The Life of Fred

I cannot believe I forgot to mention these books in my list of fun and potentially inspiring math story books:  The Life of Fred: "Math As Serious As It Needs to Be."  The first title in the series is "Apples."  We borrowed it from a friend once and thought it was really engaging and definitely stimulating.  Some people use these books for their math curriculum, but I think they are best as "fun math" for days when I want to introduce a new concept, or get the kids interacting with ideas more independently, or just to have a break from "regular" math and do something different and fun. 

Alas, the library does not appear to have any of them, and I believe we can no longer use Ocean Grove funds to purchase these books. : (  But ask your ES if there are any at the resource center.

Or, if any of you Vintage homeschool parents have any Life of Fred books and don't mind sharing, please let us know in the comments below!

I found a site that allows you to download a preview of many of the Life of Fred books.  Here's the download link to the "Apples" book (let's see if that works--not sure if I can link to a pdf).

Here is the link to all of the previews.

Fun Summer Math Reading

So after starting that last post about our book project for the 2015 Author's Fair, I did some research, and found that our local library seems to have quite a good selection of funny and creative easy-reader and picture books to inspire our young authors. Here are some I found:

Conned Again, Watson! Cautionary Tales of Logic, Math, and Probability

Minnie's Diner

The Great Divide

Divide and Ride

Grandfather Tang's Story

The Warlord's Puzzle

Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jar

Math Curse

Inch by Inch

The Wishing Club: A Story About Fractions

Lemonade for Sale

The Doorbell Rang

17 Kings and 42 Elephants

One Grain of Rice

Arthur's Funny Money

Measuring Penny

The library also has a lot of these well-rated "Sir Cumference" books--I'll definitely be checking some out!

I've read this one before--and it is a fun read: Spaghetti and Meatballs for All

Some of the books available at the library may not tell math stories, per se, but sound like really good additions (ha!) to a summer reading math unit:

Mathematicians Are People Too

G is for Googol

Millions to Measure

The Boy Who Loved Math

The library also has many of the Encyclopedia Brown books, which do not specifically deal with math but still require logical thinking for solving their mysteries--plenty of good inspiration there for the kids' own math mystery writing.

Then I have a few books here at home that anyone may borrow:

100 Pounds of Popcorn

The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat

Math Talk

Once Upon a Company


If you have any math tales of your own to recommend, please share the titles in the comments!

Another Excellent Book of Months Example

When I made the post the other day about books your family might want to read to get ideas for our 2014 Book of Months writing project, I forgot to share one of our favorites:

The poetry in this book is wonderful, and while you can find it in many editions, the one illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman is our favorite.  Her watercolor and ink drawings are beautiful, and really draw the reader into to the "feel" of each particular month, as much as Updike's words.

Just a taste:

(click on the image to embiggen)

 

The facing November page, illustrating the "beauty of the bone."

I highly recommend this book for your family's bookshelves!

Inspiration for The Book of Months project

I'll tell you how this project got started:  my own Meredith decided about a week before the Author's Fair last year that since her older sister had two books to enter, she would like to write another book to enter as well.  And the child labored for that whole week on detailed pencil drawings and pages of text--all her own "book of months" inspired by this family favorite:

A Time To Keep, by Tasha Tudor

Well, she barely got it done in time for the Author's Fair--no, really, I was sitting there after the fair had started on the mall floor with my back against some shop windows trying to shove her pages (some done vertically and  some horizontally of course, and with text on  both sides) into the clear plastic pages of a photo album our dear ES Terry had brainstormed as the solution to her binding dilemma.  But she had put so much thought into it, and it was such a sweet idea, that I decided we would "do it right" for the next author's fair.  And decided each girl could do her own.  And then though, hey while we are at it, maybe the other Vintage Homeschool kids would like to join in the fun!  

It really is a fun way to record not only the passing of time and the rhythm of a year, but also your own kids lives at this stage.  I have a feeling if you and your kids do a really good job, you will end up with a book you want to hold on to and bring out year after year. 

Here are some other books of months that you and your kids might enjoy reading while getting into the mood for this project:

Over and Over, by Charlotte Zolotow

We love this first one--gentle story about a little girl remembering with her mother what happens in a year's time.

This series has a book for each month, although I have not read them.

Ok, this last one won't be all that helpful with the project.  But I loved this book when I was a kid! ; )

If you know of other books that are similar in vein that you could recommend as creative thinking fodder for this assignment, please leave the titles in the comments.

Old School Monday pics

book clubs for kids--and free stuff!

Lisa C. here. I heard through the grapevine about two book clubs your kids might enjoy being a part of:

1. Kids can read 10 books and get a free book from Borders:

http://www.borders.com/online/store/MediaView_doubledogdare?cmpid=SA_20100505

2. another mom said that kids can also read five books and go to fresh choice restaurant for free. Details at the central branch library.

Sounds great to me!