Hey, friends!

DS7 is fascinated by origins right now, so I'm trying to start more or less at the beginning of many of the subjects we'll be studying to make a sort of unit study out of the beginning of things. I was hoping to find a fairly child-friendly book on the history/origins of numbers and mathematics, but I'm not finding much.

Does anyone know of any good books on the history of numbers/math for a child reading at the 7th grade level or below? Easier is fine.

I am checking out a number of adult books on the topic (I hope! At least in some tangential way...) and I have some Internet resources from www.livingmath.net. But I'd love a book or two we could read and discuss.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

How The Story of Science Aristotle Leads the Way by Joy Hakin? It's about history of science and math. I haven't read it yet, but I have it at home. Let me know if you need more details.

The Teaching Company has A history of Mathematics course on sale. Can you tell I happen to browse their catalog today?

I started reading "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea", it was really interesting. But, like most of the really good books these days, I didn't have enough spare brain cells to finish it, lol. It's not a kids book, but I think it would give you lots of topics for discussion.

There is a time warp trio book on Mayans which focuses on their numbering system, including zero and its advantages - could be a cool one if he hasnt already blasted through that series.
I remember when I read this one to ds in 1st grade, the teacher reported having to ask him not to write his math work in mayan...again, I am the crazy mom who thinks we should be encouraging these sorts of explorations - LOL!

You might find a chapter or two in books on Eyptian or Mayan culture and history which might suit.

I'd definitely start w/ www.livingmath.net. That's where I got the books I"ve used. I have Julie's Primary lesson plans. We've read "the History of Counting" among others.

I'm trying to do a timeline of our history along with science and math but doing it afterschooling is tough.

BTW, in case anyone else is following the leads they find here, the last name of the author of the book LMom suggested is actually Hakim. Of course, it's not available at my library, though it's in their catalog.

<grumble, grumble>

I'm still looking...

Thanks for pointing it out. It's not like I didn't have the book right in front of me when I was typing the post. Oh well, may be I need glasses too

I wanted to edit my original post, but it won't let me

LOL! No worries. Let she who has never made a typo or misspelled an author's name cast the first stone.

You'll note that no stones are coming your way from me!

I just appreciate the tips! Thanks!

I'm debating about the Teaching Company DVDs. Even on sale, it's a pretty big investment for something I'm not sure DS7 will like. Have you used them with your DS, LMom? Do they work well for kids like ours? Is it mostly a guy lecturing, or is it visually interesting?

Hi Kriston,

I really enjoyed Isaac Asmimov's nonfiction writings on science when I was 7-12 years of age. I'd poke around on wikipedia to get the book list then go to amazon and look up the titles. He has a lot of math in all of the books.

Almost all of this stuff is available at our local used book stores for $1-2$.

The complete set of his non fiction stuff would be a very good basis for any kid ( or adult) to learn about the world.

To answer your question, I really liked this book so far as a readable and technical discusion of numbers and their use over time.

http://www.amazon.com/Universal-History-Numbers-Prehistory-Invention/dp/0471375683

DS6 got "The Joy of Mathematics" for his birthday. We've seen only a little bit of it so far, but DS was fascinated and so was I. But then the course is highly recommended for gt math kid and it's taught by Arthur Benjamin who is a very good lecturer (as you can remember ) I will have to write about it once we get a little bit farther in the series.

This is the only course I got from the Teaching Company so far. If it goes well, I may try others. I know nothing about the History of Math though. Any chance your library would carry it? Try asking on the Davidson list about math history books.

It looks like there may be a few on the Hoagies math book list.

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/mathematics.htm

No, our library doesn't have it. I checked.

Thanks for the tips. I think the company is well liked and respected, but I just worry that they'll be over DS7's head, and I really want any videos we get to be something he can do without me so that I can get some writing done. We're going to try having no sitter this year!

LOL? More like LMAO LOL!


Great, consider this your excercise of the day for eliminating the harmful effects of perfectionism on the psyche.

For tomorrow I would like you to write 100 times on the board:

Mistakingly spelling a name does not take away from my credibility as an intelligent and capable person. Mistakingly spelling a name does not take away from my credibility as an intelligent and capable person. Mistakingly spelling a name does not take away from my credibility as an intelligent and capable person. Mistakingly spelling a name does not take away from my credibility as an intelligent and capable person............................

p.s. Kriston, I have nothing valuable to add here, sorry. Will love to check out the resources posted, thanks for asking the question.

I did some more poking around.

Sort of OT, but maybe not:

Here is an online archive of mathy stuff including history of math and online courses.

http://turnbull.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Indexes/HistoryTopics.html


I first read Connor's book on Real Analysis and now I found it online at the same location!!!


http://www-groups.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~john/analysis/index.html

I bookmarked this site night, Austin. Great minds think alike! But that is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. I'd just like a book because it's more portable for school.

Thanks for all the help! I think I'm getting there...

LOL You crack me up.

I would be happy to copy and paste your sentence 100 times, but I worry that my perfectionism would kick in while making sure that it was exactly 100 times BTW It must have been a while since I said on this board that I too was a perfectionist. Either you have a great memory or it's too obvious

I edit practically every post. I just delete the "X" in the box so no one knows that I edit.

How is that for perfectionism? I'm such a perfectionist that I don't even want people to know that my posts aren't perfect the first time! Well, that and the fact that I think it would be boring to see "Edit Reason: typo" at the bottom of ALL of my posts!

LOL!

I didn't know that you could do that! Thanks for the idea

No sitter this year? Any drop off activities when you are child free for at least a little bit? I am still trying to figure out our schedule for this coming school year. I thought hs would give me an unlimited amount of time. I somehow forgot that there are still only 24 hours in one day

Let's see... If you copy and paste one line, then two, then four, etc. you will get 128 lines after 7 repetitions. So just do that 7 times and then cut 28 of them.

ROFL- Why would it be so obvious to me, do you think? Takes one to know one! I've been doing the same as Kriston, stealth undercover editing!

I just figured it would be hypocritical to work on C-dog's perfectionism if I didn't address my own! Sheesh!

So from now on I will not edit simple typo's unless it interferes with the meaning of the sentence.......Let's see how long I can go without it eating me up til I can't stand it anymore!

Stealth editing? I do that all the time! I don't like that little message saying that the post was edited cluttering up my post. Ew!

Oh dear........

I'm going to the gym every morning--2 hours of free babysitting! Hopefully that will do it.

Having a sitter messed up my schedule last year so that I just couldn't find a way to squeeze in a workout without grossly inconveniencing myself or someone else. I'm hoping to make better use of the computer and TV for educational purposes in the morning, which should also keep the kids busy so that I can work a little.

Here's hoping!

Don't you hate it when the space-time continuum the laws of physics and stuff get in the way of your well-laid plans!? I totally sympathize!

Oh, and I'm NOT going to let typos stand if I see them. I'm incapable of it. Nothing bugs me more than looking back at one of my old posts, too old to edit, and seeing a typo that I missed. Ugh!

Other people's typos do not bother me one whit, however. I'm not anal retentive about anyone but myself!

Exactly.

Are you people telling me that you have been all editing secretly your posts and I didn't have a clue that it's even possible? Am I missing some other board secrets?

Cathy, I would rather go 1, 2, 4, 8 triple 8 and make it 24, add 1 and copy it 4 times

Now I better go and do some work. We are expecting a company this coming weekend and I need to have the house look perfect

We could tell you, LMom, but then we'd have to kill you.