In which we go off in search of a tolerable Geometry course and find a delightful surprise!
Sometimes, a child has such an affinity for a subject that almost any book will do. At other times, however, the book you NEED hasn't been published. Once in a rare while however, you decide to settle for a resource that looks like you could at least tolerate it, only to discover that it was the perfect tool for the job! Such was our search for Geometry last year. Having a teen boy with ZERO interest in art or drawing of any kind, I needed a geometry book that didn't look too much like the dreaded art. That's kind of like ordering a cheeseburger without the cheese!
First, I searched all of the standard curriculum publishers to no avail (though there was one we could settle for if nothing else turned up). Next, I tried the non-standard but they weren't any better. In fact, some were much worse! What I needed was a textbook that approached geometry from a logical rather than an artistic point of view, I reasoned. Where to look for that but in the books from days gone by, when logic as taught in schools! ("What DO they teach them in schools these days?" as the professor asked.)
I next went to my favorite site for out of copyright ebooks. After a mere three to four minutes of searching, I found a book that looked like it would work. The author's name even sounded oddly familiar though I couldn't quite recall why. It was just there on the edge- no matter. I presented the book,which my son reluctantly agreed to try.At least it had the logical proofs side by side with the drawings. It might work.
Two weeks later, he was loving the book. He flew through the pages solving everything with the use of the logical proofs, only rarely having to resort to the drawings for guidance! As usual, he asked if he could search for a set of flashcards on quizlet to study the terms presented in his book prior to the first unit test. Imagine my shock when he found a quiz written for the same mainstream curriculum we had reluctantly considered earlier, which perfectly matched our book WORD FOR WORD!
Curious, I went back to see if I could find any clues in the online sample from the publisher- and discovered it right on the front cover. Yep, the author was the self-same William James Milne. Apparently his book was considered so good that very little rewriting needed to be done beyond updating some problems and removing the "antiquated" logical proofs in favor of teaching primarily through the drawings. Well, if this book was goo enough for that top-notch publisher, it was definitely good enough for me! We finished the year with the best time we'd ever had in any math course we ever used! This year, we're using an Algebra 2 with Trigonometry by the same author, and even better, we found that his geometric proofs put my son ahead in the algebra 2, giving us more time to devote to the trigonometry later! Win-win!
Here's the book. I hope y'all like it as much as we did!
Milne's Geometry
Blessings,
Rachael
(By the way, there IS an answer key available online as well!)
Sometimes, a child has such an affinity for a subject that almost any book will do. At other times, however, the book you NEED hasn't been published. Once in a rare while however, you decide to settle for a resource that looks like you could at least tolerate it, only to discover that it was the perfect tool for the job! Such was our search for Geometry last year. Having a teen boy with ZERO interest in art or drawing of any kind, I needed a geometry book that didn't look too much like the dreaded art. That's kind of like ordering a cheeseburger without the cheese!
First, I searched all of the standard curriculum publishers to no avail (though there was one we could settle for if nothing else turned up). Next, I tried the non-standard but they weren't any better. In fact, some were much worse! What I needed was a textbook that approached geometry from a logical rather than an artistic point of view, I reasoned. Where to look for that but in the books from days gone by, when logic as taught in schools! ("What DO they teach them in schools these days?" as the professor asked.)
I next went to my favorite site for out of copyright ebooks. After a mere three to four minutes of searching, I found a book that looked like it would work. The author's name even sounded oddly familiar though I couldn't quite recall why. It was just there on the edge- no matter. I presented the book,which my son reluctantly agreed to try.At least it had the logical proofs side by side with the drawings. It might work.
Two weeks later, he was loving the book. He flew through the pages solving everything with the use of the logical proofs, only rarely having to resort to the drawings for guidance! As usual, he asked if he could search for a set of flashcards on quizlet to study the terms presented in his book prior to the first unit test. Imagine my shock when he found a quiz written for the same mainstream curriculum we had reluctantly considered earlier, which perfectly matched our book WORD FOR WORD!
Curious, I went back to see if I could find any clues in the online sample from the publisher- and discovered it right on the front cover. Yep, the author was the self-same William James Milne. Apparently his book was considered so good that very little rewriting needed to be done beyond updating some problems and removing the "antiquated" logical proofs in favor of teaching primarily through the drawings. Well, if this book was goo enough for that top-notch publisher, it was definitely good enough for me! We finished the year with the best time we'd ever had in any math course we ever used! This year, we're using an Algebra 2 with Trigonometry by the same author, and even better, we found that his geometric proofs put my son ahead in the algebra 2, giving us more time to devote to the trigonometry later! Win-win!
Here's the book. I hope y'all like it as much as we did!
Milne's Geometry
Blessings,
Rachael
(By the way, there IS an answer key available online as well!)