Virtually every homeschooling parent wonders, at one time or the other, whether he or she is really qualified to teach her child mathematics. This is not surprising. Since Russia launched Sputnik in 1957, we have had a national neurosis that our children are not being taught mathematics in the right way. This led to the “new math” of the 1960's, and later in the 1980's to the shorter lived approach of introducing mathematics by the way of set theory. The currently favored solution is to find “super” teachers who, as a combination of Albert Einstein and Mother Teresa, can inspire students to love mathematics. Such teachers are likely to be rare.
Very few of us remember our mathematics from school. So nearly all homeschoolers have to renew their math skills. This is usually done by the parent studying along side his child through the various textbooks and videos they use for homeschooling.
This tutorial offers a better option. In one short book, it provides a review of arithmetic, exponents, rates and interest, problem solving by graphs, basic and matrix algebra, trigonometry, the Fibonacci sequence as well as power, Maclaurin and Taylor series approximations, and first-level calculus — the essential basics of mathematics. It also explains the symbols and conventions of mathematics, and (most importantly) how to read and understand equations. A “...how did they do that?” approach is used that makes math easier, and also interesting (see, e.g., the 20 math trivia questions on the back cover of the book). Anyone investing the effort and expense involved in homeschooling mathematics should have this book..