Miscellaneous Tidbits

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

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.

How to Update Your Math Game Ebooks

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

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

Murphy Strikes My Paperbacks :(

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
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.

They’re Here! Math You Can Play Weekend Sale

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Featured photo above by Richard Riley via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

Finally, the first two books of my math games series are finished and loaded up on Amazon.com (and the other Amazons worldwide). To celebrate, I’m offering an introductory sale price this weekend: US$2.99 per book, now through Monday.[Sorry, expired.]

Math Your Kids WANT To Do

Are you tired of flashcards and repetitive worksheets? Now your children can practice their math skills by playing games.

Math games pump up mental muscle, reduce the fear of failure, and develop a positive attitude toward mathematics. Through playful interaction, games strengthen a child’s intuitive understanding of numbers and build problem-solving strategies. Mastering a math game can be hard work, but kids do it willingly because it is fun.

Continue reading They’re Here! Math You Can Play Weekend Sale

Fun with the Impossible Penrose Triangle

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

I found this delightful animation today:

Ball-travels-around-impossible-triangle

The ball is traveling around a shape that can’t exist in our real world: the Penrose triangle. This illusion is the basis for some cool art, like Escher’s Waterfall. And I’m using it in my Math You Can Play books as a design on the back of my playing cards:

A-2-3deck

Want to Play Around with the Penrose Triangle?

Here’s a few links so you can try it for yourself:

Penrose Lego by Erik Johansson (CC BY 2.0)
Penrose Lego by Erik Johansson (CC BY 2.0)

Book Update

Addition-Games

I’ve sent the first two Math You Can Play books to a copy editor (she edits the text part), so my focus this month is on finishing the illustrations and downloadable game boards. And designing the book covers — I think I’ll call this latest iteration done.

If everything stays on schedule, both Counting & Number Bonds and Addition & Subtraction should be available by mid- to late-spring. Fingers crossed…

Join My Mailing List for Math Tips and Book Updates

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Tabletop Academy Press
Tabletop Academy Press:
Learning is a lifelong adventure.

Are you looking for playful ways to help your children learn math? Now you can get math tips and activity ideas by email, as well as find out when I put out a new book or revise an old one.

I hope to send out a “Math Snack” (no-preparation math activity idea) at least once a month. In the meantime, your sign-up bonuses include a 4-page article on solving word problems and a pre-publication peek at my new Math You Can Play book series of games for preschool to prealgebra.

Free This Weekend

BanishedKindleCover

Our Christmas gift to you: my daughter’s fantasy adventure Banished will be FREE for Kindle on Amazon.com this weekend only, December 11-15.

I don’t know whether the other Amazons (UK, CA, AU, IN, etc.) will also run the sale, but I hope so.

As I type, the paperback edition is also on sale at a 10% discount, though we have no control over how long Amazon will be offering that price. Banished is part of the Kindle Matchbook program, so if you buy a copy of the paperback, you can get the ebook for free — even after our weekend sale runs out.

Read an excerpt: the first four chapters of Banished

Don’t have a Kindle? You can get a Kindle app that will let you read Teresa’s book on almost any device.

Watch for Upcoming Books

The second book in The Riddled Stone series is scheduled for publication in Spring 2015, and so are the first two volumes of my Math You Can Play series. If you want a head’s-up when these books arrive, be sure to join my Tabletop Academy Press Updates email list:

Sample Chapter from Let’s Play Math Book

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

As I’ve been working on the layout for the paperback edition of Let’s Play Math: How Homeschooling Families Can Learn Math Together, and Enjoy It!, I thought, “Why not post an excerpt?” So here is the introduction and first chapter, free to download:

This excerpt isn’t exactly how the paperback will look, because it’s based on the current ebook edition. For the paperback, I’ll be adding plenty of new illustrations — not quite a picture on every page, but close. (Yes, that’s one reason it’s taking soooo long to finish!)

For Example …

Here is one of the new illustrations, along with its caption:

Fractals are self-similar, which means that subsections of the object look like smaller versions of the whole thing. Your children may enjoy making a Sierpinski triangle with tortilla chips.

Sierpinski-tortillas

Want To Buy the Book?

Let’s Play Math should be available wherever you usually buy books.

Back to School Sale

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Princess Kitten, way back in the beginning.
Princess Kitten, way back in the beginning.

Our homeschool runs a bit off-schedule from the rest of the U.S. school system, as we are still finishing up last year’s work. Even so, we’re calling this month the “beginning” of Kitten’s high school years, which seems to me like something to celebrate.

Therefore, I’m launching a one-week sale on my math book:

Please feel free to share the coupon code with your friends.

Update: I’ve just opened up a Ganxy showcase with the sale price, for anyone who would prefer to buy the ebook (in pdf, mobi, and epub) directly from me:

Continue reading Back to School Sale