Ivar Ekeland, author of The Cat in Numberland
Sue VanHattum has assembled a marvelously useful and inspiring book. It is filled with stories by people who don't just love math, they share that love with others through innovative math activities. Playing With Math is perfect for anyone eager to make math absorbing, entertaining, and fun.
Laura Grace Weldon, author of Free Range Learning
The Internet is presently bursting with vibrant writing about mathematics learning; yet it can be difficult to navigate this wealth of resources. Sue VanHattum has carefully collected and arranged some of the best of this writing. Imagine having a cheerful, knowledgeable, caring, and patient native interpreter accompany you on a tour of a foreign land. That's Sue in the land of math. She and the authors collected here care deeply about welcoming everyone to the world of mathematics. Whether you play with math every day, or are struggling to believe that one can play with math, Playing With Math will provide inspiration, ideas and joy.
Christopher Danielson, author of Talking Math with Your Kids and talkingmathwithkids.com
As a homeschool mom who grew up hating math, I didn’t want to pass that attitude on to my children. I thought if I bought a textbook and relearned it, I would somehow learn to enjoy it. That didn’t seem to help. Then I read Playing With Math and discovered that math isn’t what you find in a textbook at all. It’s all around us, it’s beautiful, and most of all, it’s exciting! This book is a gem that I turn to again and again for fun and inspiration.
Shalynn Wilson
[These reviews will eventually show up at playingwithmath.org, which I'm still getting ready for prime time.]
Posts
The reviews above will be featured on the back cover. Here's more praise for the book.
ReplyDeleteLast year I asked for volunteers to help with the index. Lakshmi was one of them. She wrote me back to say: "I am sorry I have not been able to get to the list of index words. I have not been able to go past the 3rd chapter. I read it three times already. Each time, I sit down and start underlining words, but after a couple of pages I just get so carried away by the book that I forget to mark the words. Having said that, I love the book. It has so many great ideas all in one place."
I got plenty of indexable words from the other volunteers, so we were fine. And her comments moved me. I am looking forward to getting the book out there for others like Lakshmi.