It's been a few years since I even attempted to pre-read what The Kid was reading. There's just not enough time in the day. Plus, quite frankly, she reads faster than I do. Out trouble isn't with her own chosen reading, though. For that, she mostly gravitates towards books written for her age or a couple years above. (Finally!) Some of it has the usual kids-being-mean and kids-making0bad-decisions, but it's all age appropriate for a tween.
No. It's what I choose for read alouds. Or, rather, listen alouds, since I much prefer to use audiobooks over reading aloud myself. We've always pulled from a diverse, varied selection of books. And most of them are truly excellent. But I should probably go back to paying attention so that we don't get too many more chapters about incest and violence. Somehow, I wasn't expecting that to come up so much in a book about scientific ethics.
But, I'm not going to kid myself. There's no way I'm going to pre-read all our read alouds. It's just one of the perils of reading widely.
And, despite being caught off guard by the incest and violence, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is an amazing book.
Monday, October 28, 2019
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Math Resources for Middle School/High School
I've posted a few times before about our less-conventional math resources, which we used either in addition to or in place of traditional math materials. However, now that The Kid has finished Algebra 1, many of those previously discussed math materials are in the past. Fortunately for me, there were a lot of suggestions made during the parent programs at Epsilon Camp, so I went on a shopping spree when we got back and restocked the math shelf with resources to last us a few years. So. Much. Math.
Here's what is now on the shelf:
Art of Problem Solving books. It feels like all of them, but it's really just the introductory level books plus the Art of Problem Solving Volume 1. The Kid is currently wanting a break from traditional math, so I suspect these will sit untouched for a while, but I know she'll circle around to them.
Math and Magic in Camelot. The sequel to the much-loved Math and Magic in Wonderland, which we've already read. These are story books about twin sisters who solve puzzles and go on an adventure. Each chapter has a "play along" section that has the reader doing math and language puzzles. This book looks like it involves a bit of science as well. The math involved focuses much more on logic than arithmetic and could probably be used by any student at about a third grade math and language level or up. I hope it's as good as the first one!
Secrets of Mental Math. Art Benjamin is a lot of fun, and The Kid has watched a few of his lecture series on Great Courses Plus. Math is a favorite subject of hers, and she's good at it, but we've never emphasized speed. I'm hoping she'll work through this book with me and add to her bag of tricks for faster mental math.
What Is the Name of This Book? This is a complex puzzle book. The puzzles build on each other, and there are around 270 of them. This book is a classic, and the author (Raymond Smullyen) was recommended by every one of the Epsilon math instructors, without any of them having heard any of the others make their own recommendation.
Drawing Circle Images. There are a number of books out there that demonstrate how to make interesting drawings with a compass or a compass and straightedge. This is one of them. Fun for kids who like mathy art.
25 Real Life Math Investigations That Will Astound Teachers and Students. We've used a couple of the Zaccaro books before, and this one looks like an interesting "real life applications" version. Topics include loans, interest rates, math mistakes in the media and in laws, inflation, lying with statistics, math and music, and many others.
Calculus By and For Young People. Essentially a conceptual introduction to the concepts of calculus, designed for as early as elementary school level. I love introducing future topics in a variety of ways, so that when we get there officially it's more a matter of figuring out how to apply the knowledge instead of encountering it for the first time ever.
The Book of Numbers. John Conway is one of the best known living mathematicians, and he's an author on two of the books on this list, this one co-written by Richard Guy. Unlike most books on this list, this is not a worktext, nor does it have assignments for the reader. It is an exploration of number theory and patterns. This book starts with some topics that The Kid is familiar with, and builds from there. I believe that she is capable of understanding the concepts in the book, but some of it will stretch her well out of her current comfort zone.
The Symmetries of Things. This is the book that kickstarted the replenishment of the math shelf. Another book by John Conway, it was co-written by Heidi Burgiel and Chaim Goodman-Strauss. Chaim also happened to be one of my daughter's instructors at Epsilon Camp, and she was especially curious about the book he co-wrote. Geometry is not my strength, and flipping through this book has be completely lost. This may be a resource that The Kid tries to tackle and truly understand, or it may be one that she flips through for the beauty of the illustrations right now. Either way, it is definitely an introduction to a type of mathematics she will never get through the standard curriculum.
Visions of the Universe. This author of mathematical coloring books was recommended by Chaim when I asked for kid-accessible resources for some of the interesting geometry he was talking about.
Patty Paper Geometry. A fully hands-on pre-formal-geometry book. This one is written to the teacher, with options to either guide your student fully through the constructions or to give your student some ideas of how to accomplish something and then let them experiment to learn. As you might guess, The Kid and I are fully in the "experiment to learn" camp. She has gotten into a bit of origami lately, so this seems a natural extension. And, as I mentioned above with the Calculus book, I love to introduce concepts before we get to them formally so that the formal math is an application rather than a first exposure.
Here's what is now on the shelf:
Art of Problem Solving books. It feels like all of them, but it's really just the introductory level books plus the Art of Problem Solving Volume 1. The Kid is currently wanting a break from traditional math, so I suspect these will sit untouched for a while, but I know she'll circle around to them.
Math and Magic in Camelot. The sequel to the much-loved Math and Magic in Wonderland, which we've already read. These are story books about twin sisters who solve puzzles and go on an adventure. Each chapter has a "play along" section that has the reader doing math and language puzzles. This book looks like it involves a bit of science as well. The math involved focuses much more on logic than arithmetic and could probably be used by any student at about a third grade math and language level or up. I hope it's as good as the first one!
Secrets of Mental Math. Art Benjamin is a lot of fun, and The Kid has watched a few of his lecture series on Great Courses Plus. Math is a favorite subject of hers, and she's good at it, but we've never emphasized speed. I'm hoping she'll work through this book with me and add to her bag of tricks for faster mental math.
What Is the Name of This Book? This is a complex puzzle book. The puzzles build on each other, and there are around 270 of them. This book is a classic, and the author (Raymond Smullyen) was recommended by every one of the Epsilon math instructors, without any of them having heard any of the others make their own recommendation.
Drawing Circle Images. There are a number of books out there that demonstrate how to make interesting drawings with a compass or a compass and straightedge. This is one of them. Fun for kids who like mathy art.
25 Real Life Math Investigations That Will Astound Teachers and Students. We've used a couple of the Zaccaro books before, and this one looks like an interesting "real life applications" version. Topics include loans, interest rates, math mistakes in the media and in laws, inflation, lying with statistics, math and music, and many others.
Calculus By and For Young People. Essentially a conceptual introduction to the concepts of calculus, designed for as early as elementary school level. I love introducing future topics in a variety of ways, so that when we get there officially it's more a matter of figuring out how to apply the knowledge instead of encountering it for the first time ever.
The Book of Numbers. John Conway is one of the best known living mathematicians, and he's an author on two of the books on this list, this one co-written by Richard Guy. Unlike most books on this list, this is not a worktext, nor does it have assignments for the reader. It is an exploration of number theory and patterns. This book starts with some topics that The Kid is familiar with, and builds from there. I believe that she is capable of understanding the concepts in the book, but some of it will stretch her well out of her current comfort zone.
The Symmetries of Things. This is the book that kickstarted the replenishment of the math shelf. Another book by John Conway, it was co-written by Heidi Burgiel and Chaim Goodman-Strauss. Chaim also happened to be one of my daughter's instructors at Epsilon Camp, and she was especially curious about the book he co-wrote. Geometry is not my strength, and flipping through this book has be completely lost. This may be a resource that The Kid tries to tackle and truly understand, or it may be one that she flips through for the beauty of the illustrations right now. Either way, it is definitely an introduction to a type of mathematics she will never get through the standard curriculum.
Visions of the Universe. This author of mathematical coloring books was recommended by Chaim when I asked for kid-accessible resources for some of the interesting geometry he was talking about.
Patty Paper Geometry. A fully hands-on pre-formal-geometry book. This one is written to the teacher, with options to either guide your student fully through the constructions or to give your student some ideas of how to accomplish something and then let them experiment to learn. As you might guess, The Kid and I are fully in the "experiment to learn" camp. She has gotten into a bit of origami lately, so this seems a natural extension. And, as I mentioned above with the Calculus book, I love to introduce concepts before we get to them formally so that the formal math is an application rather than a first exposure.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)