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Summer Math Review

Enjoy the summer and keep up your math skills...

We hope you enjoy your summer vacation. Relax, play, and enjoy friends and family. But, it is a long time for boys to take a break from the math skills they have worked ten months to gain. We have put together some resources to help support and perhaps continue to build your son’s math skills.

One option that your son is familiar with is IXL. This is already set up and will remain active all summer. This site has many resources organized by grade level and topic. When a question is answered incorrectly, there is some explanatory text to help your son understand the concept better. The iPad app allows for work to be done before an answer is given, and it would be a good idea to encourage your son to write out some of his solutions.

There are many other programs, web sites, and apps that are available. Feel free to try different options. If you find something that is particularly helpful or sparks your son’s interest, please let us know. We are always looking for high quality activities that boys are interested in.

Below, we have some added ideas that may be of interest. The list includes a variety of thoughts that span different age levels. Your son will probably be able to let you know what seems too easy and what seems to be too hard. It is a long summer, so anything that your son does with interest will help his progress in math.

Workbooks

If you are interested in a skills review workbook, one option is the Summer Skills Workbook series that you can purchase online at. This has a variety of skills that are practiced each day. Another option is the Spectrum Math Workbook, which has a page or two that covers a specific skill. For both, purchase the book for the grade your son has just completed.

If you are interested in enrichment workbooks, Dale Seymour is a fantastic author, and anything that he has published would be an excellent option. We frequently use similar materials to enrich our lower school math classes.

The Perplexors series by Mindware is also wonderful – they create a series of logic puzzles that provide either grids, lists, or Venn Diagrams to solve.

Math Olympiad Contest Problems for Elementary and Middle Schools by Dr. George Lenchner

Nimble with Numbers by Leigh Childs and Laura Choate – enhances number sense

Online Resources

Mathcounts

This is probably for older boys (who have completed the 7^th grade) and is the organization that runs the National Competition Series that Fenn participates in. One thing you might look at is the problem of the week.

Another site that Fenn team members have enjoyed is MathFights where you can compete in problem solving against other people.

Other Math Websites to investigate:

www.multiplication.com - Helps teach/practice basic multiplication facts in an interactive way.
www.funbrain.com - Games & puzzles for all grades, parent & kid math challenges are included.
www.mathgoodies.com - Math Goodies is a free math help site featuring interactive lessons and homework help.
http://www.arcademics.com/ - Interactive math games that can be played against different users.
www.coolmath.com - This site; includes brain benders, different types of story problems and other math challenges.
www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ahrpa/opa/kids/puzzles/kidpuzzle.htm - Activities including puzzles and mazes for grades K-12.
meganova.com/megakids/flash.htm - A great way to test your speed with flash cards.
www.aaamath.com/fra.html - Explanation, interactive practice and challenge games about fractions; includes basic fractions, all four operations, comparing.
http://math.about.com/ - Word problems and basic computation, includes Real Life Math and Homework Tips.
http://mathforum.org/pows/ - Problem of the Week designed to challenge elementary students with math problems.
www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/ - This site explains 500 common mathematical terms in simple language using animation and other techniques.
www.figurethis.org/ - This site is math challenges for families.

CARD & BOARD GAMES

In addition to all these things you might do on-line, we also recommend just playing games. Some options for card/board games are:

Dice games and card games can build your son’s number sense, pattern recognition, logic, understanding of probability, critical thinking skills, and also be a lot of fun.

We do hope that you enjoy some of these options and find them worthwhile. Once again, if you find other great options, let us know.

Have fun!
Ralph Giles (on behalf of the entire Fenn math department)