Primary Mathematics 3A Home Instructor’s Guide – Standard Edition

The purpose of the Home Instructor’s Guide is to provide parents with sufficient material to fully teach the Primary Mathematics curriculum to a depth that may not be achieved by simply following the textbook alone. Part of the success of any math curriculum comes from interacting with and guiding the student so that he or she can develop an understanding of the concepts with the clarity and depth needed to apply and extend these concepts to new situations and be able develop problem solving strategies that come with actual problem solving rather than just going through a given series of steps or following an example of a similar problem.

With sufficient understanding of the concepts and the purpose of the tasks and problems in the textbook, the parent/teacher will be more able to understand and deal with any misconceptions or lack of real comprehension early on before they become evident later through difficulties with topics that build on previously laid foundations. The parent/teacher will also be more prepared to initiate or pursue discussions on various approaches to solving a problem or understanding a concept and to use the textbook effectively as a teaching tool.

The guide contains:
-notes to the instructor with some mathematical background for each section in the textbook
-objectives for each chapter
-teaching activities using manipulatives where appropriate
-reinforcement and enrichment activities
-answers and solutions to corresponding textbook pages and learning tasks for the lesson, to be discussed with the student
-answers to the corresponding workbook exercises and solutions to many of the problems
-mental math pages