The math equivalent of classic children's lit / the Good Books

[forty-two]

I'm thinking of the Good Books in terms of their being *real* stories - written primarily to be a good, enjoyable piece of writing, not primarily as a tool to *teach* something about writing or language - yet they *are* useful at deepening our children's understanding of language.  Thus the idea of the Good Books as preparation for the Great Books.

 

My best guess is that the math equivalent of this would be math problem books, written primarily for the joy of solving them (not as hidden vehicles to teach math) - instead of offering up an interesting story for others to enjoy, the creator is offering up interesting math to enjoy.

 

And once you get a certain amount of math under your belt, there's quite a few of those out there that I've been able to find.  But mostly those require you to be at least through elementary math (often basic algebra and geometry, too).   I haven't really seen any for early math outside of curricula like Miquon, MEP, and CSMP. And as awesome as those curricula are, I *also* want to have a bunch of math-for-fun books around to do with my dc the way I've been reading to them since they were little.

 

Idk, maybe, just as baby books are mind-numbingly boring to parents (as are most early readers, and most beginning piano pieces for children, etc.) - the kids' ability is too limited for anything accessible to them to have intrinsic interest - there's a certain amount of math ability/development that is needed in order to do anything interesting, and kids hit that point in math later than they hit that point in language.

 

Or maybe the problem is *me* - that I am used to reading to my dc, am comfortable with it, even in the face of toddler distractions ;) - in a way that I am *not* used to doing with math. I read living math sites a lot a few years back, and my recollection was that they were more about taking advantage of the math opportunites already present in your everyday life than how to use outside sources of for-real-math with your dc the way we read books to them (and so introduce words and ideas to them that they wouldn't have otherwise seen in their everyday life), but they still might been helpful for getting into a mathy lifestyle ala Bravewriter's writing lifestyle.

 

Or maybe, just as I read them out-of-level books to stretch them (so long as they enjoy it), I should just pick up some easier-but-still-real math puzzle books and do them with them even if they don't have all the prerequisite knowledge and I'm doing most of the heavy lifting.

 

Or maybe I should just concentrate on carving out time to play cards and dominos and chess with them, sit down and build with them, and call it a day.

[Farrar]

Someone on another board I'm on was talking recently about having a math routine a la Brave Writer.  I liked that and we're going to try to implement it this year.

 

I do like living math books though.  Yes, most of them are just readers that are meant to introduce concepts, so they have a simple text and occasionally feel forced from an adult perspective (my kids never seem to feel that way).  I mean, that's basically how the MathStart and the I Love Math books are.  And, while the art is step up, the Sir Cumference books are a bit like that too.  But I'll toss out a few that I think are a cut above, where the math feels unforced and the author feels like they have a real joy in the math:

 

* Anno's Math Games and various Counting books - I think they have a joy in numbers that is so perfect for young children and so real and good

 

* You Can Count on Monsters - no text, just number monsters with a focus on primes, a really neat concept and very cool for thinking about numbers for younger kids

 

* Zachary Zormer, Shape Transformer - I love all the Charlesbridge books and here's one that's a bit more natural feeling than the Sir Cumference ones

 

* The Number Devil - chapter book, and Enzenberger's cool little illustrations are so fun

 

* The I Hate Mathematics Book - so, so, so good

 

And there are lots of fun number patterns and math problems books for younger kids too.  Like Primary Challenge Math.  And games are good too.  I'm building those into our routine.  All the Right Start games are good in early elementary.  And logic games like Mastermind.  And games like Muggins.

[Mama Geek]

We read a lot to dd and I stay on the lookout for good quality books.  We expose her to spanish, music, sign language, swimming kayaking, and lots of other things.  For math we work on time, money, measurements of volume, weight, density, we talk about maps and directions, we add things, we play cards and other games, and many other things as well.  We have been working on counting, adding, subtracting, and just exposing her to multiplication and division.  There is a lot of memorizing math facts for the early years, but we are doing our best to expose her to applications as well.  I don't know how formally we will do math until algebra because we can teach her most of the other stuff through everyday life.

[dbmamaz]

the livingmath.net website has whole lists of math books

[Guest Judy Snow]

I'm a mom of three older kids who works in the educational games industry for a company that develops math games for young kids. My formal education is primarily in the arts, and I'm a voracious reader who always read to my kids when they were younger. (They, in turn, have all become avid readers.) One really interesting approach is that taken by Bedtime Math (not my employer). They have some wonderful ideas and resources for integrating math in kids' lives.

[Mom-ninja.]

I'm a mom of three older kids who works in the educational games industry for a company that develops math games for young kids. My formal education is primarily in the arts, and I'm a voracious reader who always read to my kids when they were younger. (They, in turn, have all become avid readers.) One really interesting approach is that taken by Bedtime Math (not my employer). They have some wonderful ideas and resources for integrating math in kids' lives.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Thanks for the suggestion of Bedtime Math.

[Violet Crown]

Mitsumasa Anno

Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Martin Gardner

 

... in pretty much that order.