Algebra: Structure and Method, Book 1 - Teacher's Edition | Comprehensive High School Math Textbook | Perfect for Classroom Instruction & Lesson Planning

After reviewing this book, I selected it for my seven-year-old son. So far he has been learning from it without any problems, and with little input from me. While he's accelerated to start with and good at picking things up, I think this shows that the book is well constructed and laid out.As for me, I find the book exceptionally clear in its layout and introduction of new material. The problems are well-constructed and everything is nicely formatted to clearly convey the information. Instead of huge glossy pictures on every page, consistent text formatting using fonts and colors is used (there are a few pictures in sidebars, but mostly tied to challenge or enrichment sections). Exceptionally clear sample problems are given for new material, and the book shows how to work them.My only complaint about this book, which is not severe, is that it definitely takes an approach of direct instruction for new concepts, instead of letting a student noodle through a new concept on his own. (Run a web search on "Art of Problem Solving" for an example of a curriculum that encourages deep thought and mastery by challenging students to discover mathematical principles even before a new concept is fully explained.) However, nothing prevents one from adding in extra material and using this book as a curriculum "spine".For its exceptional clarity and good problem sets, I can't rate this book more highly. With the addition of some extra challenge work, it makes for a quite good introduction to algebra.