this week's math books..

... from the library.

I think I began rambling on about this before I started this separate blog for my homeschooling stuff. A month or so ago I decided to drop a formal math curriculum for Clara for kindergarten. We still do math daily but we're using more of the "living math" approach. I read about this approach at the Living Math site. I had used it to supplement Alex's kindergarten year, but this was my first time using *just* living math books.

In Texas I was able to look up the subject we wanted to work on and request those books from the library (online, available to pick up at my local library branch). Chicago Public Library system is harder to navigate... you have to actually talk to a person to request a book and you have to pick it up at it's branch. So, needless to say, we've just been taking a scattered approach to getting books... while Clara is in gymnastics, Alex and I grab random books in the picture book section that have the number sticker on the spine. It's hit or miss... but its been okay.

This week was a fairly disappointing one.

Ten Little Mummies by Philips Yates
Cute, cute little book. It deals just with one through ten. But it is taking away one versus adding one. The kids both enjoyed it. And it was good practice for Clara.

Ten Go Tango by Arthur Dorros
Another cute book... the kids both enjoyed it. The only thing that was a disappointment to me, was that it was yet another counting book going only as high as 10. As long as the story is good... I try not to get too worked up and count it as practice with our Math-U-See blocks for Clara.


Big Fat Hen illustrated by Keith Baker
Didn't help us much as far as math... but fun book with great illustrations.


Roar! A Noisy Counting Book by Pamela Duncan Edwards
Fun book, fun read. Disappointing for us... just because of the 1-10 thing.

How Many? How Much? by Rosemary Wells
Loved this one. Lots of kindergarten math skills are covered. This is the book that gave us the idea to make the store the other day. One thing is... I tend to not read these books ahead of time. This one I should have. It had several "take the next step" suggestions that required some prep work. The kids wanted to do them right then as we were reading... but I wasn't prepared the first time we read it.

Click, Clack, Splish, Splash by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
Another 1-10 book but not a disappointment because my kids ADORE the books by Cronin and Lewin. They love seeing what the farm animals are up to and this one didn't disappoint.

I hadn't really thought about this until we started doing the living math books for Clara... but I think I may start a "circle time" sort of thing in the morning, first thing. At first the math story books were just Clara's... but then Alex wanted to join in too (he participates with his blocks... but Clara is the one who gets to answer all questions first). I think it might be fun to do a little group time in the morning. Maybe I'll add calendar and possibly weather too.

We'll see!

Have a great weekend!