Even if you struggled with mathematics in school, you can help your children enjoy learning and prepare them for academic success.
Author Denise Gaskins makes it easy with this mixture of math games, low-prep project ideas, and inspiring coffee-chat advice from a veteran homeschooling mother of five. Filled with stories and illustrations, Let's Play Math offers a practical, activity-filled exploration of what it means to learn math as a family.
Drawing on more than thirty years of teaching experience, Gaskins provides helpful tips for parents with kids from preschool to high school, whether your children learn at home or attend a traditional classroom.
Sections include:
• How to Understand Math: Introduce your children to the thrill of conquering a challenge. Build deep understanding by thinking, playing, and asking questions like a mathematician.
• Playful Problem Solving: Awaken your children’s minds to the beauty and wonder of mathematics. Discover the social side of math, and learn games for players of all ages.
• Math with Living Books: See how mathematical ideas ebb and flow through the centuries with this brief tour through history. Can your kids solve puzzles from China, India, or Ancient Egypt?
• Let’s Get Practical: Fit math into your family’s daily life, help your children develop mental calculation skills, and find out what to try when your child struggles.
• Resources and References: With so many library books and Internet sites, you’ll never run out of playful mathematical adventures.
All parents and teachers share one goal: we want our children to understand and be able to use math. Your children will gain a strong foundation when you approach math as a family game, playing with ideas.
Don’t let your children suffer from the epidemic of math anxiety. Grab a copy of Let’s Play Math, and start enjoying math today.
For more than three decades, Denise Gaskins has helped countless families conquer their fear of math through play. As a math coach and veteran homeschooling mother of five, Denise has taught or tutored at every level from preschool to precalculus. She shares math inspirations, tips, activities, and games on her blog at DeniseGaskins.com.
Denise encourages parents and teachers to look at math with fresh eyes. “We want to explore the adventure of learning math as mental play, the essence of creative problem solving. Mathematics is not just rules and rote memory. Math is a game, playing with ideas.”
Follow Denise's newsletter (and get the 8-week email series “Playful Math for Families”) at tabletopacademy.net/mathnews.