His Vessel Textbooks Algebra 1 - TOS Review

 Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

Homeschooling high school math seems so scary to me! I sent my older two children to public school for high school, so I avoided the high school math struggle with them. I am not planning to send my now 8th grade daughter to public school at all, so I've already been trying to hash out a math plan for her high school years. This year she was using a pre-algebra program and not enjoying it at all. When I was given the chance to review His Vessel Textbooks Algebra 1 curriculum, I jumped at it! 

Switching math curriculum mid-year (or more like end-of-year) is not ideal to me, so I gave Mercie an option. I told her she could quit using her current pre-algebra program and use this Algebra 1 program for a few weeks. Then she could choose which one to continue with. After just a few days of using His Vessel Textbooks, she informed me that she wanted to continue with it!

His Vessel Algebra 1 was created by Mary Carroll, a homeschool mom herself with several degrees and a teaching certificate for 7th-12th grade integrated math. She wrote this Algebra 1 book because she wanted students to see what God has to say about math. Biblical themes are woven throughout this curriculum in a relevant and factual way. 

There are eleven units with 64 lessons in this textbook, which allows your student to take several days on each lesson if needed. The back of the book contains an answer key for the odd problems with answers but not the full solutions. Mary is writing a solution manual for this program which should be coming out this summer. That will be very helpful for us as we continue this program next year.

There are several features in each unit that I want to talk about because I think they bring effectiveness and godly instruction to this program.

First is the "A God Moment" sections. These sections have a scripture and short devotional explaining the math concepts in a biblical view. These are interesting to read and very helpful! Here is an example of "A God Moment" from Unit 3 on Arithmetic Sequences:

"The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"" Luke 17:5

We can plot our growth to see where God is leading us. I am always amazed that God uses even the little and insignificant things in our lives to help us grow. Our past is what makes us unique, and our faith in the faithful God is where we will find our future. He puts our lives together perfectly, like a puzzle. He fits all the pieces of our lives to make us whole.

Next there are "Objectives for This Lesson", which lets you and your student know what they will be learning in this lesson. These are written as "I Can..." statements, such as these from the very first lesson:

• Classify real numbers as rational or irrational
• Compare and contrast rational and irrational numbers
• Understand and justify the sum and product of rational and irrational numbers with examples
• Graph rational and irrational numbers on a number line
• Identify and solve absolute values

Each lesson also includes "Vocabulary Terms", defining the math terms that will be learned and used in the lesson. This is a great feature, especially for students who learn best through reading. It's a great resource to look back to as you work through the lesson if you need more clarification.

There are "Helpful Hints" scattered throughout the book to help your student understand what they are doing. These quick little reminders will stick in your student's memory. One of the "Helpful Hints" in the unit on graphing is, "Direct = a straight course; Variation = change."

Similar to the "Helpful Hints" are "Make It Clear" boxes. These boxes clarify some of the math concepts, making them, well, clearer to your students! An example, found in Unit 4, is "The word linear means to be able to be represented as a straight line on a graph. The word line is in the word linear."

"Family Activity" is another feature throughout the textbook. Working puzzles, eating a pie for Pi Day, and making shapes with play-dough are just a few of the activities listed. Sometimes fun activities like this can help make the difficult math concepts more enjoyable. There are also discussion points and object lessons in the "Family Activity" boxes that relate back to Christ.

There are also "Expressions Projects" at the end of each unit, which are a little more difficult (and optional). It may be something like calculating descendants of a Biblical character or figuring how much Nebuchadnezzar's statue weighed. This would be fun for your child to work through with you, their dad, or an older (or younger!) sibling.

Each lesson has "You Try" problems and example problems that your child can work through as they're learning the new concepts. The example problems are already worked out, so your student can walk themselves through the steps to see exactly what they need to do. The "You Try" problems are not worked out on the page, but there are solutions to each of those problems at the end of the unit. The "You Try" problems are written right under the fully-worked out examples, so your child can look back at the examples while they're working the "You Try" problems if they need a little direction.

Okay, now that I've explained each of the features in the textbook, I'll share what we thought about this program. Mercie feels like this is a very user-friendly math textbook, especially because she doesn't like math. She doesn't dread math as much as she used to since she began with His Vessel Algebra 1. She is now on Unit 2 - Equations, lesson 2.7. She will take a few days for each lesson, since the lessons can be a bit long.

There is a workbook companion that includes all of the problems in the textbook for $14.99. This would be very helpful, especially if your child is copying the problems from the textbook into a notebook. Mercie writes directly in the textbook, which is fine with me. She marks the textbook up, underlining and circling things and working out the problems. She mostly just completes the odd numbers since those are the only ones in the answer key. However I am thinking I will purchase the workbook for next year as she finishes this curriculum. 

The textbook itself is great quality. The pages have plenty of white space so they don't appear too busy. There is color in the graphics, but it's not loud or distracting. It's a hard cover book with over 550 thick pages! 

Mary is also coming out with a Geometry and Algebra 2 program soon. This is great news because I really feel like this is a great fit for Mercie and would love to continue this throughout her high school. This program meets all of the requirements for a high school Algebra 1 credit. 

Mercie and I are super pleased with this Algebra 1 program. I am so thankful we were introduced to His Vessel Textbooks and excited to continue with it for her high school years. Click the banner below to see what other reviewers thought of His Vessel Textbooks Algebra 1!