you said you thought the LoF books were a hoot, but my eyes glazed over and my brain went slack when I browsed it! We are dealing with a rock-bottom math person trying to guide a mathy kid here!!
It is never too late to become mathy! I get graduate students who totally do 180s on the subject of math person-hood after taking our classes (mostly women who think they aren't good at math). It always makes me sad when people (again, mostly women) shut themselves off from such a beautiful and useful subject, generally because they had a crappy teacher in the past or someone told them they couldn't do math, or they were never taught fractions and that made algebra impossible etc. One of my goals in class is to remove math phobia and return self-confidence, and the results are stunning. Yes, you can do math. Yes, you can learn to love math. Even as a mom. My students do it all the time.
