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Fortunately, you can make division a little bit easier for your kids (and yourself) by playing games that introduce division skills BEFORE you get to long division.

And today I want to share one of my FAVORITE pre-division games with you!

CLICK HERE to check out Prime Climb for your homeschool!

Transcript

Hey guys, it's ToriAnn Perkey here. From my homeschool to your homeschool, is long division or division in general something that your kids love or something that your kids not so love so much? Yeah, in my home, division is just one of those things that is not a beloved topic, and I get it.

One of my memories from elementary school is doing long division and just dreading it because it is hard. It makes the brain work. It's like [makes sound] so many steps, so many places to make mistakes.

Division is tricky, but today I want to share a resource with you that can make it just a little bit easier. Division, fractions, primes, factors -- all of that is going to be easier with this game that I want to share with you today.

It is called Prime Climb, and I love this game. I have loved this game since it showed up as a Kickstarter campaign in my newsfeed. It was about 3 or 4 years -- no, maybe -- yeah, 3 or 4 years ago. We grabbed this game. I have never regretted it.

This is one of my absolute favorite math games that we play in our house, and let me tell you all the reasons why I love this game. First of all, it's completely visual, and I was looking for visual games because I wanted games that my kids could play regardless of whether they were reading well or not -- because some of my kids have some of those struggles. And so they were old enough to be starting to learn more difficult math concepts but they couldn't read yet. So, I love the fact this math is completely visual.

Second, I love the fact that it's so visual that it works for visual learners as well as more right brain thinkers as well as the left brain thinkers -- and I have both. 

So, let me just give you an idea here. This is the game board, and let's make sure you guys can see it and this -- it's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. And it was put together by a couple of genuine mathematicians -- really strong ones.

And what's really, really -- oh my gosh, this is so cool -- is you'll notice down here the #2 is all gold, right? The #3 is all blue. Well, when you get to 4, you'll notice it's gold … and let me show you -- let me see if I can do this. It's got a divider in between that.

So, what you see is they've taken 2, and they've shown how by division it makes 4. If we come up to 6 -- ah, this game board. If we come up to 6, what you can see here -- maybe I can do this. Aha. If we come up to 6, it is the blue -- I can't do my colors. It's the green and the yellow combined. Did you see that? So, it's like yellow and green combined which is the 2 x 3. And then we get to 5 which is another prime, right? So, there's no -- it's just a solid prime, and then 7's a prime.

But if we come over here to say this red one, red's a 37 -- these are the prime factors. So, they don't get to be red. But once we get here ... once you get into the higher numbers ... any number that's completely prime is red, but any number that's created by other numbers is a division and a colorful combination mathematically -- visually with those.  So, 36 is a 3, a 3, and a 2, and a 2, and you'll notice that's factor trees.

Factor trees visually represented with colors.  Thirty five is your blue 5 and your purple 7. Okay, when I realized what they had one with every number up to 101, I really, really just sort of wigged out.  I was like [crazy happy sound 🙂].

So, what you do as you play this game is your goal is to move your piece all the way from the start to the center. And there's cards that give you different instructions about how fast you can move. There's dice that you roll. There's going backwards. There's going forwards. And there's the additional added step that you have to do factoring math to move forward or to move back. And depending on how complicated you make it determines how much math your kids need to know to be able to do this game. 

So, you're able to do at different levels. My 6 year old was able to figure it out, but my 10 year old and my 12 year old still enjoy playing. And as an adult and as teenagers, we still enjoy playing because it's one of those games that grows with you. It stretches your brain. It gets you thinking, so all the family can play.

So, Prime Climb is one of those games that is so packed with math at the same time it's fun, it's visual, it's going to keep you moving forward. And it's by people who understood that if they could take a math concept that was a little hard to understand and primes, factors -- all those things that go into division, into fractions -- and they could make it simpler, it was going to make everything after primes and factoring so much easier.

And this is one of those games that when my kids then get to division, get to those higher level things, they already understand what's going on. When they look at fractions, and they're trying to figure out how to come up with multiples, how to come up with all those things, these concepts that we've learned in Prime Climb and in other games like this are now embedded in their brain and moving them forward faster because they can see the concepts.

I love it, love it, love it.  So, if this is something you're interested in, fortunately you don't have to wait for another Kickstarter campaign. You can pick it up on Amazon. Just check up the link up above or down below -- wherever it is based on where you're watching this video. It's definitely going to be worth your time to check this out.

I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and I bring you these videos every week so that you can be a super successful and confident homeschool mom.

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But that’s okay! Because my job is to facilitate a great education … not be the teacher for every subject.

As my kids get into the higher-level math, I find other AMAZING mentors and teachers to help teach them.

But before my kids get there, I make sure we set a good foundation. That means focusing on thinking skills that help prepare them to do higher level math.

And today, I want to share a  math resource that we have used for years in my homeschool to build those skills.

These books teach a foundational skill for higher-level math AND they are super fun to sit on the couch and read!

CLICK HERE to check it Greg Tang's books for your homeschool.

Rather keep reading than watch? Scroll to read a transcript of the video.

Transcript

Hi everybody! It's ToriAnn Perkey here. From my homeschool to your homeschool, do you want your kids to do well at the higher level math? I'm talking past the addition, the subtraction, the multiplication, and the division. I'm talking about algebra. I'm talking about trigonometry. I'm talking about those really high level concepts that make them do well on the test that get them into college ... that help them do well in college. Do you want your kids to do well in higher level math?

And whether your kids are going to college or not, this is an interesting question to ask because higher level math is all about learning how to think. And if you know how to think, you're going to do better at whatever you decide to do, right? So, you want your kids to do better. How do you get them there? How do you ensure that they're going to do well at higher level math?

Well, I am here to tell you it is not just learning how your multiplication tables work -- like not learning how to memorize -- and it's not just knowing how to plug numbers into equations and chug out the answer on the other side. No, it's problem solving.

Problem solving is how you ensure that your kids can go from this level of math all the way up here to this level math. 

And today I want to show you a resource that we've used in my home that I love because it just gets the problem-solving brain working like crazy. It is the book series by Greg Tang, and all the books have different titles. This particular one is called "Math Potatoes." His very first book the one that made him an international bestseller is called "The Grapes of Math," and yes, he does have fabulously funny puns with every single book.

Now, these books are really, really cool. They work for all ages. There are some that are definitely geared towards the younger kids, and there are some that are a little more geared towards the older kids, but my kids across the board have enjoyed them all.

Let me show you how this one works then we'll talk a little bit about the distinctions in the other ones. So, every page is a spread like this. Do you see that? There's a poem on this side, and then some kind of picture pattern on this side. Remember, this is all about problem solving -- specifically visual problem solving -- which makes it great for your visual learners who maybe have a little bit more trouble with math.

So, the poem if you read it, it always rhymes, but it's going to ask them to do some kind of mathematical problem solving without counting or without doing it the normal obvious way. So, for example -- and I won't read the whole poem but basically what they're supposed to do is figure out how many shells -- this one's called Shell Shock -- how many shells are over here. And the hint that's given in the poem is to look for patterns in squares.

So, you'll notice that over here the patterns are such that the kid could count every single one. But if they notice that there are patterns of nine in the squares and over and over again they can actually count up the nine squares. And he mentions in here “Be careful not to double count,” right? Because you don't want to double count this square right here and they're learning -- and then they can find the answer of how many shells there are.

So, they're learning how to think differently. How to look for patterns in their math. And problem solving and pattern finding is key to be successful at higher level math.  So, every single page in this series -- here's one about stars, and it has a different kind of pattern and problem to find. Here's one with peanuts. So, every problem in this book, every two-page spread, has a different kind of problem solving and a different kind of critical thinking, a different kind of pattern finding and pattern finding. Oh, so key! So, I have a couple of other books.

Now, he has -- I didn't bring them all.  He has some that are to help with multiplication, some that help with addition and subtraction.  Let's see … and then a couple -- another one that I really like is one that he calls "Math-terpieces" and what's really fun about this is that he actually patterns his entire poem over a masterpiece work of art.  So you get to talk a little bit about Van Gogh's Starry Night. You can go bunny trail that. Here's your poem, and this one you're supposed to find patterns. Four different ways to make seven. You'll notice three stars or four stars. Counting is important. One star, two star, three and two, and so looking for different ways to group these up to make seven.

Again, patterns, critical thinking, problem solving with a really fun picture book that's full of artwork. Okay, I get super excited. Let's see this one is "Math Appeal," another book that he has, and I love this one again just because it has -- every single one of them is different. So, you're looking for different patterns. Here the kids are looking for focusing on 15s as they count all the geese in the sky. So, how can they find 15s in this picture? How can they find 15s and then group them in different ways?

This series of books, whether you get one or you get all, is definitely going to help your kids have that pattern finding, problem-solving brain that they need to do higher level math well and to feel confident doing it. So, if it's something you think would work for your homeschool, you can look up above or down below. I'm going to have a link somewhere that will help you get to it.

From my homeschool to your homeschool, I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and I bring you these videos every week so that you can be a successful, confident homeschool mom.

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Of my four kids, one came out of the womb loving math. I swear he could count before he could speak.

But the other three … well … it’s been a journey.

Along the way, I decided that I wanted my kids to love math. Because math is beautiful.

I didn’t want them to think math was just numbers on a white piece of paper that they plugged and chugged.

I wanted them to see that math was EVERYWHERE -- in the way flowers bloomed, in the way that water boiled, in the way the ball rolled down the hill.

It is patterns and shapes -- a living, breathing way to explain the world.

So we spent lots of time looking at the beauty of math.

But I also knew that they needed to enjoy computation -- so with my oldest I started using books that made computation fun and engaging.

No blank white pages for us -- I wanted stories and giggles and laughter.

One of my favorite resources that I found to help us do that was Life of Fred, a curriculum that incorporates heavy-duty math into a silly, engaging story that all my kids have loved.

They read it for fun. Seriously.

So if you’re looking to make a math a little more alive, CLICK HERE to check Life of Fred out for your homeschool.

Transcript

Hey guys! ToriAnn Perkey here! From my homeschool to your homeschool. Today, I wanna talk about living math and how you can incorporate it into your homeschool. And then I have a really cool resource that we've used in my home, one of our living math resources.

So what is living math? Well, living math is the idea that math is more than just plugging numbers into equations. It's more than just counting, telling time, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Math is alive. It's all around us and it explains the world. It explains why things work and it's beautiful. Math is beautiful. And in order for your kids to love math, they are going to fall in love with the idea that math is a wonderful, beautiful thing aside from computation.

So how do you do that? How do you take a subject that, for most of us in school, was pretty dry and boring unless we loved it inherently? And how do we turn it into something alive? Well, it comes from seeing how math fits into the bigger world. Seeing how math gets used everyday. And it comes from seeing that math can make us giggle and laugh and be in wonder and awe.

And there are many many resources out there to help you do this. And most of those resources are kind of a pick and choose. It can be a book that you read or a game that you play and I've talked about a lot of those as I've made these videos and these reviews and I'll talk about a lot more. Because this was an area where I felt really really strongly that I wanted my kids to fall in love.

But I do believe there is one curriculum in the math homeschool world that is particularly suited for anyone who wants to have more living math in their home. And it's more suited for kids who are interested in math from a language arts point of view. So these are gonna be kids who don't just wanna sit down and do a workbook but they want it to be incorporated into a story.

The reason I found these books is because my oldest was like that. She loved, loved, loved stories. But she didn't love sitting down and doing a workbook. And so that's when I went and found Life of Fred. Seriously, a math curriculum called Life of Fred. What? I know, sounds super silly. And if you've heard about this, you know it's amazing. If you haven't let me introduce you to Fred.

I'm gonna show you his picture. This was one of our first introductions to this book. This is Fred. He's a simple line drawing because the guy who wrote this curriculum, brilliant mathematician named, wanna make sure I say his name right, Stanley Schmidt was doing all the drawings himself. The illustrations are pretty crazy. They're all either hand-drawn silly like barely, barely illustrations. Or they're clip-art pulled off of the internet, it's just part of the style.

But let me tell you what I love about Life of Fred. It's all about a five year old kid who is a brilliant mathematician who works as a professor in an imaginary university called Kitten's University in Kansas. And the reason he is there teaching is because he was left there by his parents and you don't even hear that story until way into the calculus book. But he was left there by his parents and he makes a living teaching math. He's brilliant at math, but he's not so smart at, like the wisdom of living in the world. So he has to learn how to navigate the world while solving math.

And it's all sorts of situations and problems that he has to deal with. He has a doll that is his best friend that lives with him. And this doll is so funny. He's an amazing artist. So there's an entire book, one of the books is all about how this doll is making money selling his famous artwork and then how Fred feels about that and how they're having to deal with the supply and the demand. And then there's another one where the doll's really scared because Fred brings home a tiger as his pet. Then the tiger is attacking the doll, so the doll is scared.

So it's a book that appeals to boys, it's a book that appeals to girls and the storylines are written in such a way that they're hitting the kinds of things that you would want your kids to learn about in the real world. About asking good questions before you buy some and not being taken advantage of. About making good choices with your time. About being honest. These are the things that also show up in the book. It's a very character-driven book without being religious. There's no specific religion at all mentioned in the book but it is character-based and character-driven.

There's an entire elementary series and I brought a couple of those books here. It starts with apples and each one covers just a few subjects that you would hit in elementary. And then it goes apples, butterflies, cats, dogs. I think E is elephant and you're seeing the pattern here. It's A, B, C, D, E. Those go all the way up to J and then by the time you get to upper elementary then there's a fractions book, there's a decimals and percents book.

Then you migrate your way into pre-algebra and you go all the way up. These books go all the way to calculus. And I like 'em because there's a story and the math is integrated into the story.

So you're reading a chapter, you have some math to practice at the end. How did we use this? We didn't even use it really as a "curriculum", we would sit down and read it. We would read it as part of our morning routine. We would read a math book together and my kids loved it so much they'd actually pull it off the shelf and read it on their own. Because they wanted to know what happened to Fred.

And while they're reading all about Fred, they're also reading about math. Reading about math. It's almost like this antithetical phrase and yet I love it because my kids are soaking up and absorbing mathematical concepts without the extra effort that goes into saying, "You have to sit down and do this."

We did actually work the problems together and then later on they've been re-introduced to those concepts in other ways. But I loved introducing math in this way. And the best place to actually acquire this curriculum and you can see samples and you can check it out and look at all the different options, is a place called Z Twist Books. It's the cheapest place I've ever found it and I will leave a link either up above or down below. You can check it out, see if it's the kind of thing that would be really great to have on your shelf.

I love it. I believe living math is the only way to genuinely motivate and inspire kids to fall in love with the concept of math. It works even for my kids who don't love to "do math." They still love the concept of math. And in the end, that's one of the most important things for me when it comes to our education.

I'm ToriAnn Perkey, and I make these videos every week so that you can have a super successful and confident homeschool.

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Alphabet Monster -- a chase and tickle game when a monster showed up in a deck of phonics cards.

Vacuum Monster -- where I vacuumed the floor making monster noises and the kids tried to avoid the vacuum cleaner by jumping over it.

Bed Monster -- can you make your bed before the covers eat you?

Garbage Monster -- draw a monster face on the garbage sack with sharpie and then that big bag eats all the garbage from the cans around the house.

So you can imagine my delight when several years ago, I discovered that we could do MATH with monsters!

Beast Academy is graphic novel meets solid math for Grades 2 to 6.

While we've never used it as our main curriculum, my kids have LOVED reading the graphic novels in their free time (yes ... even my non-mathy 12 year old has read them all!).

And I've used exercises from the practice workbooks to supplement our regular math programs.

Yea for monsters that make math fun!

Click HERE to check it out for your homeschool.

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That's why I'm constantly on the lookout for new and interesting ways to teach the same subjects.

And after 4 kids, basic math facts are DEFINITELY something that I want to do differently.

That's why I LOVE 7Ate9 ... a simple card game that review addition and subtraction in an exciting and different way.

While it's designed to be a speed game (which is awesome because I want those facts to be automatic), I've also slowed it down for kids who are still learning or who get stressed over having to go too fast.

Now that my kids are older, it's still a game that we pull out and play -- because it's fun even when you already KNOW your facts.

And who doesn't need a good basic review now and then?

Click HERE to check out 7Ate9 for your homeschool.

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