Good Reads to Make Math Fun

Book It!

Exploring math with your kids can be fun. Really! Maybe you love math. Maybe you still remember the anxiety you felt as a student in math class. Either way, your kids are learning from you and deciding whether or not they are “good at” math. How can you help ensure that your children and teens learn to love math? Talk about it! Make it fun and casual and interesting. (And please, make sure math conversations aren’t just about grades.) Bring math into your everyday conversations. It’s simple because… Math is everywhere! From cooking (and eating) to playing games to estimating how much toilet paper is left on a roll to creating elaborate patterns with LEGO bricks, you don’t have to look far to find numbers to wonder about with your kids. Below you will find some good reads to help get the conversation started.

Table Talk Math by John Stevens - Table Talk Math offers ideas for initiating authentic, math-based conversations that can benefit (and be fun for) everyone at the table—no matter how young or old. The more often you can get your kids to notice and be curious about all the numbers, patterns, and equations in the world around them, the more likely they are to start thinking about math as something that is fun, even if it isn’t always easy. And that’s when you’ll really have something to talk about.

The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life by Jordan Ellenberg - Ellenberg shows how wrong you are when considering math as nothing but a dull set of rules to learn at school. Mathematics touches everything we do. It allows us to see the hidden structures underneath the chaotic surface of this world.

Armed with math, you can see the true meaning of information. This book provides insights to encourage your clear thinking about different areas of life. As the author says, doing math is like being “touched by fire and bound by reason. Logic forms a narrow channel through which intuition flows with vastly augmented force.”