My son uses Principles of Mathematics and most of the lessons are very long, so if he completes each worksheet in its entirety then it would not be possible to complete both books in one year. However, he really does like the program and I highly recommend it. My daughter uses Learn Math Fast and Strayer-Upton. Learn Math Fast does initially teach in a living way having them use money, but the worksheets are full of number problems. I still like it for her for teaching new concepts, but we use the S-U book for the word problems for those concepts learned.