Just for Fun, Living Books, Math

The Arithmetic Fairy (Audio story)

 

The Arithmetic Fairy by E. Nesbit (MP3 audiobook reading)

Today we have a DELIGHTFUL Audiobook reading of this  fairy tale written by English writer E. Nesbit (author of “The Railway Children”, “Five Childen and It”), which comes from her 1901 book “Nine Unlikely Tales for Children”.

Young Edwin is an English schoolboy who deplores his daily mathematics class assignment.  He wishes he could easily solve the problems he faces each day… and quite to his surprise, finds his wish is answered by the “Arithmetic Fairy”.  However, as he soon finds out, these correct answers come at a very frustrating – and hilarious – price.

This delightful story will appeal to any student who has struggled with math… or loves a good “fairy tale”. A great audiobook reading by Cori Samuels! (23 minutes)

To download this mp3 audio story, RIGHT CLICK HERE and “save link” to your computer. Mac users, press the “control” key, then click the link and save to your mac.
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Math, Puzzles

Classic Cartoon Math Puzzles by Sam Loyd

Here’s a link to over two dozen classic cartoon puzzles & brain-teasers, from a fellow named Samuel Loyd (January 31, 1841 – April 10, 1911), perhaps Americas greatest ever puzzle maker, who invented and refined thousands of puzzles in his lifetime.This batch of puzzles from the Math is Fun website includes Word puzzles, rebuses, tangrams and math puzzles for your enjoyment.

Once you go through these, you’ll also want to visit their other pages (menu is at the top of the linked page below) and check out their measuring puzzles, puzzle games, logic puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, numbering puzzles, card puzzles, Einstein puzzles, and more. It’s a great site for math fun!

Click here to go to the site!

Math

Dad’s Worksheets

Over the past 13 years, Dad’s Worksheets.com has created over 9000 printable math worksheets, logic puzzles and math games for students at every level — and makes them available free for printing or downloading on their website. Just about any mathematics topic you can think of can be found here, including all the core math skills, number patterns, measurement & conversions, word problems, geometry, rounding numbers, factorization, and on and on. All worksheets can be printed or saved to PDF.

CLICK HERE to go to the site!

Math

The Manual of Mathematical Magic

Mathematics and magic may seem a strange combination, but many of the most powerful magical effects performed today have a mathematical basis. Math is also the secret behind the technologies we use, the products we buy and the jobs we do.

The Manual of Mathematical Magic is packed full of magical miracles to impress and entertain your friends. The secrets behind street magic, close-up and stage tricks are explained clearly with instructions and videos to help you perform them perfectly. Then you can learn about the math behind the trick and discover how that same mathematics is used to power our modern world and numerous careers.

“Our goal is to help more students engage with Mathematics. Magic tricks get the students excited and then we show them the mathematical principles that make the whole trick hang together. We also reveal how the same Mathematics underpins everything from medical scans to sending text messages.”

Talk about “hands on” math… this fascinating guide is a great learning (and fun) resource for students grade 6 and up.

Click here to go to the download page.

Math

Simple Math Games

HelpingWithMath.com offers loads of simple math games for elementary grade students. The games here are not filled with lots of hyper animation and distractions, and have solid learning value. Games include times tables, place value, rounding, ordering numbers, skip counting, fractions, and many more. If you’re doing elementary level math, you will probably find several games here you can incorporate into your homeschool for reviewing lessons and some educational fun.

They also have a huge collection of worksheets, flash cards, and other printable resources to help teach and reinforce math concepts. No login or account required.

CLICK HERE to go to the site!

Math

Bedtime Math

Bed Time Math‘s motto is  “Making math a fun part of kid’s everyday lives.”

This neat site offers an intriguing daily article along with math problems for three levels of learners. It’s a fun change of pace and a painless way to challenge your kids with a fun problem each day. And it doesn’t HAVE to be at bedtime. Any convenient time you want to add a little math to your day will work.

From the website description:

Don’t sweat it.  Bedtime Math hopes to be part of your daily routine, but if you’re having one of those days that started with the toilet overflowing, don’t worry.  Bedtime Math problems are here when you want them, when you’re ready.

It’s not official.  Bedtime Math isn’t an official “curriculum.”  It’s just a fun chance for kids to do math in their heads, so someday when they’re shopping and everything’s 20% off, they can figure out the sale price before the store closes.

Take it by the horns.  While Bedtime Math loves mental math, it’s totally cool to use paper and pencil when needed.  And if your child wants to tackle a harder BMP, go for it!  You can walk your kids through the steps if they’re stuck, and they’ll be excited to wrestle hard with something and get the answer.

Simmer down.  The BMPs aim to be fun and lively, but they won’t keep your kids from falling asleep.  In our experience, math can get kids to sit still, focus, and quiet down.

CLICK HERE to go to the site

 

Math

Master Math

MasterMath.info has 135 middle school math lessons available for 6th, 7th and 8th grade math plus Algebra 1.  Each lesson includes a 12 – 20 minute video lesson, a worksheet, an answer sheet, a self-grading quiz showing corrections for missed problems, and a link to another web-resource that will help the student “master” the concept. All of this is free-of-charge, and they have a paid option for one-on-one online tutoring if your students need it.

Click here to go to the site!

Lesson Plans, Literature, Math, Nature Studies, Science

Eclectic Homeschooling Unit Studies

The creator of Eclectic Homeschooling has a great page filled with geography, history, Bible, fine arts and English unit studies she has put together over the years while homeschooling her kids. These have lots of book suggestions and tons of hands-on activities that are kid-friendly ways to learn about each subject in-depth.

Here’s what she has to say about these studies:

We love unit studies around here and over the years I have put together lots of different studies for my kids.  I’ve compiled them all into one big list.  Some of them have taken us an entire school year to finish and some have taken 3-4 weeks.  We usually have several going at once.

These studies aren’t intended to incorporate lots of different subjects, but are designed to cover one topic in depth without the limitations that come with needing to cover all of the subjects in one topic.  So if we study a country we explore it in a way that help my kids connect with the subject.  I don’t concern myself with my child needing to show understanding through writing about the topic.  We learn and discover together and discuss as we go.

Lots of great ideas and interesting study topics here!

CLICK HERE to go to the website!

Math

Ray’s Arithmetic – PDF textbooks AND video lessons

Paul Ramirez created this great site that is dedicated to providing online access — free of charge — to the entire contents of Ray’s New Arithmetic: Primary, Intellectual and Practical (the first three volumes in the series) – in both PDF format AND video lessons to accompany each lesson.

Here’s what he has to say about Ray’s Arithmetic:

Ray’s was a comprehensive series of public school math textbooks written by Dr. Joseph Ray, and were used widely throughout the mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in America. Students can gain a solid foundation in mathematics by learning from one of the most successful, popular and longest-running sets of textbooks ever published.  (How many textbooks can you say that about?!)What’s so special about offering FREE online access to these books (downloadable PDFs)? Nothing.  Other sites do that.  However, this site, in addition to the free PDFs also offers free video lessons based on these textbooks, grades K through 5.  The video lessons are free of charge, available for viewing here and also on our Ray’s Arithmetic You Tube channel.

Also, . .Besides the video on each lesson page, there is also the actual Ray’s Arithmetic lesson included from the book directly below the video. In other words, you don’t even have to go to the printed pages of the book (PDF) to refer to a particular lesson because the lessons themselves are RIGHT ON THE SCREEN!

What does that mean for you? Well, my fellow homeschooling parents, grandparents and advocates/promoters/defenders of educational liberty and academic freedom — and other interested folks who just want to be well-grounded in the fundamentals of mathematics — it means that you now have an easy-to-access, easy-to-use resource for incorporating this classic and very powerful math learning tool into your personal and family study regimen, which has served generations of children well and continues to serve students of all ages well into the 21st century.

To go to the website, CLICK HERE

And HERE’S the page where you can directly download each volume in the series

History, Math

Free Subscription to American Heritage Magazine

One of our favorite history publications for the past 50+ years was American Heritage, “the distinguished magazine of history”. Their lavishly illustrated articles on all things American – history, values, ingenuity and culture – are just great.  After ceasing publication of the physical magazine in 2016, it has returned in an online format.  The magazine is currently offering free subscriptions to the new digital version of American Heritage. Subscribers receive free digital issues and newsletters as they are published, plus access to over 7,000 articles and essays in their archives.  The newsletters will be once-a-month emails with history news, reviews, and other items of interest.

CLICK HERE to go to the website!