Friday, May 1, 2009

Review: My First Number Book

My First Number Book
by Marie Heinst
1999, 48 pages, hardcover, DK Publishing

This delightful picture book introduces many math concepts to preschoolers. We have enjoyed working through concepts of counting, matching, sorting, sets, and sequencing. The illustrated pages make it fun for my son to discover more, less, and equal, addition and subtraction, geometric solids, and more. For example, matching begins with familiar matching pairs such as handprints, shoes, and earrings. Ideas of more or less begin to take shape as the child ponders such questions as, "Are there enough collars for the puppies?"

Sometimes your child may surprise you with an unexpected answer; for example, on a page showing five puppies and three doghouses, my son confidently assured me that "each puppy can have its own house." When I asked him how, he said, "The puppies that are brothers share a house." To him, sharing was not incompatible with the idea of being its "own" house.

The book also includes a few games. My son's favorite is a simple game involving counting backward or forward according to the roll of the die and directions on specific spaces.

Numbers are incorporated into the book in other clever ways; for example, each page number is illustrated by a string of the appropriate number of items. See if your child notices. Near the end is a section of BIG numbers, which all my children have enjoyed.

This book does an unusually good job of combining attractive photographs with effective questions designed to lead the child to discover math concepts.

I think it is currently out of print, but it's not hard to find at used book sources.

Cross-posted with love2learn.net

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