Math Stories

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April 13, 2020 By Jennifer Lambert 5 Comments

Doing math drills is not my idea of fun. I don’t want to inflict that upon my children.

While we complete Singapore math workbooks and VideoText for high school, we really love reading about math in a fun way.

I love books and words and beautiful illustrations.

We love to read living math book or math stories that bring the numbers and equations to life in applied ways.

Life of Fred

We read a chapter of Life of Fred everyday with our morning read alouds.

I enjoy Life of Fred math books immensely and have learned so much more math than I did in Georgia public school. It’s really easy to understand and remember and apply.

We’re on Physics now with my kids – ages 10, 13, and 14.

Elementary Mathematics:

These ten books are designed to be used in alphabetical order as listed and cover grades 1-4.

Apples
Butterflies
Cats
Dogs
Edgewood
Farming
Goldfish
Honey
Ice Cream
Jellybeans

Middle Grades:

Intermediate Series 3-Book Set: Kidneys, Liver, and Mineshaft

Fractions to Pre-Algebra 5-Book Set: Fractions, Decimals and Percents, Pre-Algebra 0 with Physics, Pre-Algebra 1 with Biology, and Pre-Algebra 2 with Economics

High School and Beyond:

High School Set 1: Beginning Algebra and Advanced Algebra

High School Set 2: Geometry and Trigonometry

Financial Choices

Logic

College Set of 5 Books: Calculus, Statistics, Linear Algebra, Five Days, and Real Analysis

Chemistry

Living Math Books (Stories)

One Grain Of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale by Demi
Math Curse by Jon Scieszka
A Remainder of One by Elinor J Pinczes
One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor J Pinczes
Inchworm and A Half by Elinor J Pinczes
The Librarian Who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky
Mathematicians Are People, Too: Stories from the Lives of Great Mathematicians
Mathematicians Are People, Too: Stories from the Lives of Great Mathematicians, Vol. 2
The Man Who Counted: A Collection of Mathematical Adventures by Malba Tahan
The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger
The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat by Theoni Pappas
The Joy of Mathematics: Discovering Mathematics All Around You by Theoni Pappas
Fractals, Googols, and Other Mathematical Tales by Theoni Pappas
Ada Byron Lovelace & the Thinking Machine by Laurie Wallmark
Grace Hopper: Queen of Computer Code by Laurie Wallmark
Numbers in Motion: Sophie Kowalevski, Queen of Mathematics by Laurie Wallmark
Billions of Bricks: A Counting Book About Building by Kurt Cyrus
Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni
The Grapes Of Math by Greg Tang
Math-terpieces: The Art of Problem-Solving by Greg Tang
The Best Of Times by Greg Tang
Math Fables by Greg Tang
Math Potatoes by Greg Tang
Math for All Seasons by Greg Tang
Infinity and Me by Kate Hosford
Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain by Cheryl Bardoe
The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos by Deborah Heiligman
Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci by Joseph D’Agnese
The Great Divide: A Mathematical Marathon by Dayle Ann Dodds
Full House: An Invitation to Fractions by Dayle Ann Dodds
How Much Is a Million? by David M Schwartz
Millions to Measure by David M Schwartz
If You Made a Million by David M Schwartz
Zero the Hero by Joan Holub
Zero by Kathryn Otoshi
One by Kathryn Otoshi
Two by Kathryn Otoshi
Lemonade in Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money by Emily Jenkins
The Girl With a Mind for Math: The Story of Raye Montague by Julia Finley Mosca
Each Orange Had 8 Slices by Paul Giganti Jr.
7 Ate 9 by Tara Lazar
Of Numbers and Stars by D. Anne Love
Mummy Math: An Adventure in Geometry by Cindy Neuschwander
The Power of 10 by Judy Newhoff
Perimeter, Area, and Volume: A Monster Book of Dimensions by David A. Adler
Place Value by David A. Adler
Fraction Fun by David A. Adler
Max’s Math by Kate Banks
Sheep Won’t Sleep: Counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s by Judy Cox

Living Math Series

We check out lots of books from the library and add to our home library collection with some of the better quality math stories. These are fun to read during summer or for a math unit. Some are fun mysteries or teach historical math biographies.

We journaled a lot when my middle girls were younger. Math journals are a fun way to record learning and incorporate writing and art.

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Math and Exercise

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November 17, 2015 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

We did the most fun activity in math rather than just doing worksheets or workbooks.

We combined exercise and math with a lesson on distance, rate, and time.

This is perfect for kinesthetic learners and we all had lots of fun.

We did several physical activities with a timer.

I just used my stopwatch and timer on my iPhone.

We chose a few easy activities that even little brother could do with us.

This was based off a lesson in our Singapore math workbook.

We counted how many times we could jump rope in 1 minute.

We saw how many times we could draw triangles or write a phrase in 1 minute.

We timed our sprints to see who was fastest.

I just guessed how far it was from the curb to the table. It certainly wasn’t 100 meters, but it was fine for our methods!

Then we ran a few more times and did averages.

We discussed distance=rate times time or d=rt.

This is a bit advanced for my kids, ages 5, 8, and 9. My girls are just getting into multiplication. But they will remember we did this in a couple years when we begin algebra and physics in our studies.

We enjoyed being outside for school and doing a fun activity rather than just book work.

I made a fun notebooking page to go along with our activities.

Click to download a copy of our notebooking page: Learning Distance Rate and Time

NotebookingPages.com LIFETIME Membership

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How We Do Math

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September 3, 2015 By Jennifer Lambert 5 Comments

Math is very important for productive members of society.

I think many homeschool parents are intimidated by teaching math, especially as kids get older and do more complicated work. I love learning along with my kids, filling in the gaps in my own education.

I got lost in math around 6th grade and never really caught up. I love learning along with my kids now!

Here’s how we do math in our homeschool – from preschool to high school.

Primary curriculum is Singapore workbooks, Life of Fred, and VideoText.

We do lots of supplemental math work with stories, games, manipulatives, and apps.

We love notebooking along with workbooks and occasional drill exercises to ensure our kids know their math facts and concepts well to move on to higher level math coursework.

We love keeping math journals. We do special math projects around seasons. We do fun math activities during the holidays like Valentine’s and Easter. I like to incorporate cross-curricular activities for further review. And we love playing with food. The kids like Montessori math games.

We love reading math stories all year long, no matter our age!

Preschool

Babies, toddlers, and preschoolers should play, play, play!

As soon as my kids showed interest, I would let them lead the way and provide opportunities for them to explore and learn about math.

We focus on counting and number recognition: cardinal and ordinal. We play and make math fun.

There is little writing at this age.

We draw, play with shapes, identify, play matching, games, sing songs, play apps.

Alex soon begged for a math workbook like his sisters.

Luckily, I found Singapore K was just right for him!

He would beg to do so many pages each day that he completed both workbooks in just a few months!

I don’t hold back or push my kids. I let them soar and rest as needed.

Elementary

I follow the natural transitions of my kids’ learning.

We’ve loved Singapore Primary Math for levels 1-6 since the beginning of our homeschool journey.

My children have been ready for the Book 1 Set by the time they were 5 years old.

A complete set of Singapore Primary Math for one grade level consists of two softcover textbooks and two consumable workbooks. There are also teacher manuals and homeschool schedule booklets that I never needed or used.

We love notebooking with Life of Fred math.

I read the books aloud and the girls complete the Your Turn at the end of each chapter together with printable themed notebooking pages.

The elementary set of Life of Fred math are 10 books with titles beginning with the alphabet A through J.

Life of Fred is fun reading: it’s a narrative following the character Fred through adventures that entertain as we learn math concepts.

The math concepts in Life of Fred are interspersed with fun stories, life skills, cross-curricular information. We all love it!

We reinforce math concepts with fun store bought, printable, or homemade manipulatives.

Place value, money, and fractions are easier to grasp with visuals.

The girls love learning math with music, doing special activities around the holidays and seasons, and playing math apps on their iPad minis.

Middle School

Singapore Math changes after Book 6.

My eldest jumped right into VideoText, but my younger kids needed a transition curriculum. Singapore has middle school texts that they do with their dad.

The Life of Fred Intermediate books are a great new addition to our math shelf. They weren’t around when Liz was at this level.

I find it funny their titles continue the alphabet with the alphabet: KLM.

These offer a great transition to pre-Algebra and higher math.

I love the Intermediate and “Before High School” sets of Life of Fred.

We completed Fractions, Decimals and Percents, Pre-Algebra 0 with Physics, Pre-Algebra I with Biology, and Pre-Algebra 2 with Economics in about two years.

Life of Fred Middle School and High School Books

Middle school is a rough time and we have to make sure all the basics are memorized and all the concepts are learned well. This is super important before moving on to high school math.

Unfortunately, most higher education options expect students to complete the SAT or ACT but these texts help with critical thinking.

I plan to enroll my younger three kids in test prep since my eldest didn’t quite get the score she hoped for on the SAT though she was accepted into Ohio College Credit Plus early admission and then to a local university. She might have to take a math placement test or remedial course.

High School

We love continuing Life of Fred math for high school.

I purchased the last of the series: Beginning and Advanced Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry.

I also purchased Calculus, which is listed as college-level, but it tells the story of Fred’s baby years and we wanna know! There are also books on Linear Algebra and Statistics.

We use VideoText Algebra and Geometry for our main college prep high school.

The VideoText Algebra program gives these credits: pre-algebra, algebra I, and algebra II.

The VideoText Geometry program gives these credits: geometry, trigonometry, and pre-calculus.

It was always highly recommended by homeschoolers I knew for high school math. The videos are a little dry, but the lessons cover all the material needed. Both Videotext algebra and geometry can be completed in two years if you rush it.

My eldest went through VideoText Algebra in a little over a year. She and her dad worked through one lesson each school day.

We’re lucky that I’m a history/language arts/biology person and my husband is a math/chemistry guru.

Liz completes her video lesson and notes during the day and then she works through the text with Dad before dinner each evening. There are also quizzes and tests.

We teach to mastery, reviewing and supplementing as needed.

Visit my Math Pinterest board:

Follow Jennifer’s board Math on Pinterest.

Resources:

Ideas, Activities and FREE Notebook Pages
Life of Fred Worksheets
Is Life of Fred enough?
Life of Fred; Apples, Chapter 5
Life of Fred; Apples, Chapter 1 Math Lesson
Free Printables for Life of Fred

What are your favorite math activities?

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Valentine Conversation Hearts Math

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February 13, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 18 Comments

I thought it’d be great fun to have the kids graph candy conversation hearts for Valentine’s math time.

I used a graphing page from a pack at 2 Teaching Mommies.

I bought a big bag of candy conversation hearts and gave each of my kids a handful of hearts.

They sorted them by color and loved reading the messages.

The kids got out their Montessori rugs and loved this graphing activity!

Kate sorted the hearts into colored piles and then placed them on her graphing chart.

Tori and Alex picked the hearts one by one from their cup and immediately placed them on their charts.

I love how they work differently!

Sinéad decided to lie down in the middle of our work. Of course.

$Kittiesmakemathfun.jpg$

Alex was thrilled to get the most orange hearts!

preschool conversation heart sorting and graphing

The kids enjoyed eating the extras beyond #10. The girls went further with the math. Alex went off to play.

I wrote the numbers on the board for the girls to copy.

Then I made this little printable so the girls could figure the mean, mode, median and range.

$Valentine Conversation Hearts Math Graph$

We haven’t even gotten to division yet in our math lessons and the girls were fascinated and loved this lesson.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Would you like to download your very own Valentine Conversation Hearts Math Page and use with up to 6 kids in a group?

Subscribe and get free printables!

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Preschool Math

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December 11, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 2 Comments

We focused on math this week.

I got organized and had him match up some base ten blocks with printable counting cards I found here. He really enjoyed it and did so well!

Of course a cube found its way into his sleeve. Silly!

He is really, really into counting lately.

He likes these base ten blocks and we have Cuisenaire rods too. I am looking for cards and lessons to go along with those. I think some may find their way under the Christmas tree.

He really loved these counting cards I found online. They are colored to go along with a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom unit. He jumped out of the way and didn’t want to be in this picture.

Upside down counting? Whatever works. He used these cards over and over this month!

He loves this Montessori wooden counting box. He didn’t want his picture taken. But then he wanted to see the picture and then he laughed.

What are your favorite preschool math tools?

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Math Monday: Place Value

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April 22, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 3 Comments

Both Tori and Kate agreed to complete 2-3 lessons and be done with Singapore math this school year!

Tori uses some Montessori beads to help with place values. I also made some color-coded number cards to help with place value.

A visual learner, Tori was struggling with completing the subtraction lesson without the beads and number cards. After I showed her the “picture,” she aced the lesson.

Kate started out doing fine without the beads, but she wanted to do the fun stuff too.

Both girls were super excited to complete their Singapore math 1B workbooks.

We’ll continue to use Life of Fred and mathbooking and get new 2nd grade Singapore math books next fall!

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Math Monday: Ordinal Numbers

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March 25, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

We’re also finishing up Singapore math. I plan to buy the next level workbooks since the girls love it so much!

I printed out these fun shamrock grid coloring pages on abcteach.com and the girls did really well after I explained how to work the grid system. They only made a couple mistakes which are quite visible and easily corrected!

I found it fascinating how differently the girls completed their pages. Kate drew lines at the right diagonal and then went back to fill them in before moving to the next line. Tori did each block before moving on.

Fun with Ordinal Easter Eggs

I wrote numbers 1-10 on eggs and printed out some number cards and ordinal number cards with ordinal words.

Tori matched up the 3 part cards and eggs!

Rubeus wanted to help! Silly lovey kitty.

Kate matched up all the cards and eggs super quickly!

I plan to have Alex match up the numbers on the eggs with the numbers on the cards. And I may just have him count Starburst jelly beans and match up the numbers on the eggs. yummy fun!

And I have some fun math games for the girls planned with the eggs this week!

Thank you for joining me on this Another Math Monday.

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Math Monday: Calendar

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March 18, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 4 Comments

While I was setting up and organizing, the little kids played with some magnet puzzle books (called Magnix)…Tori has the farm animal counting. I had forgotten we even had these and the kids were pretty excited to start their day with “toys”!

We have 6 math equations every day, based on the calendar. So, for March 6, the girls wrote out:

5+1=6
1+5=6
3+3=6
8-2=6
7-1=6
6-0=6

…or a similar variation on this. It’s just extra math practice.

I hope to work up to this Calendar Math board here and here soon. Here is a great calendar math resource!

We’re still enjoying our TouchMath. Did you see my Touchmath review? We’re working on the money unit right now. The girls beg to use the computer game! My dad sent the kids these fun coin banks that digitally count change and those are a big hit!

Katie and Tori really likes these Shamrock Place Value puzzles. I liked that they’re free!

We’re finishing up our Singapore math and still going strong with Life of Fred Butterflies. We play math games and the girls love to play with Kumon math workbooks or fun workbooks from the Target Dollar Spot in their free time.

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Touchmath Review

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March 11, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 6 Comments

We are pretty excited about TouchMath Second Grade!

This is an innovative math program that serves all learning styles: visual , auditory, digital (writers), and kinesthetic learners. I am so very impressed that they have a division for students with learning differences!

TouchMath 2nd Grade consists of 4 modules. Modules A, B, and C are primarily addition and subtraction. Module D teaches units on time, money, measurement, data, and geometry! Each unit has a progress monitoring chart with each lesson listed. This is a great planning tool!

At the beginning of each module and unit are lists and explanations of Content Overview, State Standards, Objectives, Prerequisites, Vocabulary, Materials, and Instructional Strategies. I love having all this information at my fingertips to help me teach math!

Kate (almost 6) completed her assignments, though she is never as excited about math time as Tori and I are. She did love the computer games (Tutor Software) and playing with the manipulatives during her free time though!

I think this is an example of how the different learning styles prefer different subjects and/or teaching styles. Kate is very visual, verbal, and artistic. Allowed the freedom to explore, she used the manipulatives in her own special way during her free time.

Tori (just turning 7) just loved it! She loved the touching, visual appeal, working with the Base Ten counters and Touch numerals, number cards, the Flipcards…and how it all applied to her math worksheets (which is the real curriculum).

Tori is an auditory/visual, right-brained learner. Being my compliant and cautious child, she completed her assignments during math time but rarely spent her free time exploring the manipulatives on her own.

Why is this math program different?

The student must touch the number card or numeral at certain points that count out its value. They memorize this, but it’s more than just blind memorizing. They really internalize this concept and comprehend what the number means.

Once that touch counting is learned, then addition and subtraction is that much easier to master. You touch count up for adding and down for subtracting. Multiplication is grouping and you have the Base Ten counters to further show the values.

TouchMath appeals to all learners with its multi-sensory approach!

visual (the students sees the cards, numerals, counters)
auditory (the student speaks the equation aloud and count up or down and repeat equation with the answer)
digital (the student reads the equations and write or draw the answers)
kinesthetic (the student touches the numerals and/or counts the Base Ten dots)

Why we like TouchMath…

It is traditional in that it has all the necessary mathematical concepts covered in their scope and sequence to give my kids a good maths foundation.
It is fun and colorful and engaging for all types of learners.
It has a good balance of repetition and practice (a spiral approach) with teaching to mastery. My girls didn’t get bored with doing many, many pages on one concept before moving on to the next lesson.

As soon as we opened the box, Kate started with her Touch Points on the Number Cards. She just naturally knew what to do!

These are perforated and can be used like flashcards, but we left it as a poster.

Tori practices the TouchMath Tutor with her Number Cards for help. The girls loved the US geography base for the games. They both especially love the Base Ten Place Values game.

Tori practices addition with her Number cards to help her remember where to touch and count. She touches the numbers with the point of her pencil.

Tori has her Base Ten and Number Cards to help with this page (addition and subtraction).

Kate draws in her Base Ten dots on her page to show the math work (addition and subtraction).

Even Alex loves the Touch Numerals and Base Ten! We’ll start teaching him with it soon! He’s only almost 3. He used the Base Ten as counters and matched them up to the numbers like the cards!

Tori touches and says this subtraction equation on the Flipcard. It’s multi-level learning. She remembers since she must say it and touch it.

The 2nd grade curriculum consists of 4 module downloads at $59.95 each.

Optional manipulatives and extras:

Number Cards are $24 for a 10-pack.
The Flipcard packs are $19 each and there are 12 sets that correspond to 2nd grade.
Touch Numerals with Base Ten are $99.
TouchMath Tutor is $99.

My kids absolutely love the Touch Numerals and use them with all their math assignments now, and even make up games with them on their own. Check out this post where we’re using the money pages. We’re very excited about how this innovative program helps us succeed with math.

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Math Cards Review

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March 1, 2013 By Jennifer Lambert 1 Comment

We were all very impressed with the Target Vocabulary Pictures, Set 1 from Lone Star Learning. They are brightly colored, laminated for durability, and come with a handy dandy definition card (which I stored in a safe place!). They are high quality and well worth the $29.99 price.

These ain’t your mama’s flashcards, y’all.

These cards are versatile in the extreme. I don’t think we even touched the tip of the iceberg in all the ways we can use these cards. I look forward to getting creative and allowing my kids to have lots of fun with these over the years!

They’re for multi-age use and we prove it! My son is almost 3. My girls are 5, almost 7, and 12 years old. And I’m an adult {ahem}. We all enjoyed using these cards. The girls requested all the other sets as presents! I have no problem obliging that request.

The cards completely appeal to the visual learner. The teach math vocabulary by using a picture within the word. I am not a “math person,” by any means. These are amazingly enticing to my two highly verbal daughters and me.

Tori is the “math girl” and she really loved using these.

We used these math vocabulary cards in centers, mathbooking, and art!

I set up math centers, kind of Montessori style, on floor rugs and my kids worked on those centers for several weeks.

Here is one where Tori is placing numbers in order. The DEcreasing and INcreasing cards help her to understand this number order concept.

Then, Tori sorted EVEN and ODD numbers. Look at the little white blocks on the math cards to help visualize that concept.

Greater Than and Less Than cards with the symbols helping to spell out the words. We also use the alligator idea (he “eats” the number).

And the geometry cards were perfect for Alex to sort his 3D shapes!

Liz helps her brother match the shapes all up with the cards and they counted the sides or discussed the shapes and compared/contrasted them.

Here, Tori matches some Montessori 4-part cards and uses the fraction card to help her remember that Denominator is Down and Numerator is North. Gotta love that alliteration!

Tori fills in a little fraction book with that card to help again. She’s a perfectionist and got very frustrated with herself, second guessing and getting confused by the part=numerator and whole=denominator. She understood which was down and which was north very quickly though.

Tori plays a matching game with fractions and uses that Numerator/Denominator card again. I think she really understood the fraction concept after these activities and the mnemonic on the card! Tori narrated to me each match and which number was the numerator and which was the denominator and why.

Here is Kate working out a fraction puzzle with the Numerator/Denominator card. She got the concept really quickly. She learns very differently from Tori and doesn’t like to repeat activities once she has mastered them.

And here’s our symmetry math art project! This was loads of fun – even I did it!

Alex holds up our card teaching the concept. I gave instructions and we discussed mirror images. We looked at lovely pictures from nature earlier of symmetry in peacock spiders. Love how everything worked out for this lesson!

Liz and Tori fingerpaint on one side of their papers.

Kate concentrates to get that paint just right.

Alex paints his picture.

I folded the papers in half and carefully pulled them back apart and voilà! beautiful Rorschach-like SYMMETRY paintings!

So, we cannot praise these math cards enough! They are versatile, high quality, fun, colorful…they appeal to all my different learners – right-brained, left-brained, the visual, the numbers whiz, the verbal learners, and the kinesthetic. How cool is that in a single product?

From the site: Target Vocabulary Pictures Set 1, 2 or 3 consist of math vocabulary presented visually to facilitate recall. Target Vocabulary Pictures can be purchased in 2 sizes of brightly colored, coated cards for an easy-to-display, colorful classroom presentation. 50-56 cards in each set. $29.99 for each set

Sets are not arranged by grade level. Please view sets to determine the appropriateness for your students.

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