Yelena McManaman

A short book full of multi-page spreads of games to do with kids that surreptitiously teach or reinforce math concepts. The games are differentiated for one year olds through upper elementary schoolers. The content is things like: Be a human mirror of the kid, then have them mirror you (symmetry). Go on a search for things that naturally come in pairs, groups of three, and so on (numbers). Choose a particular relationship like "chicken --> chick; sheep --> lamb" and take turns on who is giving inputs & who is giving outputs (functions). Draw a grid and choose a personal characteristic to vary along each axis, then draw a character in each cell (grids).

Somehow I simultaneously thought this book had so many good ideas that it wasn't clear which game would be best to try out first, and that it also seemed surprisingly short and had some filler/repetition (especially of "draw a grid and have different axes do different things" and "play with symmetry"). The games I tried worked great on the kids I tried them on, though! They were giggling and really enjoying themselves.

I'd recommend this book without hesitation to the right audience, which I think has three forms: (1) parents who are intimidated by math but nevertheless want math to be fun for their kids, (2) people who love math and want to share it but struggle to relate to kids, and (3) folks who do unstructured work with preschoolers & elementary schoolers and would like some educational games in their back pocket (nannies, summer camp counselors, that kind of role). People who are comfortable with both math and kids might find this book interesting to flip through but mostly unremarkable.… (más)