Playing with Math

by Sue VanHattum

Playing With Math: Stories from Math Circles, Homeschoolers, and Passionate Teachers brings together the stories of over thirty authors who share their math enthusiasm with their communities, families, or students. After every chapter is a puzzle, game, or activity to get you and your kids playing with math too.

Math Circles
Julia and Maria conduct math circles with young children. Jamylle creates a math circle for African American middle-school students. Bob and Ellen take their math circle into a prison. Colleen discovers the power of games at her after-school math center. Sue opens her home up for families to play with math. Nancy creates a math festival.

Homeschoolers
Julie learns from her kids how differently each child learns math. Jimmie hesitantly dips her toe in the water, and moves her daughter toward a living math approach. Tiff, the math hater, discovers beauty in math.

Passionate Teachers
Michelle teaches math with the help of three-toed dinosaurs, while Friedrich gets his help from vampires. Pilar begs parents to let their kids discover mathematical truths without being shown our grown-up shortcuts too quickly.

Genres: Mathematics, Education, Parenting

372 pages, Unknown Binding

First published March 1, 2015

Reviews

[Marcella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a playful math support group, with stories from others who are running math clubs and circles. Emphasizes having fun with math and playing games and puzzles to practice problems solving, not just to get the right answer. Games and puzzles are included.

[Niki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly interesting and enjoyable read, considering it's basically a collection of essays about math groups and math education. I haven't really read anything in this genre before, but it's given me a lot to think about. It also includes a puzzle or game after every essay and has a lot of recommendations for other books and websites.

[Julia Brodsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

As one of the thirty authors, I feel somewhat awkward recommending it .. but it is a good book. It is a collection of math stories from people who really care about early math education, and a good read for parents and teachers who want to get inspired.

[Bev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent math resource to encourage a love for math, through math circles and exploration.