Arithmetic for Parents: A Book for Grownups about Children's Mathematics | 
| Author: Ron Aharoni
Publisher: Sumizdat
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $19.95
You Save: $10.00 (33%)
New (3) Used (1) from $19.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 148698
Media: Perfect Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 203
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 0977985253
EAN: 9780977985258
ASIN: 0977985253
Publication Date: March 31, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The book is an English translation from Hebrew of a very popular in Israel guide for parents eager to help their kids to understand math. It reflects the author's unique experience as both a research mathematician and elementary school teacher. Part 1 discusses the nature of mathematics, its power, its beauty, and the source of the difficulties in studying it. Part 2 introduces the reader into principles of good teaching. Part 3 is an easy going, informal guide, filled with personal stories, historical anecdotes and teaching suggestions, addressing all twists and turns of basic arithmetic taught in grades 1 through 6. To a mathematics educator, the book sends two important messages. One is that basic mathematics, although unsophisticated, is rather deep, consisting of many neatly aligned layers, none of which can be skipped without the danger of causing "math anxiety"; The other is that good pedagogy depends not so much on various tricks and cognitive theories, but on thorough understanding of basic mathematics and its neatly layered structure. And the book teaches the reader -- a parent, or a teacher -- to really understand the subject and this structure. By Alexander Givental, Prof. of Math., UC Berkeley and Sumizdat. Reviews of the book can be found in: "Opinion" column by Linda Seebach of "Rocky Mountain News" for March 24, 2007; Homeschool Math blog by Maria Miller; "Read This!" column of "Online Book Reviews" by The Mathematical Association of America; the award-winning math web resource "Cut The Knot" by Alexander Bogomolny.
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| Customer Reviews:
Love this book November 14, 2008
I am not home school my kids and I do not have the background in eduction. I love math and I use math in my profession, but my kids does not understand math. This book gave me the method to teach and to present idea in a child friendly way that is easy for my kids to understand. I use it with Singapore math text books so that I have a set curriculum to teach my kids. I wish I known this book earlier.
A must read for anyone loving or hating maths May 14, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Ron Aharoni writes clearly and deeply about the crucial concepts of fundamental maths, how to teach them and how not to teach them. He explains the layered and subtle structure of elementary maths and how missing a layer can lead to frustration and maths anxiety. "There's no royal road the maths", an Euclidian quote he emphasizes which summarizes well the message in this book. I'm not sure the book is for "Parents" as its title suggests, but I highly recommend it for both lovers and "haters" of maths, regardless of their "parental status". Looking forward to Ron's next book.
you can make your child like math February 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Parents sometimes can't help their children with elementary school mathematics even if they know how to do the calculations, because they don't know why things are done the way they are. This book explains the logic and the meaning of Arithmetic in a pleasant, easy to read and easy to understand way, and gives some insights about teaching in general and about teaching of mathematics in particular. After reading the book even not-mathematically-oriented parents can say that "after all - arithmetic does make sense"' and "I see that there are some ways in which we can help our children understand, and even like mathematics".
A sight from above January 28, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Prof. Ron Aharoni from the Technion (The Israeli Institute of Technology) is a professional mathematician and ex-dean of the math faculty. Eight years ago, he saw that something is definitely wrong with the math education, so he decided to teach kids at the primary level (1-6). In doing so, he acknowledges that he got many insights concerning the subtleties of simple arithmetic. "I learned math", he confesses.
This book describes and summarizes his special and unique mathematical and pedagogical/didactical experience.
Opher Liba, math educator, researcher and author
Mathematically (R), Center for Educational Enrichment, Jerusalem
[...]
 A great book January 26, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you have read E.D. Hirsch book The Schools We Need, and Why We Don't Have Them, you should not miss Aharoni's book. In fact, this is a book for every parent who is sincerely interested in the learning process and the teaching process of his children. I wished I had seen Aharoni's book before. The book consists of basically two parts. The first is about the nature of mathematics in general, and principles of didactics that the author believes in. Since I agree with the principles (going through the concrete, stress on the meaning of the operations rather than their calculation, and mainly methodic, systematic and graded teaching) I found this part most inspiring. The explanations about what is math are eye-openers, even for mature mathematicians.
The second part goes, step by step, through the mathematics of elementary school. It is indispensable for any teacher. For example, it explains why in long division one starts from the left, whereas in the calculation of the other operations one starts from the right. Or, why is division of fractions done asit is. The whole book is entwined with personal stories, and reads like a novel. In short - a gem.
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