Family Math

I've had my copy of Family Math for sixteen years and it has never let me down! Family Math an oversized hefty treasure trove of 320 pages is the answer to "math fried" or "math bored" around my houseThe book begins by asking you the parent to evaluate your own math experiences so that you can better help your children by creating a "math environment" in your home After evaluating my own math experiences as a child I realized that though I did well and made good grades I did not have a "math sense" I never learned to play with numbers nor was trained to see and use math in my everyday experiences This book is filled to the brim with tools that teach the practical and fun side of math for very young children and older ones as well For example one of the first activities is "Egg Carton Numbers" Remember what fun egg cartons can be? Label each egg pocket with numbers and your child places the appropriate number of beans in that pocketfun easy and makes sense! Another favorite of mine is "Dollar Digit" for which paper dice and some real change is needed Children have a blast playing with real moneyit makes sense (pun intended)! I'd recommend purchasing Play Money for some of these games as well The games go on to cover various mathematical areas such as word problems estimating (my young daughters could estimate how much our groceries would cost within a five-dollar marginI couldn't do that even as an adult) Venn diagrams money measurement time geometry number charts (oh the charts!) and even calculators Do you struggle to communicate fractions to your children? Have them make their own fraction strips Let them read the instructions give them paper scissors and markers and get out of the way After they've folded cut and labeled they will have a better understanding of parts from the whole Beautiful I feel the cost of the book is worth the game of "Pseudo Monopoly" alonewhat a great game! Your child will work with percentages bonuses and taxes and it doesn't cost anything extra to playall you need is some dice and paper We like to use the Play Money for added fun and hands-on feelThe whimsical illustrations throughout the book add to the charm and there is a very useful illustrated icon at the top of each page indicating the age level of the activity; this is useful when you need to find something age-appropriate quicklyAfter 19 years of home-schooling and curriculum turnovers Family Math will remain on my shelves until grandchildren start trooping through!It makes sense