Playing with Math

Book excerpt: 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. WHO'S THIS BOOK FOR? Parents, grandparents, teachers, math enthusiasts, math-haters who don't want to pass their affliction on...Everyone! Thoughtful stories, puzzles, games, and activities will give you new insights. Join us - we're playing with math!