As a math teacher and private tutor, I see kids struggle with math. They think it’s hard, boring, and un-cool. I work hard to help kids understand math and see how it is relevant to everyday life.
I was so glad to get the opportunity to review a math book for kids that helps make math fun.
Making Math Fun for Kids – Bedtime Math Book Review
I received a copy of Bedtime Math, a Fun Excuse to Stay up Late, by Laura Overdeck. The book’s mission is to make math a fun part of kids’ everyday lives.
Laura Overdeck wanted to change many American’s views that math is too hard, boring, and not cool. The book contains math problems fun for the whole family. These kid-appealing problems cover topics such as roller coasters and flamingos.
There are three levels of math problems – wee ones, little kids, and big kids. The wee one’s problems contain addition and subtraction with single-digit numbers. Little kids have harder addition and subtraction problems while the big kids get multiplication and division challenges.
When you open the book you will see that one page contains a story or fact section with a few sentences and the page on the other side has word problems. The stories have interesting facts and include a little humor. The word problems go along with the facts or story you just read.
Wee ones / Little Kids Bedtime Math Book
My boys (ages 5 and 7) and one of my tutoring students (age 6) read through this book with me. They enjoyed reading the stories and working the math problems. We mostly did the “wee ones” problems, though my 7-year-old was able to do some of the “little kids” problems as well. These younger kids laughed at some of the illustrations. There are cute drawings that go along with the stories. They wanted me to keep reading more stories.
Big Kids Math
I also used this book with the 11-year-old I tutor. She seemed excited when I pulled it out. The cover is cute and appears to glow in the dark. We used this book as a reward/incentive. She has a big math packet due at the end of the summer. We would work a few problems and then read Bedtime Math in between as a break. The older kid really liked the stories and laughed at some of the humor. The big kid problems were easy for her, but she still enjoyed doing them. The next time I came over for tutoring she asked if we could read more. We have been reading a few stories every time we meet now.
Overview of this Math Stories Book
I highly recommend this book to parents and teachers. This would be a great addition to a school library. This book does a great job of making math fun, challenging, and relevant.
I had the opportunity to ask the author some questions about the book. Here are my questions and her answers.
For more information check out the Bedtime Math webpage.
I wrote this post while participating in a campaign for Bedtime Math and received a promotional item and/or sample to thank me for taking the time to participate.
