Math books/workbooks that teach math through cooking, gardening, etc.

[Kanin]

I have a student who needs hands-on math work. They love to cook. They're working on things like simple fractions (doubling 1/2 cup to get 1 cup, etc) and  measuring ingredients. I'm looking for other hands-on opportunities for "real life" math.

I purchased a life skills curriculum last year and it was not very good. 

A regular cookbook that could be used by a middle schooler would be great, too! They prefer baking to cooking meals. 

[PeterPan]

ProEdInc sellings a cooking to learn curriculum that has everything you could dream of (clear instructions, multiple format options, narrative language activities, etc). Three volumes, a little pricy, highly recommend.

There was a series of workbooks I used with my ds that was the bomb for some of this early stuff. Like you say, dyscalculia kids need very hands on to get that connect with reality. I'll try to remember the title and post it. Our education stores have some remedia workbooks, etc. that seem fine in theory but never quite seem keepers for us. Have you looked at Lakeshore Learning? I'm a huge fan of their materials, even though they're pricy. They will put things on clearance and run b2school sales. Math kits with task cards for small chunks.

Evan Moor I think has daily word problems books that hit that in small chunks. 

Didax has a book on fractions with unit tiles that was AMAZING for ds. Better than the HOE stuff, better than probably anything we've done. It was sort of out there (abstract). 

https://www.didax.com/math/math-books.html

I'm still looking for that particular book. 

Ok, it was called the Advanced Pattern Block Book. Didn't find it but maybe look around. 

[Kanin]

1 hour ago, PeterPan said:

ProEdInc sellings a cooking to learn curriculum that has everything you could dream of (clear instructions, multiple format options, narrative language activities, etc). Three volumes, a little pricy, highly recommend.

 

Thank you! This particular kid is pretty good with reading comprehension. They are also very into the typical tween/teen stuff, and anything that looks remotely babyish is immediately scorned.

[Kanin]

But this kid also struggles so much with math that they've been trying to learn the basics for years now. We need to switch it up because they're getting super bored and kind of offended by seeing "little kid stuff" again and again.

[happypamama]

Not sure if this would fit the bill or not, but my kids enjoyed it:

 

https://shop.artfulmath.com/products/kitten-math-the-worlds-most-adorable-math-project

 

I would get a basic Betty Crocker style cookbook and try those things.

[Kanin]

44 minutes ago, happypamama said:

Not sure if this would fit the bill or not, but my kids enjoyed it:

 

https://shop.artfulmath.com/products/kitten-math-the-worlds-most-adorable-math-project

 

I would get a basic Betty Crocker style cookbook and try those things.

The kitty project is so cute!! Aww.

Yes to the Betty Crocker style. I just found a good cookie cookbook that would probably get a lot of mileage. 

[SFisher]

My child likes to bake. We both prefer the americas test kitchen cookbooks for kids. There’s a cook book and a baking book.

they are aimed at older kids probably 10-12. The recipes are for real food, not kids craft type food (like decorating things or building animal shapes from food). The instructions are super thought out and teach culinary skills (how to melt butter, how to separate an egg, etc). The recipes that are chosen for the books are selected so that a kid can do nearly the whole project on their own with supervision.

My son has made yeast waffles, focaccia bread, and a bunch more things with success.

These are not meant to be academic but will include math and teach practical life skills! Really good for practicing following directions because the directions are thorough and often supported by pictures.

[SFisher]

Another thing that fits this is growing crystals. You can get a variety of recipes from Pinterest or library books.

my kid really likes chemistry, so we’ve blown up baggies with baking soda & vinegar and made slime, etc. those types of experiments require practical math. 

[Kanin]

3 hours ago, SFisher said:

Another thing that fits this is growing crystals. You can get a variety of recipes from Pinterest or library books.

my kid really likes chemistry, so we’ve blown up baggies with baking soda & vinegar and made slime, etc. those types of experiments require practical math. 

Good ideas! Thank you!

[ieta_cassiopeia]

I wonder if your student might be ready for Delia Smith's "Delia's How to Cook". It's a set of 3 books (or 1 very large book called "Complete How to Cook" with an egg on the cover) with step-by-step instructions, including many photos, covering every aspect of cooking in a down-to-earth manner. There's no need to do it in order, especially if your student already has some cooking experience. Skipping straight to the bread, pastry and potato sections of Book 1 (or the early bits of the relevant sections of the Complete edition) is perfectly feasible. It is designed for a general audience to learn how to cook, so even if the middle-schooler's not quite ready for it (it's aimed at 9 and up, treats the readers as adults, but the single-book version in particular would be heavy for a 9-year-old), this would be likely to work by the time the middle-schooler approaches high school age. From this book, it would be possible to go to pretty much any adult cookbook your student has the maths level to attempt. They will have lots of practise at cooking-based maths, as well as a wide range of cooking skills.

 

If that's too daunting, uneconomical to deliver or simply too big, a student cookbook (that says it's a student cookbook in its description or looks like one when you thumb through it) would work. There are lots of choices; picking one that appeals to you and your student after thumbing through a few different ones is a perfectly reasonable approach. These books are written to adults beginning university students (who can read, but often lack cooking skill, confidence and/or equipment, and some have worse maths skills than they would like to admit, especially under pressure). This would be more likely to double as a good option for the middle-schooler, at the cost of not necessarily being as comprehensive in its baking recipes for the (A book on student baking would be best of all, from what you describe - perhaps The Hungry Student by Charlotte Pike would be a good pick, although this is not a book I've personally used).

Edited July 19 by ieta_cassiopeia

[Queen of the Tabbies]

I recommend finding Ratio, by Michael Ruhlman at your local library to see if it might inspire your student. The Cake Bible and The Baking Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum are love letters to precision in baking. The Joy of Cooking still holds up for straightforward recipes. Oh, and Gateau, by Aleksandra Crapanzano is full of approachable French cake recipes. One of these days, I will create a country study around this cookbook for my younger elementary kiddos. If you happen to have or can thrift a countertop ice cream maker, The Perfect Scoop, by David Lebovitz is an education in ice cream. 

I love the way that Deb from Smitten Kitchen includes gentle notes about kitchen chemistry, scaling a recipe up or down, or calculating volumes into her recipes. Her tone is conversational and enthusiastic, never dry. I've cooked from her blog since the early days, and have only had one recipe fail. She has a few cookbooks with plenty of baking recipes that should be in your local library. Dorie Greenspan writes great baking cookbooks, too many to count. A kitchen scale will be most helpful for baking by weight, as many serious bakers do. 

A friend has nice things to say about early levels of Wild Math, though it only goes through fifth grade at present and might be too basic for your kid. Just throwing it out there.