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Many years ago, I read an article that explained why the author felt girls learned math differently. The author suggested adding games and fun math books to engage them and add a social element to math that would engage their “girl brains”. Although there were many things about the article that I disagreed with, I did agree with the idea that games and books would make math more enjoyable…for ALL students.
Homeschool Tuesday Tip #3 is add some Friday Fun to your math class, for all of your students, elementary through high school.
Fridays were game days. Some of my kids favorite math games were Speed (a competitive, 2-player card game for learning multiplication facts), Check the Fridge (a multi-player card game to make sets of 25 while avoiding the stinky cheese card), Clumsy Thief (a multi-player card game to make sets of 100 while opponents try to steal your sets), Money Bags (board game for practicing adding coins), and the Allowance Game (board game for practicing handling money). Most of these still sit in our classroom even though my youngest is now in high school. They are not ready to part with them.
Fridays also meant fun math books. Books from the Sir Cumference line were always a hit and explained many geography terms within a funny medieval storyline. Sir Cumference and the Fraction Faire paired well with fraction manipulatives.
The Life of Fred series has been the top favorite for fun math books, though. We started with a used copy of Apples as bedtime reading when the girls were very young. As they enjoyed it and we continued to purchase the next book in the series, LOF books became part of our Funday Friday instead of their regular math curriculum.
Even though my youngest is a freshman in high school, we take a break from Algebra 2 every Friday to read two sections of Life of Fred Advanced Algebra. We also still have ALL of the Life of Fred books purchased over the years, from Apples to Calculus. Even in middle school, she would still read these books for fun in her room, outside of school time.
If you are not ready to invest in new books and games but want to try a Funday Friday in your own homeschool math class, you will find TONS of free or inexpensive math games and activities at TeachersPayTeachers.com. This was my favorite go-to for printable games or activities, especially seasonal for Christmas or Halloween, and I would set up stations sometimes for them to rotate through on Friday. They loved those centers of mini-games and manipulatives, even in middle school!
Obviously, games and engaging activities are educational best practices when kids are younger, but even when your students are in high school, they will value a break from their regular math curriculum to play a math game and read Life of Fred.
Your homework: Find something fun to do with your homeschool classroom instead of a regular math day next week. It does not have to be on Friday. Borrow a children’s book on a math topic from the library, print a card game from an online website, pick up a math game off the bookshelf, and have fun with math!
North Star Homeschool Resources 