Primary Grade Challenge Math

This book was even more than I hoped for. My son is 9, and we used this book to work on math over the summer to keep him sharp. Most of the math done in schools requires memorization and sheets of repetitive problems. Those things are important, but they don't show the "whys" and "what ifs" that make math fun and creative. This book does that. Each chapter has a different concept explained with cartoons and simple stories, followed with a series of word problems in several different categories of difficulty. The structure allows the book to be used however you want to use it. If your child has particular questions about measurement or ratios, you can open to just that chapter. Regardless of your child's age, there are problems simple enough or challenging enough for each skill level. When I used it, I picked the chapters that I thought would be the most helpful for my son (I used about half of them, though all of them were interesting). Each week, I'd dedicate 25 minutes to working with him out of the book. We'd read the intro and explanation of that concept, and then do as many word problems as we could in the time allotted, starting from the easiest and working up. Sometimes the concept was challenging for him, and we'd only do the simplest group of word problems. Sometimes he grasped it right away and we would do all 4 categories of difficulty. Though the concepts do increase in complexity through the book, it works fine to skip around as we did. Because of the wide range of difficulty levels, I intend to use this same book again this summer for practice. I think my favorite part about this book, as a person who loves math myself, is the creativity it fosters. The concepts are explained, but it is up to the child to figure out how to solve the problems. Some problems can be solved in multiple ways, and was fun to work with my son and watch his face light up as he thought of a way to solve the problem. In short, it is really great for showing that math can be creative and giving kids confidence in their ability to work out problems on their own.

I presented this book to my 6 and 8 year olds (both reading, both with great math minds). My independently motivated 8 year old learned several grades' worth of math in a few weeks mostly on her own with this book. The fun pictures and presentation style even engaged my usually apathetic 6 year old, who is now so proud of his uncanny skill with fractions. As a parent, I love that the four levels of questions in each chapter made it possible for them to go through the same chapters but at different levels. I love that the chapters are called things like "Oh no, I have to change the recipe!" and "How many legs?" instead of "Ratios" and "Multiplication". I love that very little is told TO the student; most of the ideas are generated by the student via the carefully presented questions. The book does not do drills: there are only five questions per level per chapter. For a gifted student who grabs the concept quickly and is ready to move on, this is perfect. Other students may want/need more practice. Also, for example, although it introduces the concept of multiplication, it does not require that students learn the multiplication facts. This is an excellent approach because it lets kids explore more advanced concepts that would be inaccessible to them if they don't know what 6x4 is off the top of their head; my 8 year old did some problems using her memorized multiplication facts while my 6 year old used the multiplication table or a calculator. Both got to develop the same concepts. It is because of this approach that I think this book is the perfect supplement for gifted students; they will still need some drill in addition and multiplication facts, but they will do more than enough of that in school. This very interesting and fun material will keep them from losing interest in math. I can't say enough about this wonderful book and author. I rarely take the time to review a product on Amazon, but as you can see I think this deserves it.

I have used this book with both of my highly gifted elementary aged sons. They found plenty of challenge and engagement in each chapter. One of my sons was able to continue through the book on his own, while the other one needed a little more assistance / instruction to get to the higher levels. Would definitely recommend this book for parents looking for a supplement to classroom instruction, or teachers, who want some extensions to offer to high achieving math students.

The book is organized into chapters, with each chapter presenting a type of problem and the ways to think about that problem. And then there is a series of related story problems to solve, divided into 4 levels. For example, one chapter is about calculating whether an item (rope, building, etc) is strong enough for the intended use. Another chapter is about figuring out how much change you'd get in a store transaction. Another is percentages. Midway through, the concept of algebra is introduced and applied to the later chapters. The chapters are presented very conversationally, and explain how to think about the problem and approach the solution. They are illustrated with cartoons, and with characters discussing the problems. My second grade daughter loves this book. She is gifted in math, and I was looking for some way to add extra challenge without "teaching ahead" in the normal curriculum. This has been great. It's not teaching new methods of computation (which she'll get in school thru the years), it's teaching approaches to problem solving. She usually does the level 1 problems with no help (but has to think fairly hard), but needs help on level 2. She is very proud of herself after conquering these questions. Levels 3 and 4 are beyond her for now. I can see us revisiting this book every year, and using it through about 5th grade.

I am always pleased to find good educational maths resources. This book looks a good one to encourage bright kids - with 3 levels of problems for each chapter, to give a good range of abilities / ages. However, it is a US book, so weight problems in Pounds & Ounces are just confusing! And what exactly are nickels & dimes? I believe an Australian edition has been produced, which will be metric. OK dollars and Cents, but you can easily translate to £ & P. For encouraging parents, there are a lot of maths resources. One that is rather old (I bought it 2nd hand) but seems to have some good ideas for exploring maths is Introducing Mathematics: Vision in Elementary Mathematics . It had some lovely ideas for playing with Odd and Even numbers when my child started talking about them.

It has questions in four levels: 1 - year 1-2 2- year 2-3 3- year 3-4 Genius - year 4