Math Power: How to Help Your Child Love Math, Even If You Don't

This book provides much insight not only into math instruction, but teaching children in general. The author is a well-seasoned, successful and well-loved educator, full of wisdom for those who want to learn to teach. I am a homeschooling mother and found this book to be invaluable to me in helping me come to a right understanding about WHY we learn math. The author makes fantastic argument that math is a tool that helps us enjoy life to the fullest. Too bad most of us were taught it in such a way as to dread it. I used to push my children to learn math. Now, we sit and enjoy it. We play math games, and "talk" math. A key point the author makes is that we want our kids to "talk" math in the earlier years, more than just get them to say the right answers. The right answers will come if they feel that they can fail and then think about it in a safe environment...basically, learn at their own pace. This woman is brilliant.

It's a real shame that this book is now out of print. If you have young children, and you can find a copy of this book in the used book store, buy it at any price. Kenschaft is a math professor whose daughter is also a mathematics professor. She gives incredibly useful advice on how to get your child interested in mathematics and drives a nail into the coffin of the myth that there is a "math gene", and that some (most?) people are simply genetically unsuited to do math. All too often the problem is that kids are taught that math is boring.Why do so many popular nursery rhymes involve counting? Kenschaft points out that favourites like "one-two, buckle my shoe" and "1-2-3-4-5, I caught a fish alive" teach kids to count to ten. I never met a kid who didn't like nursery rhymes; Kenschaft offers reams of useful advice on how to kindle that spark and keep it alive.As an aside, a really good companion volume to this one would be Sarah Flannery's "In Code - a (young woman's) mathematical journey".

If you have concerns about the ... math acheivements in our country you must read this book and take action. If you have kids you will learn that they depend on you to teach them in ways that their teachers may not even be capable or prepared to do. Math is usually taught in such a way that it actually discourages kids from liking it, feeling competent in it or wanting to pursue it.While the primamry focus of the book is Math, its principles apply to all branches of education and learning. Learn that there are pitfalls to standardized testing and minimal competency standards.The book includes practical advice for parents on how to encourage their children to hone their math skills and encourage their analytical skills since their teachers may not be equipped to meet children at their level in order to fully communicate and cover a subject in depth.Seems that many teachers are not prepared to teach math in successful ways. We must put the focus and resources into preparing teachers in order to acheive the kind of results we want from their students.

You've probably heard that youngsters who are anxious about math also do poorly in math. A lot of folks thought this was just because students with limited ability appropriately worried about the subject. Not so!Just the other day I clipped a short piece that described a scientific study demonstrating that this "math anxiety" itself gets in the way of doing the math. The chicken that comes before this egg is not low ability but high anxiety. Finding ways to lessen that math anxiety can improve math achievement.As a parent and as a math teacher this is important news. Many parents have worried about how they could help their children with math that is often very different from when they were kids. These studies tell us that we'd do better to try to find ways to turn a math "phobic" home into a "Math Power" place. Patricia Kenschaft's book is a wonderful blueprint for such a home 'remodeling' project.The significant subtitle of this book is:"How to Help Your Child Love Math, Even If You Don't."There, as Shakespeare said, lies the rub. After all, most parents bring those same childhood math anxieties right up into their adult lives, right to the dinner (or homework) table. What Kenschaft does is to show you a wide variety of ways, starting even in pre-school, that you and your child can explore math in wholly new forms. You don't have to memorize the rules for fraction division all over again; you just need to find new ways of looking at math.This book does the best job I have seen of describing the failings of the "old school" approach to math. It has an entire section entitled "Why so many children are damaged" including chapters entitled "How drill and kill cripples U.S. Math education" and "What every parent should know about testing and grading." (My only critique of the book is that this section is placed near the end of the book - you might read it first if you think that going back to the good ole days is the sort of change we need).The book emphasizes the math of children up to about age 10 or 11, wrapping up with a chapter called "The Fifth Grade Crisis." I had never seen this term used before. But as a 6th grade teacher I believe she has captured an important soft spot in our math education system. Although the ups and downs of kids' math in school all sum up over many years, some important cognitive shifts take place as they open the door into adolescence. Fifth and sixth grades are often the place where they "decide" they are "no good" at math... decide they "can't do it". Kenschaft shows how much of that decision is just a reaction to some truly damaging practices in schools.Kenschaft also encourages you to take a new view of your role in the school - beyond bakesales! She provides practical advice for you to become a school-math activist without being antagonistic. A chapter entitled "Getting along with your child's teachers" is full of good, practical advice. She concludes with a whole section about change entitled "Tweaking the Mach

When I think of Dr. Patricia Kenschaft, the first image that enters my mind is that of a Unicorn. Dr. Kenschaft is a unique person for which you would be hard pressed to find an equal. Her ability to teach mathematics to virtually anyone is only the beginning of her many special talents. I consider myself priveledged to have had the opportunity to study with Dr. Kenschaft in my time as a student at Montclair State University. Even if you are never fortunate enough to cross paths with a person like her, do read her book, Math Power. It will change not only your outlook on mathematics, but your outlook on many of life's other challenges.