Math is one subject in which continued drill and practice really helps solidify skills in student's minds. I've also found it helpful to use a variety of publishers when teaching math so that my students learn to understand how to solve math problems that are written in different ways. Evan-Moor's Daily Word Problems could be an effective way to meet both of these goals.

Daily Word Problems include 36 weeks of daily problems; Monday through Thursday's problems are one or two-step problems while Friday's problem may require multiple steps. The problems for each week center on a different theme to create more interesting practice and this book has topics such as the garden shop, science experiments, school supplies and seeds. Next to each problem is space to work the problem and an area for the student's answer. Evan-Moor states that the frequent, focused practice found in Daily Word Problems have been scientifically proven to lead to mastery and retention of the math skill practiced.

The math skills practiced in this grade 4 book include: addition and subtraction facts, multiplication and division facts, multi-digit addition and subtraction with and without regrouping, multiplication with and without regrouping, division with and without remainders, telling time, money, fractions, reading and interpreting graphs and charts, estimation and logic problems. An especially helpful feature at the beginning of the book is the Scope and Sequence chart that shows which week various math skills are covered. Using this chart, you could easily select problems to give your student extra practice in a particular math skill.

The cost of the book is $16.99 in either a Reproducible Teacher's Edition paperback book or an instantly downloadable e-book. If you can find a few friends who'd like the same book, you can buy a pack of consumable student practice books in a set of five for just $24.99 which makes this book an incredible deal!

Because Evan-Moor products are produced for a traditional school market, there are some themes that aren't relevant for homeschoolers such as the week focusing on student council activities but I didn't find these to be distracting for my students. I did decide that the best way for our family to use this book was to put the pages in page protectors and use dry erase markers to work the problems. Since these truly are just practice and not something I desire to save, I decided to save the expense of photocopying and the clutter of having additional papers to deal with. This worked well and the pages can easily be cleaned and saved for the next student to use.

I've found Daily Word Problems to be a simple way for my students to practice the math skills they are gaining in their curriculum. I appreciate that the word problems are worded differently from the primary curriculum we use, forcing my children to really think about what functions they need to use to solve the problems. I also appreciate how simple Daily Word Problems makes it for me to ensure my students are regularly drilling past learned math skills. If these are things that might be helpful in your child's math program you might want to consider adding this book to your daily routine.

Product review by Lisa Kjeldgaard, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, April, 2009