Little Bears Family Homeschool's Study
Notes
Mathematics
Contents
* Introduction * Games * Story-books for Young children *
* Introduction to Maths * Teacher Resources * Worksheets & Textbooks *
* "Pre-packaged" Maths schemes and
"curricula" *
* Literature for
older children * Internet Resources * Suppliers *
Introduction
Maths is probably the one area that makes
me question my competence to teach! (It's one of the reasons that
I opted for a Scandinavian Studies degree and not a Teacher
Training degree!)
I'm concerned that I should get over the
hang-ups I have about Maths and not pass on my bad attitudes to
my children, but I'm very much aware that my attitudes stem from
the negative experience of maths-learning at school which taught
most of the children in my class to think that Maths had no
practical use in the real world! For that reason, I see it as of
great importance that we learn maths through real life, for
instance, measuring & weighing for cooking, dividing
portions, sorting, counting and matching clothes for washing,
handling money, noting speed and distance when travelling,
looking at calendars and clocks, and so on.
Books and Resources
Games
- Usborne:
"Number Lotto" £7.99
- Usborne:
"Counting Train Floor Puzzle"
Story-books
for Young Children
- "Each
Peach Pear Plum" by Janet & Alan Ahlberg
(Fontana)
- "The
Enormous Crocodile" by Roald Dahl (Puffin)
- "Funny
Bones" by Janet & Alan Ahlberg (Fontana)
- "The
Jolly Postman" by Janet & Alan Ahlberg
(Heinemann)
- The
"Spot" Series by Eric Hill (Puffin)
- The
"Teddy Bear" Series by Suzannah Gretz (A
& C Black)
Introduction
to Maths
- An
Usborne Introduction: "Maths"
- Usborne
Farmyard Tales series: "Counting Book",
"Telling the Time"
- Usborne
First Learning: "Odd One Out", "Sizes",
"Numbers", "Starting to Add"
Teacher
Resources
The
following books are aimed at maths teachers in primary schools
classes, but I managed to find them in our local library and I
thought they were quite useful, although I don't think I would
actually buy them:
- "Bright
Ideas: Teacher Handbooks: Maths", published by
Scholastic at £7.99. inludes photocopiable pages and
worksheets.
- "Bright
Ideas: Inspirations for Maths" by Beryl Webber
& Jean Haigh (£6.95) again published by Scholastic.
Includes photocopiable pages.
Worksheet
Text-books
(that don't need a Teaching Manual)
- "At
home with the National Curriculum" Maths Skills
Learning Workbook for "Key Stage 1" Maths (ages
5-6) from Letts Numeracy, £4.99
- "Let's
Learn at home" Maths, published by Scholastic
£2.99
- "Leap
ahead with Maths" Books 1 - 6 (?) by Brian Nash
& Paul Nightingale, published by Nightingale Press
- Scott
Foresman Maths A friend of mine is using this for her
5 year-old and highly recommends it. The books I have
seen are bright & colourful and beautifully
illustrated, and the content seems to be quite good as
far as I can tell. It is used as part of the "Sonlight Curriculum" but
is available separately.
"Pre-packaged" Maths Schemes and
"Curricula"
From the US:-
- Saxon
Math
- Scott
Foresman Math
Literature
for older children
- "Murderous
Maths" and "More Murderous Maths"
These books are written by a friend of ours, Kjarton
Poskitt, but they are really aimed for older children
than ours (and I'm not 100% sure about the suitability of
the content, given the titles)!
- "The
Mathematical Universe - An alphabetical journey through
the great proofs, problems and personalities" by
William Dunham.
When I was studying for my GCSE Maths, Mark thought it
might be a good idea to get some books which had to do
with the history and personalities of mathematical
discoveries, the people and so on, to get me interested
in the subject, and this was the book he bought me. It
seems like such a good idea, but I don't know whether
there are books like this for children - if you know, mail me!
Please let me know if there's anything out
there you'd recommend.
Internet Resources
Suppliers
GLS
Dudley Ltd "Educational Supplies Nationwide" (1
Mollison Avenue, Enfield, EN3 7XQ) has a good selection of board
games and "maths manipulatives" from Invicta, Unifix
etc. Be aware that it's a large, heavy, nearly 800 page
catalogue! I am currently approaching them in order to establish
whether discounts can be made available to Home Educators.
If your firm can offer special reduced
rates to home educating families, e-mail us at littlebears@tesco.net
Home
Site Index
This site is under construction
Please be patient - I am working on
it! Links to follow!
Comments & Suggestions Welcome
©
Sharon Mortemore
11 August, 1999