Algebra

Not familiar with meritsoftware.

Since your daughter is taking algebra in school and working with a tutor, my suggestion may not be helpful. However, you may want to take a look at Teaching Textbooks Algebra I. This is a very new homeschooling program that teaches directly to the student very effectively. From what I am hearing, students are able to learn and retain from this program with very little adult assistance. Website is http://www.teachingtextbooks.com

For reinforcement of basic math skills, I can recommend Quarter Mile Math software. Although presented in a supposedly game format, it really is math drill and therefore should not be done for more than 10 minutes a day. If, however, your daughter can spend 10 minutes on it for 3-5 days per week, it should help strengthen basic math skills and make the mechanics of working out algebra problems easier. Email or call the company for a demo disc if you are not sure about the program. Website is http://www.thequartermile.com

Nancy

A good self-teaching book series is Schaum’s. You want the one called Elementary Algebra (or Basic algebra or something like that, I am not positive). Check it out on Amazon or any college boostore — readily available, tried and true.

The Schaum’s books are in an excellent self-study format: a few paragraphs of introduction, a set of sample problems with worked-out solutions, a set of practice problems with the solutions at the end of the chapter to check, and then the next unit the same. They are not whizz-bang excitement, but there’s a real excitement in mastering things. If you supervise and make sure your student actually is working, ie writing down ALL the steps on the problems in the book, she will progress very fast with this series. Half an hour a day of serious work would finish Algebra 1 in less than the school year.