundle of Envision Math 6 will be $99 for the 2012-2013 school year.  It includes the student text, teacher edition CD-ROM, and the Mindpoint Quizshow CD-ROM.

Be sure to check out what my fellow crew members thought about Envision Math - different levels and other subjects available from Pearson Homeschool .

**Disclaimer: As a member of The Schoolhouse Review Crew, I received a free homeschool bundle of Envision Math to review. The opinions here are my honest and true evaluation.