Last year, in the excited throes of first-year homeschooling, I had visions of MM (then a kg-er) whizzing through math workbooks, her little pencil burning holes in the page. I bought Kumon workbooks, Barbie workbooks, My Little Pony workbooks and Tinkerbell workbooks, and then I sharpened her pink pencils and waited for greatness.
Ergh. She did about two pages in each (mostly on simple addition) and while she usually got the right answer, I could tell she just didn't get it.
I was stumped. She didn't understand the concept, and until she did there was no moving forward.
Then it occurred to me: Why not apply to math the same concept that I apply to history and science, namely, learning through stories? After all, when we study the colonies I don't sit her down with a list of dates. No -- we read tons of books, watch videos, and do hands-on projects. Same with science. To study the earth we make an "earth bowl" out of jello, create the world out of papier mache, and read books about volcanoes.
There had to be math books, I figured -- and indeed there were. I hit the jackpot with the MathStart books by Stuart Murphy, which tell cute stories and include lists of activities, but there are plenty more, too. Reading -- and teaching through -- them, and acting out the stories with manipulatives, has made a huge difference in MM's understanding of math concepts. And while I have her write number sentences displaying what we've acted out, I am quite happy to report that we haven't touched a workbook in a long, long time.
Here are some of the activities we've done, as well as a list of books I've compiled (not exhaustive but pretty comprehensive) that teach math concepts.
The Doorbell Rang General
Grapes of Math (ages 7-12)
Math for All Seasons (ages 4-8)
Math-terpieces (ages 6-10)
Math Potatoes (ages 7-10)
Math Fables (preschool-grade 1)
Math Fables Too
Fractals, Googols, and Other Mathematical Tales
The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat (ages 9-12)
Further Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat
Mathematicians Are People, Too: Stories from the Lives of Great Mathematicians (ages 9-12)
The Man Who Counted: A Collection of Mathematical Adventures
The Cat in Numberland (grades 3-5)
Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci (biography, grades 3-5)
Rabbits Rabbits Everywhere: A Fibonacci Tale
Spaghetti And Meatballs For All!
How Much Is a Million?
Equal Shmequal
The Joy of Mathematics: Discovering Mathematics All Around You
More Joy of Mathematics: Exploring Mathematics All Around You
Mathematical Footprints: Discovering Mathematics Everywhere
Basic counting
On the Launch Pad
Ten Little Ladybugs
Counting Crocodiles
Ten Black Dots
How Many Feet? How Many Tails? A Book of Math Riddles
Each Orange Had 8 Slices
Size concepts / comparison
The Bug Parade
Just Enough Carrots
Odd and even
Missing Mittens
Even Steven and Odd Todd
Addition
A Fair Bear Share
Tally O'Malley
Mission: Addition
Alice in Pastaland: A Math Adventure
12 ways to get to 11
Stay in Line
Monster Math Picnic
Subtraction
Elevator Magic
Shark Swimathon
Monster Musical Chairs
Monster Math
Patterning / Sorting
Beep Beep Vroom Vroom
Growing Patterns
Sorting
Pattern
Pattern Fish
Pattern Bugs
More or Less a Mess
Counting by tens/ fives/ twos
One Hundred Hungry Ants
A Fair Bear Share
Earth Day
Double the Ducks
Lots of Ladybugs
Starry Arms
Eggs and Legs
Toasty Toes
Footprints in the Snow
Bunches of Buttons
Plenty of Petals
Ants at the Picnic
Hands Down
Leaping Lizards
Sir Cumference and All the King's Tens
How many feet in the bed?
Two of Everything
Shapes
The Greedy Triangle
Captain Invincible and the Space Shapes
Circus Shapes (basic)
Telling time / time concept
Me Counting Time: From Seconds to Centuries
Game Time
The Clock Struck One
Telling Time with Big Mama Cat
Clocks and More Clocks
Clockwise: A Time-telling Tale
What's the Time, Mr. Wolf?
It's About Time
Train Leaves the Station
What Time is It, Mr. Crocodile?
What Time is It? A Book of Math Riddles
Monster Math School Time
Just a Minute
Ordinal Numbers
Henry the Fourth
Money
The Penny Pot
Pigs Will be Pigs
Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday
Follow the Money
The Money Tree
Sam and the Lucky Money
Arthur's Funny Money
If You Made a Million
Once Upon a Dime
Benny's Pennies
Quarter from the Tooth Fairy
A Dollar for Penny
Fractions
Give me Half
Jump, Kangaroo, Jump!
Full House: An Invitation to Fractions
Fraction Action
Apple Fractions
Fraction Fun
Piece = Part = Portion
Funny & Fabulous Fraction Stories
Geometry
Mummy Math: An Adventure in Geometry
Sir Cumference and the First Round Table
The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics
The Extra Toaster
Zachary Zormer: Shape Transformer
Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone
Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter
Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland
Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi
What's Your Angle, Pythagoras?
Pythagoras and the Ratios
Measurement
Measuring Penny
How Big is a Foot?
Me and the Measure of Things
Length
Inchworm and a half
Millions to Measure
Estimation / Probability
Betcha!
Coyotes all around
A Very Improbable Story
Symmetry
Let's Fly a Kite
Graphing
The Lemonade Stand
Multiplication
Multiplying Menace: The Revenge Of Rumpelstiltskin
You Can Count on Monsters
Sold! A Mothematics Adventure
Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jar
The Best of Times (ages 7-13 – multiplication tables)
Amanda Bean's Amazing Dream
Division
A Remainder of One
Divide and Ride
Jump, Kangaroo, Jump!
One Hungry Cat
Scales and ratios
Cut Down to Size at High Noon
Beanstalk: The Measure Of A Giant
Architecture
Iggy Peck, Architect
Tangrams
