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Is there such a creation as a "Math Bible"? In other words, a book that contains various math rules (multiplying fractions, negative numbers, etc.) as well as listing various formulas for algebra, trig, calculus?

I ask because once dd9 got past the add/subtract/multiply/divide stage I am lost! I really think I have discalculia!! Or perhaps a math phobia! So I was thinking if there was such a book I might have better luck attempting to help her....of course there is always tudoring.

Thank you in Advance

I just bought a Math Dictionary from Usbourne Books. My engineer DH looked it over and said, "Wow! They really got everything in here, didn't they?" It's got a paragraph of bare bones, no-frills explanation on every bit of math I've ever seen (through college calculus). It's the closest thing to a math bible that I've ever seen.

http://www.ubah.com/ecommerce/details.asp?sid=W0480&gid=72240123&emkt=27&title=Illustrated+Dictionary+of+Math+%2D+IR&sqlwhere=+T%2EID+In+%28Select+ProductID+From+vCategoryGroupsItems+Where+CategoryID+%3D2670%29

HTH!

Oh, thanks for the assist and the info, Dottie!

This is great stuff!!!

Did you look at the Chemistry, Biology, and Physics ones?

http://www.amazon.com/Usborne-Illus...ictionaries/dp/0794515614/ref=pd_sim_b_1


http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-D...ictionaries/dp/0746037945/ref=pd_sim_b_2

http://www.amazon.com/Usborne-Illus...es/dp/0794515592/ref=reg_hu-wl_mrai-recs

Here's an on-line version: An animated, interactive dictionary for students which explains over 600 common mathematical terms in simple language

http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/

OOH! DS will love this!!

Thank You Thank You Thank You

Perhaps I can learn along with DD. She is so turned on by Math and I have always had huge mental blocks with it!

All of these are great resources that I have bookmarked!!!

http://www.mathtutordvd.com/public/main.cfm

Has anybody had any experiences with these?

No, Austin! I hadn't seen those. Thanks!

I confess, I rarely pay full-price for books, but the math one seemed totally worth it. Now I have to look into the science ones. At least there are used ones available for less!

I like the online math dictionary, too, but it isn't nearly as complete as the Usborne one. Seriously, it's amazing! (And no, I do not work for Usborne!) I found myself wondering how they crammed all of that info into such a slim little book. I actually sat down and read it cover-to-cover. And I'm an English major! I don't do stuff like that!

It's REALLY well done! My highest praise!

I just ordered all 3! Well, that's 3 less Christmas presents to buy

Oh, I hope I don't let you down.

Do remember that I am an English major...

Kriston - the influence is strong in this one! I just found a physics one on ebay for $5, including shipping. Do a search for usborne dictionary, and loads come up.

LOL! I should get a commission from Usborne!

LOL! We are probably causing a huge price hike all searching for the same books at one time. Get 'em quick ladies!

Ha, and it's *really* attractively produced. DS-then-4 picked it up in a bookshop recently and was entranced, had to be torn away - so much so that he's getting it shortly, even though he obviously won't understand much of it yet. I had a lovely big maths book that I didn't understand much of from about the same age, and it was a good thing :-)

My library carries them so I can check them out before buying.

Oh, good! Thanks for the vote of confidence on the book. I was worrying that it was just me and that I was leading many people astray for Christmas...

I feel much better now, C's Mum!

I clearly recall my mom bring home a "hows it work" picture book when I was four years old. I memorized that thing. I also got a "Animals A-Z" set near the same time and devoured it. All pics with some text.

I think you are a closet mathematician, you just have yet to find the right notation!!

Its ALL notation!!!

An excellent math teacher/scientist/inventor in our area claims that ALL GT kids are good at math if they are taught properly. If they have the facility to use language and/or to solve problems creatively, they have the ability to be good at math. Math is a language, and creativity is required if you're doing it right.

I think there's something to that. Though I suspect it's too late for me...

I'm pretty good at math, but I stink at calculation.

I didn't know they were seperate until it was too late and I hated math.

As dear old dad (a real Mr. Spock) used to say, my pointy ears really perked up when I read these...

And now, my new mantra: 'patterns. patterns.'

Patterns are gooooood. It's how I'm hooking my kids on math, too!

As a "Mathless Mom" how do I ensure that dd is taught properly? I am concerend about how she is being taught math,but I am so not equipt from my own background.

I have this guide "Math on Call: A Mathematics Handbook (Paperback) by Andrew Kaplan". When DS8 forgets a formula, he runs to grab his Edward Zaccaro/MM (quickly flips to the page he knows) or this guide.

Edit to add: I realised the Usborne Physics and Chemistry Guides are on my "wish list".

I'm an English major, so I'm not sure I'm doing a great job of teaching math myself. But I did find the math guy's approach to be useful to me in how I *think* about teaching math, at least.

The gist of the guy's teaching theory as I understood it is that you teach kids to love math and to explore it first. Then you worry about getting the facts down. Just as you don't make kids memorize every color in the rainbow and all the sizes and names of all the paintbrushes in the world before you let them paint, so also you don't have to be sure that kids know every fact. Fact memorization is a tool for doing math, but it is NOT math! If you look at most elementary schools today, I don't think you'd know that.

He says that facts are necessary, but especially with GT kids, they'll come with time. When they need to know and when they can see a reason for knowing their times tables (or whatever), they'll learn them. Until then, give them plenty of *real-life* reasons to use them and learn them.

That is, use science to teach math. Use blocks to teach geometry. Introduce concepts like calculus early on in a simpler form through pendulums and other physics work. Don't get boxed in to thinking of math as only numbers and equations, but as a way of looking at the world and a way of solving problems. Mathemeticians have to be creative people! You'd never know that from most elementary school approaches that I've seen. And I think this general approach is why many GT kids get good grades in math but decide somewhere along the line that even so, they're not good at math. (True confessions: that describes me.) It's because they never get to really see math, let alone do it! Arithmetic isn't all there is to math any more than grammar is all there is to poetry.

Am I living this? More than I was last year, but not as much as the math expert I'm citing does. The stuff he does with kids is incredible. Eventually I hope to get DS7 into a class with the guy, one way or another. But at least I can say that DS7 loves math this year, whereas it was not a big hit last year when he was doing workbooks. So that's a big key to me. Honestly, I didn't think he was a mathy kid for a while there, but now I've changed my mind. I think he is. And, to top it off, he's learning his times tables, happily and without any problems. The hands-on, guided play kind of stuff we're doing is a huge hit, and he's learning a lot from it. Blocks and pattern blocks are our friends! We got a new math card game called "1-2-3-Oy!" and that's popular with both DS7 and DS4. Dice games are fun learning opportunities. Physics experiments and graphing on Excel is going well. (With and assist from DH the engineer on that!) Stuff DS7 can see and touch and use seems to be working a lot better for him, as the math guy said it would.

DS7 is also seeing connections between things this year, and I don't think I did that in any serious way until college, so I feel pretty good about that.

I'm still learning how to do this--not to mention probably really learning to understand math for the very first time in my life!--and I know I'm not doing a fantastic job. But I think it's going okay. DS7 likes math now and he's learning and problem solving. So I think it's working. I think! I hope!

I don't know if that little ramble is any help to you at all...

Kriston, is this the guy you're referring to?
http://www.stanford.edu/~kdevlin/MathGuy.html

Does he have any books out?

No, we're in the midwest. I was just calling him "the math guy" as shorthand. It isn't any sort of official title.

My guy has no books out, though I really think he should. He's just a teacher who works at a school for GT kids and with homeschoolers. Sorry!

No prob! He does sound inspiring. The bit about modeling how we teach math in the way we teach some of what are considered more 'squishy' subjects sounds great.

Thanks for the description.

Yes, I think if we can show our kids (rather than simply telling them) that math is fun, that it's more than following directions, and that it is a way to explore the world, then we have a chance of having kids who really get math and love it.

I always think about the mathematicians and scientists that I see on Nova, and I KNOW that their passion didn't come from memorizing math facts...and I think "There's got to be a better way!"

I don't think we've found it yet, but I feel like we're getting there. DS7 likes math a whole lot better than I did as a child. So we're making progress...