Review and Giveaway

LPM-book-with-coffee-800There’s still time to enter the book giveaway at Our Home on the Range blog:

Here on the Range, I’m determined to establish an environment where math is not just numbers and answers. I firmly believe my children can learn all the math they want, when they’re ready, as long as they don’t convince themselves they can’t learn it, they don’t like it, or that it’s too hard. To reach this goal, math must be a regular part of our lives in a way that encourages conversation and exploration.

  • Let’s Play Math could be the very introduction a young family needs as they contemplate the first few years of homeschooling. First Son’s early years may have been completely different if I had read this book when he was five.
  • It could be a fantastic book for a family with a child that’s struggling (in homeschool or otherwise) with math. A few years ago, when First Son first showed signs of a potentially life-long hatred of all things numerical, reading this book may have helped me adapt the curriculum we were then using to meet his needs and enrich him. (We ended up switching and I’m happy with that, but I could have avoided quite a bit of angst.)
  • This book would be perfect for a parent who has always struggled with inadequacies in math or for someone like me, who always did just fine in math but never understood the claims of math’s beauty or fascination. I find myself excited to explore some of the resources the author has gathered together for my own growth and new challenges.

—Kansas Mom

Let’s Play Math Back Cover Blurbs

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Advance review comments for Let’s Play Math: How Families Can Learn Math Together—and Enjoy It:

Want to help your kids with math? Don’t help with the homework. Get them to engage with math by doing things together — many of which don’t even look like math. Let’s Play Math is charming, intelligent, and practical; full of family fun and sound advice.

—Ian Stewart, author of Professor Stewart’s Casebook of Mathematical Mysteries

This book is well researched, well annotated, and includes loads of activities you can try with kids K-12 at home.

—Jennifer Bardsley, credentialed teacher and author of TeachingMyBabytoRead.com

This is the math helper I wish I’d had years ago.

—Anne White, author of Minds More Awake

A crash course in how to enjoy math with your children! Denise Gaskins uses her years of experience to show parents how to teach math with games, stories, puzzles, manipulatives, and living books. Full of useful advice and pedagogical insight, this book is a treasure trove for parents who want to help their children appreciate the beauty, history, and fun of math but don’t know where to start.

—Kate Snow, KatesHomeschoolMath.com and author of Preschool Math at Home

Buy now:
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Updated to Add

More details about the book:

How to Update Your Let’s Play Math Ebook

LetsPlayMath-300

I love how seeing math as a playful game can help even the busiest parents enjoy learning alongside their children.

My math books grew from more than a quarter-century of playing math with children — my own and those of our friends — at my house, at the library, in the park, and in group workshops. The kids and I learned from each other as we shared the adventure of learning mathematics.

Now that the publication dust has settled and the typos and formatting glitches have been sorted out, I’ve updated all the Let’s Play Math ebook files to match my shiny new, greatly expanded paperback edition.

Changes Include

Do You Need an Update?

If your version shows the family playing together on the cover, then you’re all set. The copyright notice should say “Ebook version 3.0.”

But if you have an earlier edition of Let’s Play Math, you will probably want to update to this new, revised edition. Be warned: this is a totally new file, so you’ll lose all your highlights and bookmarks. But the expanded version has SO many wonderful changes, believe me, it’s well worth the inconvenience.

The following instructions are for Amazon.com. If you bought your book somewhere else, check the book dealer’s webpage — if the new cover (above) is showing, then they have the updated file. Find the Customer Service section of their website and follow their procedure.

Amazon Policy Change

I’ve asked Amazon to release the new ebook files to everyone who bought the earlier edition — as used to be their standard policy. But they’ve had too many complaints about people losing their bookmarks, so they no longer issue updates except by customer request.

The only way to get the updated file is to contact Customer Service and ask for it yourself.

Step by step instructions:

  1. Click the contact Customer Service link. Log into your account.
  2. Under “What can we help you with?” click the option “Digital Services.”
  3. Under “Tell us more about your issue,” click “Kindle eBooks” and then “Something else.”
  4. Under “Enter short summary of issue,” copy and paste the following text:
    I bought the ebook Let's Play Math (ASIN B0095POAX4). This book has recently been updated with new material. Would you please send the updated ebook files to my account? Thank you.
  5. Choose how you want to be contacted. I always pick “Email,” but you can pick a more immediate option if you like.

And then wait for the support people to do their magic. You should get the new file within 24 hours.

What About the Paperbacks?

What if you got a bad copy of a paperback book?

The machines that print POD (Print On Demand) books — like my math book or my daughter’s fantasy novels — are basically giant computer printers. As everyone knows, printers get glitches. And the humans who take a book off the machine and put it in a shipping box won’t necessarily notice the mistake.

If you ever get a messed-up copy of my math paperbacks (or any book by anyone, for that matter), you can always contact customer service to have it replaced.

Just follow the same steps as above, but choose the options that make sense for whatever complaint you have. Or if you didn’t buy from Amazon, then find the Customer Service section for whatever book dealer you used, and follow their procedure.

Let’s Play Math Paperback Edition Now Available

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Finally, the revised and much-expanded paperback edition of Let’s Play Math: How Families Can Learn Math Together—and Enjoy It is finished and loaded up on Amazon worldwide. Other bookstores will follow as soon as they update their files.

My book shows you new ways to explore math as a family adventure:

  • Introduce your kids to the “Aha!” factor, the thrill of solving a challenging puzzle.
  • Help them build thinking skills with toys, games, and library books.
  • Find out how to choose math manipulatives, or make your own.
  • And learn how to tackle story problems with confidence.

True mathematical thinking involves the same creative reasoning that children use to solve puzzles. Let’s Play Math turns math into a learning adventure for the whole family. Your children will build a stronger foundation of understanding when you teach math as a game, playing with ideas.

LPM 4-9stars

Buy now:
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This blog originally grew out of my long-out-of-print books for homeschoolers, and now it has come full circle. The new edition of my book ripened on the vine, expanding to include families of every schooling style, with useful tips and resources for classroom teachers, too.

Wouldn’t you like to share in the harvest?

LPM no1new release highlight

Detailed Review (and a Giveaway)

If you’d like to know more about Let’s Play Math — and have a chance to win a free copy — check out Kate Snow’s review post:

Updated to Add

More details about the book:

Did You Get Your Playful Math Snacks?

Figurate numbers are numbers that make shapes---in this case, a pentagon.
Figurate numbers are numbers that make shapes—in this case, a pentagon.

My November “Let’s Play Math” newsletter went out early Monday morning to everyone who signed up for Tabletop Academy Press math updates. This month’s issue focused on figurate numbers, and it also included the latest updates on the Let’s Play Math paperback edition (coming in early 2016).

If you didn’t see it, check your Updates or Promotions tab (in Gmail) or your Spam folder. And to make sure you get all the future newsletters, add “Denise at Tabletop Academy Press” [Tabletop Academy Press @ gmail.com, without spaces] to your contacts or address book.

If you missed this month’s edition, no worries—‌there will be more playful math snacks coming soon. Click the link below to sign up today!

And remember: Newsletter subscribers are always the first to hear about new books, revisions, and sales or other promotions.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

A Nice Surprise

When I got online this morning, I discovered that Let’s Play Math had hit #1 in the UK bestseller list for Parent Participation in Education—‌and I missed it!

But I did get a screen shot of my book sitting pretty at #2:

2015-10-29-UKno2

Playful Math Snacks for October: Mental Math Games

Draft version of the new paperback edition cover. Coming in early 2016...
Draft version of the new paperback edition cover. Watch for it in 2016…

My October “Let’s Play Math” newsletter went out on Wednesday afternoon to everyone who signed up for Tabletop Academy Press math updates. This month’s issue focused on playing math games with your children, and it also included the latest updates on the Let’s Play Math paperback edition (coming not quite as soon as we’d hoped).

If you didn’t see it, check your Updates or Promotions tab (in Gmail) or your Spam folder. And to make sure you get all the future newsletter, add “Denise at Tabletop Academy Press” [Tabletop Academy Press @ gmail.com] to your contacts or address book.

If you missed this month’s edition, no worries—‌there will be more playful math snacks coming soon. Click the link below to sign up today!

And remember: Newsletter subscribers are always the first to hear about new books, revisions, and sales or other promotions.

Playful Math Snacks for September: Math Storytelling Day

My September “Let’s Play Math” newsletter went out last Friday to everyone who signed up for Tabletop Academy Press math updates. If you didn’t see it, check your Updates or Promotions tab (in Gmail) or your Spam folder. And to make sure you get all the future newsletter, add “Denise at Tabletop Academy Press” [TabletopAcademyPress@gmail.com] to your contacts or address book.

This month’s issue focuses on creating and telling math stories with your children. What fun!

If you missed this month’s edition, no worries—‌there will be more playful math snacks coming soon. Click the link below to sign up today!

And remember: Newsletter subscribers are always the first to hear about new books, revisions, and sales or other promotions.

How to Update Your Math Game Ebooks

MYCP-1,2-graphicnovels

The Math You Can Play books grew from more than twenty years of playing math with children—‌at my house, at the library, in the park, and in group workshops. The 42 kid-tested games in these books are simple to learn, quick to play, and require minimal preparation.

I love these books because they help even the busiest parents enjoy playing math with their children.

Now that the publication dust has settled and the typos and formatting glitches have been sorted out, I’ve updated all the Math You Can Play ebook files to match the paperback editions.

Changes include:

Do I Need an Update?

None of these changes have a major effect on the readability or value of the books. If you like your book as is, you aren’t missing anything vital.

Still, if you want the most up-to-date information, then check the title page of your ebook. Right under copyright date, the new edition says, “Ebook Version 1.3.”

If your book has a lower version number (or no version number at all), you may want to upgrade to the new edition.

Continue reading How to Update Your Math Game Ebooks

Playful Math Snacks for August: Logic Puzzles

The August “Let’s Play Math” newsletter went out last week to everyone who signed up for Tabletop Academy Press math updates. This month’s issue focuses on logic puzzles for all ages, including a newly-discovered deleted scene from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. What fun!

If you missed this month’s edition, no worries—‌here are some great puzzles from the Let’s Play Math blog archive:

The Centauri Logic Challenge

Sign Up Today

If you missed this month’s edition, no worries — there will be more playful math snacks coming soon. Click the link below to sign up today!

And remember: Newsletter subscribers are always the first to hear about new books, revisions, and sales or other promotions.

Murphy Strikes My Paperbacks :(

The colors are supposed to go all the way off the edge.
The colors are supposed to go all the way off the edge. They worked just fine in the pre-publication proof…

Murphy’s Law struck today, and the paperback books that looked so good in the proof copies turned out to have a cover glitch, at least in the ones I ordered from Amazon. I’m working with CreateSpace to make sure it gets straightened out—but that means the books may show up as “unavailable” for awhile.

As with any print-on-demand glitch, if you got a badly printed book you can ask Customer Support to replace it.

It could be worse. The interior of the book is fine, at least in my copy. And of course, the ebook versions are totally unaffected.

If you are trying to use the discount code for newsletter subscribers, remember that it’s good through the end of the month. I may even extend the expiration date, if this cover problem persists, but I sure hope to have it fixed in a couple of days.