<p>I was wondering if you have any suggestions for a challenging math excercise books for a kids in grade 3-5. My sister is in grade 3 and she’s well above average in her math skills. She would always finish her math homework quicker than everyone else and move ahead to the next pages. Her teacher, who is very rigid (to say the least), discouraged her from doing so and upon my mom’s inquisition said that it wasn’t -her- responsibility to provide more ‘challenging’ work. </p>
<p>Recently I’ve noticed that my sister (who always loved math) has grown so bored with the little homework work that she leaves it until the very last minute (late at night- despite encouragements to work on it earlier) and then when she finds out some of the answers are wrong says that the problems are too hard or she’s dumb. I -know- that she understands the concepts, this was stuff that she -knew- last year, but it’s as if she is purposely trying to fail and I am afraid after a while she will -really- begin to underestimate herself.</p>
<p>Enough with my rambling! I know there are a lot of good sites with worksheets, but I haven’t been able to find -really- good ones. Her birthday is coming up soon and I was hoping to in addition to gifts buy some fun/challenging math books for her. I’ve been looking at the different series and the mixed reviews each have gotten… so I was hoping the parents might have some suggestions.</p>
<p>Well, this is not exactly college-related, but I’ll respond before the mods move the thread.<br>
Look up hoagiesgifted.org for leads for math resources. Also artofproblemsolving.com, though it has mostly resources for middle school and above. Buy some logic puzzle books. Kids who are good at math love these kinds of puzzles and the problems lay good foundations for algebra later on.</p>
<p>Good for you for looking for resources to help your younger sister! </p>
<p>Don Cohen’s “Calculus by and for young people, ages 7 (yes, 7!) and up”</p>
<p>Marilyn Burns’ “Math for Smarty Pants,” “The I hate mathematics book,” and “The book of think or how to solve a problem twice your size.”</p>
<p>Martin Gardner’s “Aha! Gotcha!” and “Aha! Insight!”</p>
<p>When she’s ready to move past these, Raymond Smullyan’s fun books on mathematical logic, more challenging books by Martin Gardner (the two titles listed above are good points of entry), Douglas Hofstadter.</p>
<p>Note to mod: this thread should probably be moved to Parents’ Cafe.</p>
<p>There was a Learning Company computer game…“ancient empires” that taught logic. I don’t know if it still exists…but just doing work in books is not the only thing that teachers math…have her measure or work on probability problems…puzzels are good for developing math skills.</p>
<p>Tokenadult’s list of resources is wonderful for someone who is not limited by the class schedule and school curriculum. If, however, your sister has to do regular work, she will need somewhat different resources, perhaps some problems and puzzles she can do after she has finished the class assignment.
If your sister’s teacher does not feel it is her responsibility to provide more challenging work, is she open to your sister bringing work from home? Here is the list of math resources from Hoagiesgifted. It contains some of the titles already mentioned above.</p>
<p>Besides these resources, my S picked up Mensa books at Barnes and Nobles (that was some years ago; I don’t know if they are still published). He loved to bring them on car rides and try to solve the puzzles. For a birthday present, also consider The Phantom Tollbooth or Flatland. If she likes geometry, think about tangrams. She may also like origami. There are lots of books that teach you to do interesting shapes with paper. </p>
<p>I agree with all of the great suggestions above. You definitely do NOT want worksheets. Just go to the children’s section of the library. There should be a whole shelf of “fun” math books for kids. Check out a bunch of them and see what she likes. Then search those titles on Amazon and look at some of the books listed under under “Customers who bought this book also bought…”</p>
<p>There should be, but, unfortunately, many public libraries are sorely lacking in recreational math books. If there aren’t any on the shelves of your local library, do ask your friendly local librarian (FLL) to request some promising titles through InterLibraryLoan. (And give your FLL some thanks and appreciation afterwards, noting which books your sister especially enjoyed, so perhaps she’ll consider acquiring more in a similar vein for your local library later on.)</p>
<p>If she has a computer at home, I’d recommend “Operation Neptune.” This is a really fun computer game that has been updated over the years and is definitely worth the money.</p>
<p>My kids loved Operation Neptune. It was in very primitive format back then…I can’t even remember what OS we were using…AppleIIGS? Is that possible?? But it was great fun for them, and they love math to this day.</p>
<p>I think the same company Early Learning Center created reader rabbit and treasure mountain for younger kids… these were the first “games” we ever allowed on our computer…so many years ago.</p>
<p>Also, you can go to <a href=“http://www.marcopolo-education.org%5B/url%5D”>http://www.marcopolo-education.org</a> and click on the search button in the upper right, then set your search parameters by grade level, subject, etc., and it will bring up all of the lessons which are connected. MarcoPolo partners with the National Council for the Teachers of Mathematics, the JFK Center for performing arts, National Geographic, the Council for Science Education, The American Economics Institute, and the National Council for Teachers of English and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The lessons are thoroughly vetted, free, and tied to standards. The Illuminations site, NCTM, has online manipulatives and worksheets, and is wonderful. I teach second/third grade and my kids are on it all the time for remediation and accelleration, as needed. Try it!</p>
<p>Operation Neptune! My son loved that one too. I enjoyed it for the background. It kind of looks like an aquarium screen saver. He also did Treasure Mountain, Algebra Blaster Island of Dr. Brain and a bunch of other game-like math or problem-solving programs. I’m sure there are even more of them now.</p>