My math collection

 

I haven't done a math post in ages! Several years ago I got really busy with other studies and had to set my math studies aside, but I've been able to take them up again recently, reading Introduction to Arithmetic by Nicomachus of Gerasa with my friend Esther, who blogs at Dappled Things. She suggested I return to the topic here and I have a few ideas for future posts, but in the mean time I thought I'd share a peek at my shelves, and mention a few favorite titles.

My youngest is a senior this year and is using The Teaching Textbooks, so a lot of these books and games are things we used when she and her siblings were a lot younger, but I've kept them out because I still refer to them from time to time.

The middle shelf is mostly manipulatives and decks of cards. The basket is full of Math-U-See blocks. The cardboard box has pattern blocks. We hardly ever use the manipulatives any more -- they're just here because I don't want them separated from everything else. We don't really play "math games" much any more either, but we do play card games sometimes. The white bottle in the red sleeve is a bottle full of pennies for using when we play our family's favorite card game, Continental. 

The top shelf is mostly books for my own study and use. I pulled the Ruth Beechick book out so you can see it better. It's just a tiny thing, but so important. If you're just getting started, I can't recommend it enough. Behind it are the textbooks and CDs I got from The Teaching Textbooks, when we were doing it that instead of using their subscription service. Asimov's Realm of . . . books are kind of a history of the development of math. They make great read alouds with middle school and older kids, if taken in fairly small doses. Give you lots to talk about. 

 

 

The bottom four are books for me on child development and teaching as it relates to math. The top four are Denise Gaskins' excellent series of math games for all ages. The yellow one is a program that I started then abandoned -- it seems like it would be really good for young kids but I got it too late to use with my younger set. I'm thinking I should revisit it with my special needs son, and see if he takes to it. It starts with counting on the fingers, based on some interesting brain science -- there's actually a part of the brain that connects the fingers with numbers. The ones on the right are all "living" math books -- a few biographies, a history of counting. Picture books for younger kids but still very interesting.

 

 

Bottom, three ancient college textbooks -- I don't remember where they came from. The blue paperback is the text to a Great Courses class I took several years ago. Standing on top of the stack is Horace Grant's Arithmetic for Young Children, out of print, but an excellent resource. It's standing on his Second Stage of Arithmetic, also excellent and out of print -- I sent the google doc of the book to a custom printing service and got it that way, which wasn't as expensive as it sounds. The only other option would have been to print and bind it myself and I didn't want to spend time on all the formatting. The colored books are Life of Fred, which are fun and helpful.

See my math label for earlier posts describing some of the things I was doing with my children and learning on my own.