Bookselling stats rise and fall like a roller-coaster, but the top of the curve is always fun. Today Let’s Play Math hit the Top Ten in homeschooling (“parent participation in education”) at Amazon.com:
I noticed the “STEM Education” category at Amazon, so I updated my book’s keywords. And the Let’s Play Math paperback zipped into the Top 25!
“It’s done? Yay! Now we can have Math Club again!”
— from a 3rd-grade boy who didn’t appreciate me taking a year off to finish and format the book
There’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
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:
More details about the book:
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.
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.
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:
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.And then wait for the support people to do their magic. You should get the new file within 24 hours.
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.
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:
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.
Buy now:
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?
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:
More details about the book:
You know you’re a math teacher when you see a penny in the parking lot, and your first thought is, “Cool! A free math manipulative.”
My homeschool co-op math students love doing math with pennies. They’re rather heavy to carry to class, but worth it for the student buy-in.
This month, I’m finishing up the nearly 150 new illustrations for the upcoming paperback edition of my Let’s Play Math book. I’m no artist, and it’s been a long slog. But a couple of the graphics involved pennies—so when I saw that penny on the ground, it made me think of my book.
And thinking of my book made me think it would be fun to share a sneak peek at coming attractions…
Real mathematics is intriguing and full of wonder, an exploration of patterns and mysterious connections. It rewards us with the joy of the “Aha!” feeling. Workbook math, on the other hand, is several pages of long division by hand followed by a rousing chorus of the fraction song: “Ours is not to reason why, just invert and multiply.”
Real math is the surprising fact that the odd numbers add up to perfect squares (1, 1 + 3, 1 + 3 + 5, etc.) and the satisfaction of seeing why it must be so.
Did your algebra teacher ever explain to you that a square number is literally a number that can be arranged to make a square? Try it for yourself:
Each new set of pennies must add an extra row and column to the current square, plus a corner penny where the new row and column meet. The row and column match exactly, making an even number, and then the extra penny at the corner makes it odd.
Can you see that the “next odd number” pattern will continue as long as there are pennies to add, and that it could keep going forever in your imagination?
The point of the penny square is not to memorize the square numbers or to get any particular “right answer,” but to see numbers in a new way—to understand that numbers are related to each other and that we can show such relationships with diagrams or physical models. The more relationships like this our children explore, the more they see numbers as familiar friends.
A large jar of assorted coins makes a wonderful math toy. Children love to play with, count, and sort coins.
Add a dollar bill to the jar, so you can play the Dollar Game: Take turns throwing a pair of dice, gathering that many pennies and trading up to bigger coins. Five pennies trade for a nickel, two nickels for a dime, etc. Whoever is the first to claim the dollar wins the game.
Or take the Penny Birthday Challenge to learn about exponential growth: Print out a calendar for your child’s birthday month. Put one penny on the first day of the month, two pennies on the second day, four pennies on the third day, etc. If you continued doubling the pennies each day until you reach your child’s birthday, how much money would you need?
Warning: Beware the Penny Birthday Challenge! Those pennies will add up to dollars much faster than most people expect. Do not promise to give the money to your child unless the birthday comes near the beginning of the month.
The first time I did pennies on a calendar with my homeschool co-op class was during December, so we called it the Penny Christmas Challenge:
I told the kids that if their grandparents asked what gift they wanted for Christmas, they could say, “Not much. Just a few pennies…”
The Penny Square, Dollar Game, and Penny Birthday Challenge are just three of the myriad math tips and activity ideas in the paperback edition of Let’s Play Math: How Families Can Learn Math Together and Enjoy It. Coming in early 2016 to your favorite online bookstore…
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:
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.
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:
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.
“Learning to think a problem through can be hard work—and that is exactly what makes it fun.”
—Denise Gaskins
CREDITS: Today’s quote is from my book Let’s Play Math: How Families Can Learn Math Together—And Enjoy It. Background photo courtesy of Chris_Parfitt via Flickr (CC BY 2.0, text added).
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 