Saturday, August 16, 2008

Living Math Books

I think this topic really crosses every area I blog. It is obviously homeschool and Charlotte Mason but living math books are wonderful for building language and understanding for those that are hearing impaired as well; including those that use ASL or spoken English as their first language. Too many times we focus on 'skills' versus general understanding and both are important. Books are probably the single best way to increase your knowledge across a variety of subjects and increase your vocabulary. Living books make it interesting.

First, there are lots of living book definitions out in cyber land. For me, a living book is a story that brings a topic to life. Here is a detailed definition. It could be social studies, history or math just to name a few. There are also oodles of lists on living math books. This past few weeks we have done an impromptu unit on money. I have found lots of great resources that I already own!! Here are just a couple of great 'living books' on the subject of math.




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If You Made a Million
teachers the the 'power of the dollar' through a brief introduction of the concept of 'interest.' It starts out with what you might purchase for a penny and works it's way up to a million dollars. It discusses how many pennies, nickels etc.. it might take to make various amounts of money and why 'checks' are important as well as how checks are processed.




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Another fun book we have read is Money Troubles by Bill Cosby. In this book, Bill desires to save up for a telescope which costs $100. He learns the value of hard work and then in the end a social lesson is learned as he determines that other people have greater needs than he does.





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We are reading two books which are not living books but are wonderful resources and written in a very 'learning friendly' style. Larry Burkett's All About Money discusses how banks work and a bit of history behind money. Kids' Money Book by Neale S. Godfrey is chock full of history, the workings of economy and much much more. I love it so much that when I couldn't find it on my bookshelf I repurchased the book!

If you are interested in more living math here is a website for you and another here.

We also added a bit of practical workings to our study of money. A few weeks ago Andrew ran a lemonade stand and was able, with a donation from mom and dad to buy Babo. We decided to institute an allowance; a nickel here, a quarter there and three weeks later Uglydog was able to join the family.

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If you are interested in Uglydolls you can peek at the archives of Andrew's blog.

3 comments:

walking said...

Why do you think Andrew is so interested in Ugly Dolls? Sometimes, I am glad when my kids are older and miss out on things like that--David would surely have liked them LOL. At other times, I think they missed out on something cool like offering macaroni and cheese in kid's meals (Burger King). David never met a mac and cheese he didn't like . . .

Prince Andrew and the Queen Mum said...

Well- these are definately Andrew's 'friends.' He takes care of them so well. Andrew so desires friends and just does not know how to navigate that. His Uglydolls are always there;) and they are a socially acceptable alterative to dolls.

Anonymous said...

Living math with literature is near and dear to me. Bringing literature into any study really helps bring home a concept. My math book shelf keeps growing because I keep finding great living books relating to math. Yippee!

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