Also in the introduction you will find a chart that shows the suggested grade levels for each book: Primary = first and second grades; Intellectual = third and fourth grades; Practical = fifth and sixth grades; Higher = seventh and eighth grades. Another nice find is a suggested Scope and Sequence and Teaching Tips. My recommendation? “Suggestions” are always fine and appreciated, but remember, these are YOUR children and your school is YOUR school, so do what works best for you and yours.

As you may suspect, Ray’s New Practical Arithmetic starts right out with Numbers and Figures. Every student must connect one object with the numeral 1 and the name “one.” I was never a “sentence problem” kind of student, but the beginner “Oral Exercises” can be so much fun with the little ones. There is nothing like watching those little light bulbs click on! It has been my experience with other math programs that, in my humble opinion, they start the children on multiplication and division far too early. Even though this Primary book introduces multiplication and division, it’s done in one of the simplest ways I have seen. But, once again, you know your children best. Use your own judgment as to when to dig deeper with your children.

Ray’s New Intellectual Arithmetic begins with a review of addition and subtraction, including sentence problems, tables, and written problems. Since the book is recommended for third and fourth grades, it is a more appropriate time to work into multiplication and division. The tables are laid out perfectly, and this would be a good time to memorize them. You will not want for exercises; this book is replete with material.

From there we move on to fractions, tables, ratios, and percentages. The detail covered in this volume is something to be admired, and you will certainly understand how such a little book can easily be used for two years.

For grades 5 and 6 we move on to Ray’s New Practical Arithmetic. This book takes students into the differences between the Arabic and Roman systems of notation and place value. After a review of addition and subtraction, we move into contractions of multiplication and division. From there we move into what my children always considered the “fun” side of math: money, measuring, time, miscellaneous tables, compound numbers, longitude, and time; then on into factors. This point would be a good stopping point for fifth grade so that in sixth grade we can move on to decimals, the metric system, percentages, interest, exchange of monies from different countries, insurance, taxes, ratio, and beginning geometry. These are very full years.