By Sharon MacDonald
Gryphon House Books
www.ghbooks.com
PO Box 207
Beltsville, MD USA 20704
301-595-9500
What fun hides in the pages of this book! These hands-on, exciting math activities are sure to keep your little learners interested. With over 200 pages, the book is full of math lessons that meet the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Standards for young children up to the age of eight.
After a beginning chapter that explains the purpose of the book, there are seven chapters devoted to the NCTM Standards: number sense and numeration; computation and estimation; measurement, serration, time, and money; geometry and spatial sense; sorting, classifying, graphing, data analysis, and probability; patterns and number relationships; and problem solving and reasoning. At the beginning of each chapter, the author explains the standard and gives tips on how children usually progress through the various skills.
The book ends with a pizza unit that pulls together many of the skills learned throughout the book. Children are asked to complete an assortment of activities, such as taking a pizza poll, creating a pizza graph, and using the story of "The Little Red Hen" to develop a similar story based on the pizza-making process.
Some of the lessons require that mom or dad make the manipulatives needed, while other lessons call for materials to be gathered from around the house. Luckily, most of the manipulatives are easy to make and use readily available materials. I found planning ahead to be very valuable so that all materials needed were made and/or gathered before sitting down to teach my son.
The author has included many ideas for creating connections between math and other subjects, such as science, art, and language arts. Mrs. MacDonald has even included ideas for taking most lessons "up a level" for older or more experienced children, and her "count on this" tips provide tidbits of advice from her many years of teaching experience. All of these extras are presented in a short and sweet, visually pleasing way so that they don't overwhelm the reader.
In addition to the extras mentioned above, each lesson includes a list of the materials needed, the lesson objectives, and directions for the activity. Small black-and-white pictures help the teacher see how to make and/or use the lesson materials.
The book is directed toward classroom teachers, but I found most of the activities easily adaptable to a homeschool situation. In fact, I found that many of the activities were even adaptable as centers or activities in bags to be used by children on their own.
Though the book is recommended for children up to eight, I found most of the book appropriate for children first grade and younger. Although it doesn't include basic "skill and drill" activities, this book will leave children with a wealth of math understanding as well as fun memories!
I really loved this book. I felt like it encouraged a love for math and built a very strong understanding of the concepts covered. Exciting activities mean more to my children than the ho-hum of a daily textbook curriculum. I'm always looking for products that encourage problem solving, and this book is full of problem-solving opportunities. I will admit that gathering materials or making manipulatives was sometimes daunting, but it was well worth the effort for the end result. If you're looking for an exciting, thorough curriculum for preschool through first grade, I believe Math in Minutes is well worth the money.
Product review by Cindy West, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC, October 2007
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