Someone (perhaps Kriston???) in passing I believe, mentioned Murderous Maths. I ordered one.

A week ago, I was thinking about numbers and wrote the numbers 1-10. I then, for some reason, wrote the squares of those numbers. I then noticed that the difference of the squares was 3, 5, 7, 9 etc and therefore the difference between those is 2! I thought, hhmm, isn�t that fascinating! I know, many of you are thinking "She's just now getting that?" But I suppose better late than never. So I turn the page in �Murderous Maths� and I see what I had written, laid out right there! So I told DS of my doodlings in math, and we read through the chapter in the book together. It was cool to read the reasoning behind (xsquared-ysquared)=(x+y)(x-y) algorithm is the natural extension of what I was doodling. I like how it uses plain old counters to illustrate the concepts. Now perhaps I did learn the whys in school and have just forgotten but it was great fun discovering or re-discovering it, as the case may be.

Hi Dazed. I missed the original recommendation, but based on your note, am ordering one of these to try out. Sounds like is right up DS's alley.

Fitzi - which did you order? I think I'm going to order some of the others. The one I have is "Numbers THe key to the universe."

It may have been me, but I'm not sure! We have one of those books, and I think it's just a bit over KG's head still -- at least, he glanced through it and wasn't interested. We may read it together, it's on my list.

I thought they looked like a great idea -- I keep meaning to order some "Horrible Histories" too but haven't gotten around to it. My brother and sisters loved those books when they were little, I actually wonder if my parents still have some ... hmm.

I don't know if it was me, but I have certainly been a "Murderous Maths" pusher here. They are sooooo addictive! (You may well curse my name when you find you MUST have them all! LOL!)

But seriously, I'm glad it's going well for you, Dazey, and I appreciate the follow up. Thanks!

If you like them, you might also try the other "Horrible" series: "H. History", "H. Science" and "H. Geography." We've also enjoyed "The Knowledge" series, which is in a similar British humor vein, but is about subjects that are less academic generally speaking.

Good stuff!