Review of Principles of Mathematics 1

My oldest completed Horizons Math K-6.  Because she was newly 11 when we finished Horizons 6 and I didn't think it was best for her to start Algebra 1 at newly turned 12, I decided to try Principles of Mathematics from Master Books.  My plan was to spend about 18 months doing that for pre-algebra and then move to Jacobs Algebra (also available from MasterBooks) for Algebra 1.   We are over 3/4 of the way through POM 1, and we may not do POM 2.

Things I like about POM:

• The textbook (called the student book) seems fairly well done.  My daughter hasn't had any complaints about that.  And at times, I think she enjoys reading it.
• The inclusion of Christianity into mathematics is unique and well done.  It isn't just an add on, and yet it isn't overly forced I think. 
• It is priced well, with each level costing about $60 for both books.
• The inclusion of two schedules, for completing each level in a semester or a year.  The schedule is also where you can easily keep grades.  

Things I don't like about POM:

• The "teacher's book" is actually the workbook, tests and quizzes,a nd answer key all in one.  I wish the worksheets at least were separate.  The textbook doens't have problems in it for practice (other than the standard examples), so you have to take apart the "teacher's book" to keep the key separate.  
• The word problems are often overly wordy.  They are so poorly written I often have to read a few times to figure out what they are actually asking you to do.  Some times it is because the author doesn't use standard terminology as well.
• The answer key needs editing.  Yes, this isn't uncommon, but it is annoying!  Twice I have noticed the question asking if this is a or b, and then the key gives c as the answer!  Sometimes it asks for an answer in inches and then the key has the answer in feet.  The format of the key isn't the best either, as you sometimes have to hunt in the work to find the answers that the problem asked for.  
• Worksheet problems often need outside information, and yet there is no "head's up" that this information is needed.  It would be nice if in the teacher's manual, a list of what is needed per worksheet was listed.  
• Rarely, the schedule end up with really long or really short days. This well, to days only had one section, but another day had 3 sections! So two days only took 15-20 minutes, but the last day ended up taking an hour.

At this point, I am seriously considering going back to Horizons at least for pre-algebra.  We will decide in the next couple of months, as we get near the end of POM 1.  

(I am have taught college-level mathematics for 18 years, including teaching Beginning Algebra through Advanced Algebra, Math for Elementary School Teachers, Statistics, Trigonometry, and non-Trigonometry Calculus.  I have used and evaluated a wide variety of mathematics textbooks in those years.)