Teach Your Child Math : Making Math Fun for the Both of You [Paperback]

Arthur Benjamin (Author), Michael Brant Shermer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1999 | Series: Lowell House

By transforming math "problems" into games, this easy-to-follow book gives parents a fun way to help their children learn math. With an expanded section on problem solving, fun word problems, and entertaining visual concepts, it proves that math can be interesting.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Arthur Benjamin, Ph.D., is a professor of mathematics at Harvey Mudd College in Claremount, California. Dr. Benjamin's articles have been featured in Scientific American and Discover. He is coauthor of Mathemagics.

Michael Brant Shermer, Ph.D., is founder and director of The Skeptics Society and the publisher of Skeptic magazine. He is the author of several books, including Teach Your Child Science.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 3 edition (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0737301341
• ISBN-13: 978-0737301342
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #613,102 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Arthur Benjamin is a professor of mathematics at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California. He is also a professional magician and performs his mixture of math and magic all over the world.Michael Shermer is host of the Caltech public lecture series, a contributing editor to and monthly columnist of Scientific American, the publisher of Skeptic magazine, and the author of several science books. He lives in Altadena, California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More for the older child, August 3, 2005

By 

M. Schroder (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Teach Your Child Math : Making Math Fun for the Both of You (Paperback)

I bought this book for my 5 year old- to get many fun ideas on how to introduce math to her, but was disappointed to find that only the first two chapters are devoted to that age group. It is more geared towards the 2nd grader and up. So until I can find a better book, we are just counting shells, beans and whatnot, adding and subtracting.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Kind of helpful, April 21, 2007

By 

H.M. Fonseca (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teach Your Child Math : Making Math Fun for the Both of You (Paperback)

As the book suggests, the book is geared for parents who want to teach their children math. It might be a good system for a home-school parent, but I find that since my 6 year old daughter is in 1st grade the lessons are going to be a tad different from what she's learning in school. Since she's having a hard time as it is, I don't want to confuse her further.

The book starts with some really basic sorting and describing games. It was really funny when I held the cat on my lap and asked my two children what I was holding and why it was a cat. They both liked that. But when I went on to ask them to describe a ball as suggested by the author they lost interest. I tried the same game later with my 4 year old son and a few different cups, but he became bored almost immediatly and told me he wanted to play that game "later". Not helpful.

I wonder if this book wouldn't be better had it been created as a workbook. The author assumes you have access to a photocopy machine to copy the pages in the book. Somehow I don't think photocopied, black and white drawings of pigs are really going to get my already-not-interested-in-math child interested in math.

I'm not sure if the author has children or has worked with children. It might just be that the author is used to working with kids who already like math and find it interesting. Or maybe his enthusiasm for math is contagious in person. I don't know. I do know that my own enthusiasm for math is minimal. I was hoping to find a book that would get both me and my kids into math. It hasn't inspired me and the excersises don't seem to be exciting my children. So if you don't find math all that interesting, and if the kids you're trying to teach are having a hard time with math, then this book probably won't be very helpful.

11 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a great idea, October 7, 2000

By 

absent_minded_prof (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teach Your Child Math : Making Math Fun for the Both of You (Paperback)

I read this book because, although I don't have any kids yet, I want to do some substitute teaching this spring. I thought I might be able to capture some of the fun that math games can entail. This book does the job. Bear in mind, these exercises are for YOUNGER children, up to 3rd grade or so. The authors are full of ideas, and seem to have a grasp both of child psychology, and the trials of parenting. The parenting part doesn't apply to me at this point, but I hope to be able to pass on some of the fun spirit these guys infuse their book with.

Hey, whoever is reading this -- you might want to think about sharing this book with someone in your life who couldn't afford it, when you're finished getting ideas from it. Or even more than one person -- go on a parenting listserv and talk about the book, and pass the word along. Maybe you have a poor cleaning woman who comes to your house, and only speaks Spanish. You could try to share a few of the games with her, if she has kids, and show her how her kids might benefit if she played these games with them. Think about it. It can only help.