As part of their homeschooling, my daughters attended classes held by Don Cohen, better know in the Champaign-Urbana area, as The Mathman. He and Jerry Glynn have been offering algebra, calculus and advanced math classes for over 31 years. They truly know how to make mathematics fun and interesting to both children and adults.
In 1988, Don wrote Calculus By and For Young People (ages 7, yes 7, and up) and developed videotapes and worksheets to coordinate with the book.
On the worksheets cover page, that little girl with the striped blond hair is my daughter #2 (at age 4) and daughter #1 (at age 6) is featured on the inside title page of the book.
Daughter #1 is also featured in both videotapes - Infinite Series By and For 6 year-olds and Up and Iteration to Infinite Sequences with 6 to 11 year-olds. I believe they are now all available on CD.
Here is some of the actual work my younger daughter did at age 4 7/12 (as they liked to say). Mr. Cohen used her workbook for illustration at several teacher workshops.
This graph is from daughter #2's workbook:
What I really liked about the program was they allow children to develop their own problem solving skills in math; they show how one can solve math problems many different ways and still arrive at the correct answer. They also introduce highly complex math problems at early ages and show the relationships of easier math to more complex problems. And all of this is done in an exciting, fun environment.Both daughters did extremely well in all subsequent math courses in high school and college and received high scores in the math portions of college entrance exams.
If you live in the Champaign-Urbana, IL, area, I would highly recommend their program. If you live outside the area, The Math Program books are excellent for homeschooling programs or for supplemental work in public schools. You can order the books here. We were happy to be a part of Don's publications and we get nothing from the sale of his products. We just really believe in his approach to math.
3 comments:
My son in third grade discovered the binary number system and used to drive his parochial school teacher nuts by doing his math problems using the binary notation. My sons are way smarter than I am, thank goodness.
Jerry was my tutor in high school. His help was something I desperately needed to pass algebra. He made math interesting and doable to someone who has an adverse reaction to numbers.
My son loves math so maybe I'll check out their books.
I'm going to tell my daughter and daughter in law about these books! I am amazed at what your daughters could figure out so young.
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