What are good resources for teaching math to grade school kids at home?

October 21, 2019 9:05 AM

I'd like to supplement my 7 year old kid's math education at home. Ideally without busting out the iPad. Workbooks are fine but the ones we've encountered seem to be better for drilling than teaching. Are there any great books/games/tools that actually help teach math to kids this age?
posted by malhouse to Education (11 answers total)

It would help to know: What kinds of skills are you interested in?
posted by Wild_Eep at 9:31 AM on October 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

I've recommended these books here before, particularly the Historical Connections ones, but those are for a little older ages. The younger ones look good too.
posted by atlantica at 9:33 AM on October 21, 2019

Our kid loved Family Math and Math for Smarty Pants so much that the the books are in tatters with their scribbled-up pages falling out.
posted by BlueBlueElectricBlue at 9:40 AM on October 21, 2019 [3 favorites]

i highly recommend mathantics for basic math instructional videos. the videos are excellent, elementary aged students like them and can understand them, and you can buy practice materials if you want to.
posted by the thought-fox at 9:47 AM on October 21, 2019

BEAST ACADEMY! We use this as our homeschool math curriculum, but it would be a great supplement. It teaches mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills more than the drilling kind of math, and it's a lot of fun. We use the books, not the online stuff.
posted by linettasky at 9:50 AM on October 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Nthing the heck out of Math for Smarty Pants; I *loved* that book when I was your daughter's age.
posted by Pandora Kouti at 11:24 AM on October 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Our family also has loved Beast Academy. Our older kid independently devoured the level 4 and 5 “textbooks” (comics) over the summer and then worked through the online problems during the school year. Our younger kid has enjoyed level 2 as before bed reading.
posted by ElizaMain at 11:46 AM on October 21, 2019

Nthing Beast Academy!
posted by Bardolph at 12:07 PM on October 21, 2019

I absolutely loved Funny & Fabulous Fraction Stories in third grade. My teacher used the book in class, and I liked it so much that I asked my mom to buy the book and spent hours working through it on my own after school—for fun. I wasn’t a particularly math-loving kid, but that book made learning math feel like solving fun puzzles.
posted by saltypup at 6:48 PM on October 21, 2019

A dartboard, and being the only one (sober enough to be) able to keep score made basic addition and subtraction almost a reflex in my youth, but your household may not find throwing pointy things at a target appropriate. If it is, a couple of rounds of 301 might be a nice little break from "hitting the books"
posted by Redhush at 12:47 PM on October 22, 2019

It's not exactly a game, but baking with my kid strengthened her math skills and made fractions make sense before they formally taught them in school. When she was old enough, I also had her help convert recipes. Start with easier things, like who wants a double recipe of cookies. Then later the more complicated things like my recipe calls for a 16oz can, but they're now 14oz, how do we adjust it.

We also enjoyed the Wayside School math books, all sorts of logic and puzzle kind of math.

My kid also liked making hexaflexagons (Vi Hart videos).
posted by Margalo Epps at 9:05 AM on October 27, 2019