Hands up, who is maths phobic?  It turns out that a lot of us parents are and that we can unintentionally pass on this math phobia to our kids.

We tend to place a lot of emphasis on language and reading.  Every parent I know reads to their kids at bedtime and usually started when their kids were babies.  But why not the same importance for maths?  If I had to choose between the two, I would say that maths is a more important skill to understand and feel confident about.  I’ve read a lot recently about this and it really resonated with me.  Up till now Anya has loved and enjoyed maths but recently she started struggling with the concept of division and I started hearing phrases like ‘I can’t do it’ and ‘I just don’t understand’.  That’s when I went hunting for a maths book for kids to help make maths more fun for her.

I discovered Bedtime Math which is just the kind of thing I was looking for.  The book is American so has American references (like Math, American States, Ounces etc) but this hasn’t bothered us at all.  Each page has a very short story or some fun facts and then there are four maths questions with increasing levels of difficulty. The author doesn’t give any age group for the questions as each child’s skill level is different.  So the idea is to work on the sums you can and work towards the harder ones.

This maths book is all about making maths fun and also suggests that maths could be a part of our bedtime routine just like reading.  Of course you don’t have to do the sums at bedtime but we’ve found it kind of fun to mix up the bedtime routine.  We do one page each night and then move on to reading story books. We’ve had the book a couple of weeks and it’s great.  Anya enjoys the challenges and also enjoys reading the fun little stories.  Bedtime Math is also a website and app where they post a new problem each day.  But I liked the idea of the book as I like to touch and hold books rather than look at everything on a screen.

There are three books in the Bedtime Math series and we’re currently on the first one.  I am sold on the idea so I shall be getting the other two.  Making maths fun is so important and this book does just that.  I’d say the book is ideal for 4-9 years olds but it really depends on the child – some will be more advanced than others so the age range is kind of fluid.  If you’re in the UK, you can find the book here and for my US readers, the book is here.

Would you consider a bit of maths at bedtime?  Do you know of a fun maths book for kids?