Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew.

His Vessel Math Curriculum

His Vessel Textbooks- Algebra 1

Homeschool Review Crew

Have you ever wondered if it was possible to teach math from a Christian perspective?  I had never really seen it before we receive His Vessel Math Curriculum to review through the Homeschool Review Crew.  His Vessel Textbooks- Algebra 1 offers just that.  It teaches Algebra from a Christian perspective. 

About the Textbook

Want to learn more about Algebra 1?  What about learning more about His Vessel math curriculum?  Well, you’re in luck because I’m going to tell you all about it even if you don’t want to know!

His Vessel is a Biblically-based math curriculum created by Mary C. Carroll.  The premise for the name and the text is 1 Corinthians 3:16 “You are God’s Holy Vessel.”  I also want to mention it is published through Shine-A-Light Press which I love.  The Bible version used is NIV for anyone curious. 

The physical book is a gorgeous vibrant hardcover.  Each unit within the book is going to start with a “God moment” which is a passage of scripture that is meant to stimulate thinking and also introduce the concept or math topic that will be focused on for that lesson. 

A piece unique to this textbook is that each lesson ends with a family activity instead of something for the student to do on their own.  This is to help foster connection within the family as well as spiritual growth. 

There are 11 units within this textbook.  Each unit contains between 5 and 7 lessons, plus a project and answers section. 

Can we also take a moment to see what an amazing person the author is?  How many people take the time to encourage homeschool moms?!

The textbook can be used for more than one child easily as well.  Simply have them use a binder or notebook for their math work.  We like to use notebooks and have the child write or copy the problem out anyway.  This helps if your child has any learning issues.  Some children need to see, say, spell even with math!

Our Thoughts

Okay, first, let me say that we’re not huge NIV fans but that gave us a chance to incorporate even more Bible into our school day and into our math lesson by taking all the verses and looking them up in our KJV and writing them out in a notebook.  Win-win for math and win-win for Bible as well!  I’m here for it. 

Want to know what else we are getting when we’re getting our math lesson with this curriculum?  We’re getting spelling and vocabulary!  Okay, so each lesson gives you a section on vocabulary terms with their term and definition.  If you have your child copy those down on a paper as well that gives them handwriting, spelling, and vocab.  At the end of the week, we review all of them and do a mini spelling test of some of the ones that I choose. 

Let’s Chat about the Actual Math part now.

The math part is simple to navigate and very straightforward. 

The lesson begins with the God Moment, next are the objectives for the lesson, vocabulary terms, and then the lesson starts.  You’ll have the lesson explained to you in colourful font and graphics. 

Add in some Bible verses and how the concept relates to the Bible next. 

After the Bible moment, some examples are given that show how to use the concept being taught. Each example shows you how to work the concept and then has a now you try section to cement what they’re showing/teaching.  We’re not talking about just one example either.  Normally there are four of them. 

Next comes the family activity. 

After that, there are a few practice problems followed by review problems.  The practice problems are for what is learned in that lesson while the review problems are for previous lessons that have been done in this text. 

His Vessel math curriculum is really easy to use.  If you don’t want to be involved you really don’t have to be.  I’ve found that I tend to help explain the concept just because I’m that type of parent but honestly I think this could be student-directed and they can just come to you if they have issues.  I would still recommend checking in with them and making sure you do the family activity together.  

Overall Thoughts

I really have been enjoying using this with my algebra 1 student.  I actually have also had my algebra II kid watching too just to see what she thinks of it versus what we used prior for algebra 1.  Of my 12 kids, these are kids one and two to do algebra 1 so I’ve still got lots of kids to go!

This is a math curriculum that I can see staying on our shelf and getting used for years to come.  I think personally it would be great to have more than one level though.  It’s not going to be fun going back to a different curriculum after having used this.  The teaching style is so different and as I chatted about above it also gives us more Bible and spelling/vocab than we would normally have with a math curriculum. 

I am pleased to know that His Vessel math curriculum will be adding other levels in the near future starting with Geometry this year(2022) and continuing to add Pre-Algebra, Algebra II, and some elementary levels as well.  I’m definitely going to be following along so that we can add them to our library when they are available. 

If you’re like me and have hopped around with math before because you can’t ever seem to find the right one, I think you’re going to like this one.  It has a solid foundation in the Bible but also a solid math foundation.  It’s not lacking in math and is going to cover all of the key concepts that are required for each level. 

Learn More

You can learn more about His Vessel math curriculum and what other Crew Reviewers thought by reading all of the reviews linked up on the Main Blog Post over on the Homeschool Review Crew blog. 

His Vessel math curriculum can also be found on Facebook and YouTube.