Read: Learning math through stories

I've alway struggled with math, and didn't enjoyed learning it, since I didn't see how we could actually use most of the concepts taught in real life. Learning how to multiply and divide made sense, since you need that to calculate your grocery bills and figure out how to split your pizza between four people. But differentiation? Complicated formulas that were used, just to help you find that ever elusive x? All those didn't seem relevant or useful at all.

However, while I'm more or less done with my own math education, now I have to teach my own little boys the subject. Preschool math is still more or less straightforward, and still very useful in real life, so I have not found it hard to teach. After all, you can teach simple math anywhere: by counting leaves, during a trip to the supermarket, watching the numbers change as you go up and down in the lift.

I've shared how we've been using Math U See as our main curriculum for math, and that has been serving us well (even Lil J has started, and is on the Primer level since he loves counting and dealing with numbers). However, while the Math U See curriculum is great for establishing a good foundation in math, and the manipulatives enable kids to really understand the concepts, I find it pretty dry. There is a fair bit of practice involved, which is inevitable since you really need to practise working out those concepts to master them, but that means kids can get a little bored after awhile. So to spice things up a little and to help them to retain their interest in math, we've been looking at stories to supplement their learning in this area. Here are some books that the boys particularly enjoyed:


:: Life of Fred Mathematics: This is a series of books, written novel-style, featuring five year old Fred Gauss, who is a math professor at Kittens University. The stories are funny, since poor Fred is constantly making unwise decisions that land him into trouble! Each book covers mathematical concepts in a way that is relevant to real life, and also introduces various nuggets of general knowledge too.

As these are chapter books with some black and white illustrations, this is probably suitable for slightly older preschoolers aged 5 and up. Junior J loves the stories, and we've learnt many concepts by just reading one chapter a day together. (Sometimes, Lil J wants to sit in too!) Each book has approximately 18-19 chapters and each chapter ends with a "Your Turn to Play" section that allows kids to practise what they've learnt, with the answers printed on the next page for further discussion.

We've already finished the first seven books in the Elementary Math series (there are ten books for the first series), and will continue to use Life of Fred to supplement our math learning. I find that while Life of Fred is a very interesting way to learn math (Junior J even learnt to add four digit numbers together through this book, and is learning multiplication now), it cannot be used as a stand-alone curriculum as it does not provide enough structure or practice. Because of that, it complements the Math U See curriculum perfectly, and I've heard of quite a few homeschoolers using these two hand in hand to teach math. One warning though: these books are rather pricey. However, they are of good quality, and we figured it'll be an investment since a few kids would get to use them.

Life of Fred is not available in the libraries here, and while I purchased our copies locally, the distributer here is not longer selling the books. As such, these can only be purchased in the US, either directly from the publisher, or through Educents. Educents is having a sale on the series right now which is ending soon, and the books are now cheaper than if you buy direct from the publisher. Do note that you will need to arrange for your own shipping back to Singapore if you do purchase the books.


:: Sir Cumference series: This series of books introduces geometry through adventure stories featuring knights! Kids get to learn concepts such as area, perimeter, circumference, pi and radius, while reading these books with full colored illustrations.  Again, these are more suitable for those five and up, but the younger kids might just enjoy hearing the stories being read to them.

Source: Amazon

We've borrowed some of the titles from this series from the library (see here for details), and have also chanced on one book when we were digging amidst the second-hand books at Evernew Bookstore. That aside, you can purchase the books from Amazon here.


:: Books by Loreen Leedy: Loreen Leedy has written several books dealing with math concepts. Her stories are mainly told through comic book form with full-colour illustrations, and I find these are simple enough for four year olds to understand. We particularly liked "Measuring Penny", which introduces the concepts of measurements, as well as "The Great Graph Contest" which teaches kids how to draw various types of graphs to represent information.

Source: Amazon

Loreen Leedy's books can be borrowed from the library, or purchased from Amazon.


:: MathStart Series: These books are simple stories that are accompanied with full colour illustrations, which introduce various math concepts to younger children. The series is split into three levels, with the first teaching concepts such as comparing sizes, shapes, matching and sorting, the second introducing topics such as addition, subtraction, tallying and symmetry, and the third teaching topics like division, fractions and angles. The first level books are probably simple enough for 3 year olds to understand, and Lil J enjoys flipping through these books.

Source: Amazon

You can borrow some of the titles from the library, or purchase them from Amazon or locally at The Learning Store (Note: These may be slightly cheaper at The Learning Store, but only when they have a good warehouse sale. Otherwise, the prices are better on Amazon.)

I hope these recommendations might come in useful, and we'll share more titles in time to come as we explore specific math topics. Meanwhile, do check out our list of book recommendations for Science, or our Rave Reads folder on the FB page. Happy reading!

PS: This is not a sponsored post, and we are sharing these titles because we love them! However, this post contains affiliate links to Amazon, but at no added cost to yourself.

Homeschool: Learning with Math U See (Review and giveaway!)

UPDATED (JUNE 2019): I was told that the website for Green Sheep Asia (as linked below) is no longer working. If any of you would like to purchase Math U See materials, do Watsapp Mr Tan at  +6596192331 to make your order. Thanks!

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Math has been one of my weakest subjects (aside from Chinese that is), and I never enjoyed learning Math. My parents had to get me a tutor, and I more or less struggled through the subject, until I learnt probability and statistics. That was when suddenly Math made sense: it was useful, and it applied to real life! 

Anyway, I approached teaching Math to Junior J with a fair bit of apprehension. Yes, teaching pre-school Math is easy, since it is simple, and you can approach it in so many ways and integrate it with real life. However, my chief concern was whether I would be able to introduce Math concepts systematically, and give him a good foundation with regards to the subject. So I started asking other homeschoolers to see what Math curriculum they were using, and I found that a fair number of them were using Math U See. So I decided to try the curriculum out, and we've been using the materials for almost three months. 

The main draw of Math U See for most parents seem to be the fact that it is a complete, stand-alone curriculum, that focuses on teaching concepts and building mastery. The curriculum claims to teach the whys and does not focus on just memorization. It has materials catered up to the Secondary Math level. 

I especially liked the manipulatives, and they were one of the main reasons why we decided to use this curriculum. I find manipulatives are essential when teaching kids Math, simply because they help to make more abstract concepts concrete. We started off with using Montessori beads for counting, and while they were useful, they were also fiddly little things, and I could not use these to explain certain Math concepts. We also tried Cuisenaire rods, but they too were smaller, and not as versatile. However, instead of writing about what didn't work, let's focus on what the Math U See manipulatives can do:

:: The manipulatives are base 10 blocks, and work like Lego bricks, so you can build layers to see how numbers relate to each other. (By the way, I love the pastel colours!) This isn't the case for the Montessori beads. These are also larger than the Cuisenaire rods and that makes it easier for little hands to manipulate.  Sometimes though, Junior J gets distracted and ends up building with them. But there are times where he learns through building, like the time he found out that ten pieces of 10s was equal to 100!

:: They allow kids to "see" addition, subtraction and number bonds clearly: Kids can stack the number combinations to see if they are equal, or count the "missing" blocks for subtraction.

:: They also allow kids to visualize multiplication and division easily. For example in the picture below, you can see that 3 x 2 is also the same as 2 x 3.

:: All in all, the manipulatives are used to teach concepts up to the Secondary Math level, which helps in terms of integrating learning. Even key algebra and decimal concepts are taught using these manipulatives, along with additional inserts. Having the different numbered blocks in different colours made it easier for Junior J to see what numbers he was adding or working with, unlike the usual base 10 blocks which come in a single colour.

These are the blocks provided in one set of manipulatives.
We store them in our own hobby case, but you can also purchase
the Math U See wooden block box to house them too. 

Lessons for Math U See are taught using the manuals, where the student learns a new concept each chapter, and works through a series of problems in the Student Manual. They also use the manipulatives in solving the problems, and I like how the size of the squares in the manual correspond to the size of the manipulatives, so that you can actually match them up. 

One of the pages in the Primer level. 

Different concepts are taught, including telling the time, which also involves the use of the manipulatives. You can view the topics covered for the Primer level here, which is the first level of the series, and browse the materials (and topics covered) for each level of General Math here.

Another page in the Primer manual

The Student Manual in each level is accompanied by a Teacher's Manual (purchased separately), which gives guidelines on how to teach each topic. These manuals come with a DVD with video demonstrations for each lesson, so that means you can actually watch the videos with your child to minimize the preparation needed on your part. You can view a sample lesson here.

A page in the Primer level Teacher's manual.

One thing I liked about the manuals was the way they presented the questions. The questions are phrased simply and concisely, so that the focus is on working out the math concepts and building mastery. There are no wordy, long winded paragraphs about someone eating apples and having to figure out how many apples are left. Those questions tend to require more skills from a child: the ability to read, to comprehend complex sentences and the ability to figure out what the question is asking. The books are printed in black and white print, so there are no distracting diagrams or pictures. However, that being said, this means that parents must also prepare children to solve more complex questions (in terms of language) to prepare them for the PSLE.

A sample from the Beta level Student Manual. 

Another sample from the Beta level student manual. 

Another thing I liked about the curriculum was that there was minimal preparation on my part. I did not have to prepare my own worksheets and I didn't have to spend alot of time reading up. This meant we could consistently cover a little math each day, because I would just need about 5 minutes to teach Junior J the new concept, after which I could leave him to try the problems himself.

However, because of the no-frills way of teaching these concepts, some might find the curriculum a little boring. And since it focuses on mastery, there is a certain amount of drill and repetition required, which sometimes frustrates Junior J. So I find that there is the necessity to adapt according to the child's ability. This may mean cutting down on the number of pages he/she has to do each time (or you might even consider skipping some repeated problems if your child gets bored, since each lesson is 6 pages long), as well as varying the lessons by including games or other math activities. 

Having this curriculum has been liberating: I can use this to ensure that Junior J attains mastery for Math concepts, and the time I've gained in not having to plan detailed lessons could be used to plan other Math activities for him to vary things somewhat. All in all, it is a really good curriculum to use, but of course, do make your choice based on your child's strengths and learning style!

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I was actually so keen on this curriculum that I approached Jenny, my contact from Green Sheep Asia (which distributes Math U See in Singapore, along with other learning materials/curricula) for this review opportunity. 

Also, I'm happy to share that Green Sheep Asia has kindly agreed to give away a set of the Math U See manipulatives to one reader of this blog! To enter the giveaway, just follow the instructions below in the Rafflecopter widget, and don't forget to comment in this blog post and leave your name and email address!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: We received a set of manipulatives and Primer manuals for purpose of this review, and paid for all other materials. No monetary compensation was received, and all opinions are my own.

Homeschool: Learning Math

When I was in Secondary school, I was one of those who sat uncomfortably on the fence when it came to learning the Arts and Sciences. I enjoyed the Arts, and did Literature and Geography, but also juggled the three Sciences. However, I struggled with Math, and I wasn't too good at the Sciences that required more calculations like Physics (I only got the hang of Physics when I had to teach certain topics to my Secondary Two pupils!). I remember how I cried after my first Additional Math test: I had no idea what was going on, and turned in a nearly empty piece of paper. My classmate also cried, saying she was going to fail, but I think it was out of sympathy for me, since I ended up scoring 2 out of 50 for that test, while she passed!

Anyway, Math has been my nemesis in school, and I never could appreciate why we were always trying to find out what were the values of x and y. But I grudgingly accepted the subject after I started learning statistics: that made some sense, and it was interesting to calculate probabilities. 

So when it came to homeschool, we have not really ventured into doing formal learning with regards to Math. Junior J didn't seem very interested, and I didn't feel like I was ready or equipped to teach him to love the subject.

But recently we've observed how he's been actually trying to grapple with numbers: he writes out sums on pieces of paper, and tries to figure out the answers. And the other day, he was actually doing sums again, this time on the hubby's laptop. So I passed him an abacus, which was helpful for him to do his counting. 

The abacus is now much sought after, and the older two sometimes fight over who gets to use it. But we've come to a workable solution: Junior J gets to use the top eight rows, while Lil J gets to fiddle with the bottom two rows, and he tries to resist messing up the beads as his brother does his counting.

Encouraged by his interest, I've been preparing dinosaur counting worksheets for Junior J to practice his addition and subtraction, and he's actually enjoying working those sums out! (You can email me at makingmum (at) gmail (dot) com if you would like a sample.) 

To be honest, I am both excited that we're now including math, as well as terrified, because it is a subject I am clueless about teaching. So I think I'm going to take a week or so to read up and prep, meanwhile, if you do have any books or sites to recommend on how to teach preschool Math, please do share!