Math Without Tears

For the kid who cries at the worksheet. Almost every "bad at math" child I have taught was fine at math and terrible at being handed a page and left alone with a timer. The tears are about the delivery, not the content. So this shelf puts the workbook last. First come the books that let a child see a number, hold a fraction, laugh at a math problem, and meet a real mathematician who could not butter his own toast.

How to use it: read one of these instead of a lesson, two or three times a week, and do the math in it with your hands on the table. Paper plates for fractions, real cookies for The Doorbell Rang, a bag of rice for One Grain of Rice. Nothing timed, ever, this term. When the idea is already in your child's hands, twenty minutes of practice sitting next to you finishes the job. That is where the two workbooks at the bottom come in, and not before.

Why this works is in Taught to the Middle: Why Your Child Is Bored or Behind. If you want the whole plan built around your actual child, that is the $49 map. Not sure this is the right shelf? Five questions will tell you.