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The aim of this Home Education blog is to share books, games and resources that I have found useful and fun in home educating my children. If you have a resource to share, please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you.
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Books We Enjoyed

By the Great Horn Spoon - My Review Trollogy! - My Review Danny Champion of the World Indian in the Cupboard When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
My Daughters site

Mathematics

This is such a huge subject area that I am sure I will keep adding to this page. There are so many ways to introduce different mathematics concepts. I favour a mulit-pronged approach!

Learning through Literature

Anno’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar This is a beautiful book. The book begins with a jar, which contains 1 island, which has 2 countries, each of which has 3 mountains. The story continues like this until 10 is reached. As well as counting to ten, it covers factorials. Mitsumasa Anno has several lovely looking picture books covering maths topics that may be worth checking out.
Sir Cumference and the Knights of the First Round Table This clever little story introduces some geometry concepts (shapes, diamater,circumference and radius). I think it would have to be read several times for the concepts to be remembered though. There are others in the series.
The Number Devil This is for older children (age 10). I gave it a go with my (then) 8year old, but she wasnt ready for it. We will let you know!!
The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat. This is quite a fun story of mathematical cat that introduces the reader to lots of mathematical problems. Each chapter is quite short, and introduces (for example) fractals, tangrams, the abacus and mobius strips. If you like it, there is also Further Adventures
Mathematicians Are People, Too. Stories from the lives of great mathematicians – this volume includes Thales, Pythagoras, Archimedes and Sophie Germain. We quite enjoyed this one although it feels more like a history book than a maths one.

Other books

Arithmetricks. 50 Easy Ways to Add, Subtract, Multiply and Divide Without a Calculator! I really liked this one, and learnt some new tricks. My husband said he knew them all anyway (but he is a bit of a whizz!). I did try them on the children, and ended up confusing them – but I think they will enjoy it when they are older.
The Joy of Mathematics iscovering Mathematics all around you. I bought this one for myself! I am enjoying it, but its a little over my head!

Hands On

The Multiplication Tables Colouring Book We have ordered several of these colouring books and enjoyed them. The multiplication ones are fairly easy even for younger children because each puzzle comes with a number square, and the numbers they need to look for can be coloured in. I found this an interesting way to show them patterns in the numbers. We haven’t used the arithmetic one yet as the sums get hard quite quickly (although to be fair, each puzzle has two sets of sums to choose from – one more challenging than the other)
Sudoku and Kakuro books certainly seem to appeal in our household. .There are several on the market for children, and can often be picked up in bargain bookshops.
Just occasionally, my children are willing to sit down and do a maths worksheet! A great free site is The Math Worksheet Site
Another resource I have used and can recommend is Cross-numbers The children enjoy doing one of these occasionally.
Mathematical Curiosities. I bought this book a while ago and I have made up some of the models which the children have enjoyed. But they are quite fiddly to put together so would suit an older child (or one more dexterous than mine!)
Abacus
Cuisinaire Rods
I haven’t tried this Mathematics Calendar yet, but I want to keep it in mind for the future. Its description says “It demystifies mathematical concepts, making them accessible through games, puzzles, and stories. Each month of the year highlights a different intriguing math-related subject, from data mining to migration to pyramids to photography, and features a wealth of fascinating information. What’s more, for every single day of the year the calendar features a math problem whose solution is the date. The fun lies in figuring out how to arrive at the answer.”
I am not sure how difficult it will be – may have to get one to see!!

Board Games

I feel my children have learnt a lot of arithmetic from board games. My daughter in particular has become an ace banker during games of PayDay!! Here are some of the numeric board games we like. A good place to look at reviews of board games is BoardGameGeek and if you are in the UK, a good place to buy games is Shire Games.