Just last night, my daughter and I were discussing her latest math test, where she received 99 %, and she was kicking herself, because she forgot to insert a negative sign. I told her to lightened up, the key thing to remember is that you have a solid foundation in math concepts and a deep understanding. of them. Schools spend very little time on the major concepts, and the math curriculum is poor, when it comes to teaching the concepts. The way that fractions, ratios, and percentages are presented, it does not promote fluency nor a deep understanding of the math laws behind the concepts. Give me a 1960s math text book anytime , over any school math texts published since the 1980s.
The key math concepts should be mastered before grade 9. Once at the grade 9 level, a firm foundation in the key math concepts is needed to do advance algebra, trig, and geometry, as well as math in the sciences. I am sure glad, that we spent hours upon hours, working on the foundation skills for my daughter, because she now, loves math, and enjoys her classes,

When my children were in public school, we found that if the teachers would cover the curriculum, the students wouldn’t run into so many problems with basic math.  We had to keep a close vigil on what was being done daily in the classroom, but all of us parents knew to watch, so it made much easier.
At that time they used the text called Math Quest.
It was pretty good.
If they had standardized tests at the end of each school year, and held back children who hadn’t grasped the subject, it would save teachers a lot of headaches.  Teaching curricula on a daily basis to children who are (for the most part) at the same level is much easier.

Bev, Math Quest, I got the grades 4,5, and 6, of old copies floating around the school. They had very good illustrations in the basic concepts, and I often used the Quest books, to create deeper understanding and automatic recall of the basic math facts.

A much better program than Math Quest is Saxon Math
http://saxonpublishers.hmhco.com/en/sxnm_home.htm

It is a good comprehensive, sequential program that SQE has recommended before.  You might be able to find older versions on homeschooling sites as well.

I was aiming at parents, that sometimes schools do have older textbooks kicking around at the school,  for some reason,and have never been sent off to the board, for disposal. As for Saxon, I have been thinking seriously of purchasing the high school textbooks and workbooks, so she always will have them, for clear examples and deeper understanding, and extra practice, without the bother of going onto the net, or asking me for help. At the moment, I make sure that my daughter is supplied with extra practice sheets, on whatever they are working on, to promote fluency in advance math, and automatic skills in her basic math skills at the same time. The Saxon math, I have always admired for the breakdown of a concept, and the practice that goes with it for each stage of the breakdown.

Our first day of home schooling with JUMP Math my 10 year old daughter rubbed her eye’s so hard she blistered one lid and it was bleeding.

Like their ABC’s both children knew their 123’s to 100, but had a total lack in understanding of even the basic concepts. They could barely read, so they couldn’t read the instructions. Much like their reading they would look at me (not the equation) and guess. My daughter didn’t even understand what a digit was.

The basics is what my kids were missing. My daughter grade 5 with an IEP and my son grade 3 and I had to start them both on JUMP Math 2.1. They’re both zipping along at about 6-10 pages per day. I’ve done exactly as Mighton says and I’ve even had to stop, at more than one point and examine what I was doing wrong. Once the child understood the concept we were zipping along again.
My son’s gr.3 (ex) classmate got a “B” in math at the Christmas break, his mom told me he doen’t know how to carry, let alone borrow.
Week twelve we are now halfway through book 2.2 and both children are subtracting with regrouping and starting to do the ground work for basic multiplication. There is nothing wrong with my daughter and we were told by her one teacher to teach her “life skills”.
I now have a concise lesson plan in math and as it turns out it’s all I ever needed.

I’ve bought levels (grade) 2 through 8 for my two kids.
Two workbooks per level, 12 X 2 = 24 workbooks for a total of about $180, with tax.
I’ve done a quick comparison against the Core Knowledge Sequence and it looks like it reaches the same milestones, at the same time.

Seeing the excitement on my daughters face when she “gets it” is priceless.
Her exact quote with extreme pride;
“No one (her old classmates) has ever finished a whole (work)book before!”