Today we have a guest post — an exclusive tale by Sasha Fradkin and Allison Bishop, authors of the new math storybook Funville Adventures. Enjoy!
Funville Adventures is a math-inspired fantasy that introduces children to the concept of functions, which are personified as magical beings with powers.
Each power corresponds to a transformation such as doubling in size, rotating, copying, or changing color. Some Funvillians have siblings with opposite powers that can reverse the effects and return an object to its original state, but other powers cannot be reversed.
In this way, kids are introduced to the mathematical concepts of invertible and non-invertible functions, domains, ranges, and even functionals, all without mathematical terminology.
We know about Funville because two siblings, Emmy and Leo, were magically transported there after they went down an abandoned slide.
When they came back, Emmy and Leo shared their adventures with their friends and also brought back the following manuscript written by their new friend Blake.
I’ve been following Sonya’s Arithmophobia No More blog for a couple of years, and I love the work she is doing. But this month, she’s teamed up with Lacy at Play, Discover, Learn (another great blog to follow!) to offer a humongous bundle of playful math.
You get math journaling pages, games, creative task cards, thought-provoking worksheets, and video training resources to help you build your child’s understanding of math from arithmetic to early algebra. Wow!
These activities are perfect for homeschooling families or anyone looking to supplement their child’s current math curriculum with effective discovery-based activities. If you’ve ever wondered what to do with those Cuisenaire rods you picked up on sale way back when, this bundle is for you.
I’m so looking forward to using some of these ideas with my elementary homeschool co-op kids next year!
If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, you’ve probably seen how much I love the blog, books, and classes available from the Natural Math folks.
Their newest book is just off the presses — Funville Adventures, a math adventure chapter book.
And until December 20, they’re having a holiday sale. Make your own bundle of any Natural Math books. Playful algebra, calculus for 5-year-olds, inquiry problems and more: Great deal!
(US customers only: We’re sorry we can’t offer bulk discounts for our international readers, but the complexities of international duties and tax laws are too much for this very small family business.)
Do You Know of Any Math Deals?
Apollonian greetings from my homeschool co-op kids, and best wishes for a grace-filled holiday season.
If you’ve seen a great deal or holiday price on a math resource you love, please share!
Add your deal to the comment section below, so we can all take advantage of the math joy this season.
Have you noticed that we live in a wonderful era of mathematical innovation? Not only at the “it’s all over my head” level — which is growing faster than anyone can keep up with — but also at the Cool Math For Kids level.
So many things! I’m sure I forgot one (or several) of your favorite modern-classic math books or toys. I’d love to hear about them in the comments.
And here are a few bits of new playful math. Click, support, and share!
Math Renaissance
In alternating chapters, Rodi Steinig tells stories about her math circle and exactly what happens there, while her daughter Rachel discusses why so many kids hate math, documents the ways math is taught in the classroom — and ways that can be improved.
When 9-year-old Emmy and her 5-year-old brother Leo go down an abandoned dilapidated slide, they are magically transported into Funville — a land inhabited by ordinary-looking beings, each with a unique power to transform objects.
I had the fun of previewing this book. It’s a cute little fairy tale that should help launch family conversations about math.
Trouble with Monkeys
A boy wants to surprise his dad, but meddlesome monkeys keep getting in the way. The boy is interviewed by the local news, and the story escalates to involve pirates, ballerinas, ninjas — and the magic of our place value number system.
Are you looking for a fun book to read over the summer? I just finished Lilac Mohr’s delightful Math & Magic in Wonderland, and I loved it.
Highly recommended, for kids or adults!
About the Book
A Jubjub bird disguised as a lark,
Borogroves concealing a snark,
When you’re in Tulgey Wood, you must
Be careful whom it is you trust…
With the discovery of Mrs. Magpie’s Manual of Magic for Mathematical Minds, Lulu and Elizabeth embark on an exciting journey to a realm inspired by Lewis Carroll’s poetry. The twins must use ingenuity and sagacity to solve classic logic puzzles that promise to uncover the book’s secrets and earn them The Vorpal Blade. In this interactive novel, the reader is invited to play along with the two heroines on their grand mathematical adventure.
Do you have the smarts to help Lulu and Elizabeth outwit the frumious Bandersnatch?
It’s time to enter Wonderland and find out!
–from the back cover of Math & Magic in Wonderland by Lilac Mohr
What I Liked
Puns, poetry, and plenty of puzzles. Tangrams, tessellations, truth-tellers and liars. History tidbits and many classics of recreational mathematics.
The sisters Lulu and Elizabeth seem real — though perhaps more widely read than most of us. They are different from each other. They make mistakes and have disagreements. But they never deteriorate into the cliché of sibling rivalry that passes for characterization in too many children’s books.
In each chapter, the girls must solve a language, math, or logic puzzle to proceed along their journey. Then a “Play Along” section offers related puzzles for the reader to try.
No matter how challenging the topic, the book never talks down to the reader.
What I Didn’t Like
… Um … Honestly, I can’t think of anything.
Since it’s traditional to criticize the editing of self-published books, I will say this: There was at least one place where the wording seemed a bit awkward. I would have phrased the sentence differently. But don’t ask me to identify the page — I was too caught up in the story to bother jotting down such a quibble. And I tried flipping through the book as I wrote this post, but I can’t find it again.
Buy, or Don’t Buy?
Buy. Definitely buy.
Unless you hate logic puzzles and despise Lewis Carroll’s poetry.
But for everyone else, this book is truly a gem. If you like The Cat in Numberland or The Man Who Counted, then I’m sure you’ll enjoy Math & Magic in Wonderland.
Disclaimer: Like almost all book links on my blog, the links in this post take you to Amazon.com, where you can read descriptions and reviews. I make a few cent’s worth of affiliate commission if you make a purchase — but nowhere near enough to influence my opinion about the book.
And Now for the Giveaway
Lilac offered a paperback copy of Math & Magic in Wonderland for one lucky reader of Let’s Play Math blog.
The giveaway is done. Congratulations, Keshua!
But the comments section below remains open, and I’d still love to hear your answers:
Tell us about your favorite language, math, or logic puzzle book! Or share a book you’ve been wanting to read.
Be clear on what you don’t know — and comfortable enough to admit it.
Seriously, those are wonderful videos. If you haven’t seen them before, go check them out. Be sure to come back, though, because I’ve just heard some great news.
Natural Problem-Solving Skills
Tanton has joined up with the NaturalMath.com team of Maria Droujkova, Yelena McManaman, and Ever Salazar to put together a book for parents, teachers, math circle leaders, and anyone else who works with children ages 3–10.
It’s called Avoid Hard Work, and it takes a playful look at ten powerful problem-solving techniques.
Join the Crowdfunding Campaign
For more details about Avoid Hard Work, including a 7-page pdf sample with tips and puzzles to enjoy, check out the crowdfunding page at Natural Math:
You could say that Tessalation is a book about tessellations (repeating tiled patterns), but it is really a children’s picture book about discovering order in a chaotic world.
— Emily Grosvenor
Seeing Math in the World
In taking a playful approach to mathematics, I hope to open children’s eyes to math in their world. Schooly math lessons have led many of my math group kids to think a “pattern” has to be a strictly repeating (and rather boring) series of shapes or colors.
But in the real world, patterns are so important that American mathematician Lynn Arthur Steen defined mathematics as the science of patterns.
“As biology is the science of life and physics the science of energy and matter, so mathematics is the science of patterns,” Steen wrote. “We live in an environment steeped in patterns — patterns of numbers and space, of science and art, of computation and imagination. Patterns permeate the learning of mathematics, beginning when children learn the rhythm of counting and continuing through times tables all the way to fractals and binomial coefficients.”
Tessa Truman-Ling’s delight in patterns is contagious. And it will provide a wonderful jumping-off point for a variety of math activities.
Visit Grosvenor’s Kickstarter page to find out more about her lovely book:
Do you have high school students, or do you enjoy puzzles yourself? Did you agree with my post last week, that Professor Povey’s new book looks like fun? If so, I’ve got some good news.
Check out this new puzzle book for upper-level high school students & adults:
Thomas Povey is a Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, where he researches jet-engine and rocket technology. In his new book Professor Povey’s Perplexing Problems, he shares his favorite idiosyncratic stumpers from pre-university maths and physics.
These problems “should test your ability to grapple with the unfamiliar,” Povey writes. “You will learn to tease new problems apart, and apply things you already know in ways you had never considered. You have all the tools you need, but you should see what amazing things you can do with them.”
Can You Solve This?
Alex Bellos shared one of Professor Povey’s puzzles in The Guardian. Can you figure it out?
The book starts off with geometry, but most of the chapters focus on various topics from physics. Some of the puzzles are accessible through applied common sense, but for many of them, it helps to have taken an algebra-based (high school level) physics course.
Kitten is just finishing up her physics textbook, and she still has one more year of homeschooling. I’m hoping to work several of these puzzles into our schedule this year. It should be great fun!
Spoiler
If like me you’re a bit rusty on your physics, don’t worry. Each answer is thoroughly explained—in fact, it takes a bit of discipline to close the book and try your hand at each problem before reading on. I wish they’d put the solutions in the back rather than in the main text, to make it easier to browse the problems without reading spoilers.
Speaking of which, here’s the answer to the video puzzle above…
Update: The crowdfunding campaign is now closed and the book is in the final stages. It should be headed to the printer soon. Check the Playing With Math homepage for publication and ordering information.
What do mathematicians do? We play with math. What are little kids doing when they’re thinking about numbers, shapes, and patterns? They’re playing with math. You may not believe it yet, but you can have fun playing with math, too.
— Sue VanHattum, editor
We had a discussion at the end of the club on how we are all confused now, but pleasantly so, and how important it is to rejoice in confusion and to be comfortable with it. Adults often strive very hard to get rid of any and all possible traces of confusion for kids, making things dreadfully boring.
— Maria Droujkova, after a math circle exploration of infinity
All it talkes to do mathematics is opportunity, a frustrating problem, and a bit of stubbornness.
— Ellen Kaplan, math circle leader
Our own school experiences can make it hard for us to teach without being tempted to “help them master” a concept that they may or may not be ready to master. What we never learned in school was the concept of playing around with math, allowing ideas to “percolate,” so to speak, before mastery occurs, and that process may take time.
Update: The crowdfunding campaign is now closed and the book is in the final stages. It should be headed to the printer soon. Check the Playing With Math homepage for publication and ordering information.
There’s a problem: Most people don’t like math. Why is that? Perhaps it has something to do with the way math is taught in school. As a teacher to my own kids and mentor to homeschooling parents, I’ve been fighting math anxiety for decades.
This book is one part of the solution.
Playing With Math: Stories from Math Circles, Homeschoolers, and Passionate Teachers features more than thirty authors who tell delightful stories of learning to appreciate math and of sharing their 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.
You can read a couple of excerpts at PlayingWithMath.org:
Funville Adventures is a math-inspired fantasy that introduces children to the concept of functions, which are personified as magical beings with powers. 
Tanton has joined up with the NaturalMath.com team of Maria Droujkova, Yelena McManaman, and Ever Salazar to put together a book for parents, teachers, math circle leaders, and anyone else who works with children ages 3–10. 
Update: The giveaway deadline has passed, but I’d still love to hear about your favorite book—I’m always looking for something new to read. 🙂
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 