Math Central by Houghton Mifflin review (It's not good)

I decided to pull out a JCPS math book I have from a friend. It's called Math Central and it's published by Houghton Mifflin. Unfortunately, I don't know what level the work is but it must be very early. Maybe 1st grade.


This book is simply astounding to flip through. It's 426 pages of instruction, 18 pages of which teach "addition facts through 6". I'll describe each page.


1. There's a nice page with pictures of people where you are encouraged to count the family members.
2. A cute little drawing (cld) where you listen to a story then put manipulatives to the page.
3. The children are asked to draw people. "Show 3 and draw it's parts" which I assumes means draw 3 people then draw 2 more plus 1 more?
4. The same as 3 but it asks you to "Look at a friend's page. How did your friend show the parts of the numbers?"
5. Another CLD where you listen to the story and use manipulatives to act it out.
6. Same as 5. Also says, "Make up your own story. Draw people in a picture. Write how many in all."
7. "Use red cubes and blue cubes. Make one part with cubes. Add cubes for the other part. Draw them. Write how many in all." (There are only 3 problems.)
8. Hey! Now we finally have instruction on adding. (Did anyone else realize all the other stuff was simply counting?) This page actually uses the plus sign. Yes, I kid you not... this is the first spotting of the ever elusive plus sign and it's 8 pages into the instruction. There are only 3 problems and they have pictures for you to count. This is followed by 4 more problems where you simply count the pictures and write the word.
9. "Jose and Sheri are downstairs. Maria is upstairs. How many people are in the house? Understand- I need to find the number of people in the house. Plan- I could act it out with counters. Try it- 2+1=3 There are 3 people in the house. Look back- Jose, Sheri, and Maria make 3 people. My answer makes sense. Now listen to the new story. Act it out. Why is it important to listen to the story?
10. "Midchapter review" Now we're back to using counters and cubes. At least this time we have math problems (They use a + sign) with them but there are only 3.
11-12. "Math World" play a game with marbles.
13. There's a map where you need to count rocks. (rocks equal steps) "You take ____ steps to pet the dog. You take ___ steps to visit the honey. Pick a flower then feed the duck. Write the number sentence. ____ + ____ = ____ steps." Then it encourages the kid to make their own math (counting) problems from the picture. (BTW- I'm not leaving problems out... this is the entire page!)
14. It's like 13 only a different picture. It's still just counting.
15-16. Watch out folks... we've got real math problems, 14 of them. But rest assured, the kids aren't asked to actually solve the problem. They only need to count the pictures provided for each problem. And guess what else? This is the Chapter Test!
17. Investigations- There's a picture of a family with one mom and three kids. "1+3=4 What other addition sentences can you write about this family?" (It asks for 2)
18. Draw a picture of your family. What addition sentences can you write about your family? (It asks for 2)

That's it, end of instruction. Your kid should now know how to add through 6. This is despite the fact that there is not a single page with a math problem which has no corresponding pictures, not a single one.
No where in this addition section is there a list of problems like:
2
+3
----
Nowhere. But we get to draw and count a lot. :) Also, you get to use a calculator in this book! It's part of the instructions on certain pages.

But guess what folks? This book is SOOOO impressive. It's even teaching geometry, multiplication and division! How that's possible with this little instruction on simple addition is beyond me.

Please, someone fill me in. Are there more than one math book used per school year? Would the students actually be taught using some other book or method? (And if that's the case then why use this book at all?)

Why are our tax dollars paying for a book that doesn't teach? And who in the world does Houghton Mifflin think they're fooling? This book doesn't teach addition, it teaches counting pictures.