Easy as 1-2-3: Making math fun

With books like these, an investment of nothing more than a little bit of time can give young readers and counters workouts that spell f-u-n.

Reviews by Alice Cary

Most of us are happy to introduce reading to young children; math is another thing altogether as Patricia Clark Kenschaft recognizes in her excellent book Math Power: How to Help Your Child Love Math, Even If You Don't. Kenschaft calls on her experience as an elementary school math teacher, professor of mathematics, and author of college math textbooks to allay parental worries and help us have fun with our children in learning math skills.

She makes a strong case for math power -- "the ability to use and enjoy mathematics." Starting with math games to play with preschoolers and moving to primary-grade math success, Kenschaft is always aware of the roles of parents and of teachers, telling mom and dad many skills they can encourage on their own and how to combat the "drill and kill" routines in school that have turned off so many kids.

Marilyn Burns, another noted math educator, has created follow-up activities for Scholastic's series of Hello Math Reader books focusing on math-related themes. The cover of each bears a bright yellow sign saying, "Warning: This Book Contains Math -- And It's FUN!"

Indeed, the sticker is right. An excellent example is Tic-Tac-Toe: Three in a Row (by Judith Bauer Stamper, illustrated by Ken Wilson-Max). The story is nothing more than two children challenging each other in the game, with illustrations showing eight ways to win. As the activities suggest, here's a good opportunity to teach children the concepts of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal, and play your own games of tic-tac-toe and four-in-a-row.

Another good title is Monster Math: School Time (by Grace Maccarone, illustrated by Marge Hartelius). As a family of dinosaur-like monsters go through their day, from waking till bedtime, the time of each activity is noted with both a digital clock and an "old-fashioned" clock with numbers and two hands. Burns suggests that children make their own time book, showing what they do at certain times of the day, an activity that teaches time-telling as well as gives families a nice keepsake detailing their preschooler's routine. In addition, Burns outlines the rules of two games, "The Timer Game," and "The Monster Math Game," both of which sound easy and fun.

A bit more plot and numerical sophistication comes into play with The Fattest, Tallest, Biggest Snowman Ever (by Bettina Ling, illustrated by Michael Rex), a story about measuring. Worrying that he's not the best at anything, Jeff is determined to build the biggest snowman ever. When he and Maria try to figure out whose creation is the largest, they make a yardstick of paper clips and do some creative calculations. Kids will scramble to make their own paper clip measuring sticks to figure out their height.

Stuart J. Murphy is the author of HarperCollins's new series of 15 hardcover books based on visual learning -- the MathStart series. Categorized by three age groups, covering ages 3 to 8, these stories carefully integrate the illustrations with fun-to-read stories to teach basic math skills. "Kids don't experience math in problem number sets," says Murphy. "They experience it through stories in their lives."

In A Fair Bear Share (illustrated by John Speirs), Mama Bear sends her four cubs out to pick nuts, berries, and seeds for a blueberry pie. Three of the cubs pick industriously, but their little sister just wants to play and play and play. When the harvest is counted, in groups of ten with remainders, she must return to pick her "fair bear share." Then Mama Bear makes a blue ribbon blueberry pie.

Each book in the series has additional suggestions at the back for using the concept it demonstrates (shapes, bar graphs, time lines, comparisons, fractions, etc.). Murphy wants parents to expose their children to mathematical concepts from the beginning just as they do with language. Include comments about the obvious math in what they see and do as they fold and sort laundry, count the steps as they go downstairs, watch the odometer in the car. Make math part of daily living.

Number combinations is the underlying theme of two new books by popular author and artist Bernard Most. Children who are three years old and up will be entranced with the playful dinosaurs in A Pair of Protoceratops and A Trio of Triceratops. In the former, the happy prehistoric animals paint pictures, paste paper, play ping pong, etc., teaching the concept of two as well as sharing with a friend. Fun alliterative activities also abound (it must be catching!) in A Trio of Triceratops.


Alice Cary reviews books for young readers with help from her son Will in Groton, Massachusetts.

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