Fitra Home Education South Africa

The beauty of homeschooling in Ramadaan

Like so many others with busy lives, I've spent many years yearning to be able to spend my Ramadaan in some sort of semi seclusion, where I could fully immerse myself engaging in Ibaadah, Quraan, Salaah, Zikr and everything that would draw me closer to my Creator, without the distractions and disruptions of everyday life.

Many mothers share the same sentiments, but as mothers of little ones, we know that our time is not always our own. And as much as we'd love to, we cannot spend hours engaged in Ibaadah when our little ones need so much from us. May Allah make it such that these yearnings to be close to Him never leave us and that we learn to have more patience with our circumstances and increase our remembrance of Allah in different ways.

This for me, is where the beauty of homeschooling comes in. Homeschooling allows us to be able to fulfill this for our children. We can shuffle and change our entire day, month and even our curriculum, in order to fully appreciate the beautiful month of Ramadaan. We are fortunate enough to be able to devote our time to uplifting ourselves spiritually, to learn more about our Islamic heritage, our prophets, Sahaabas and immerse ourselves in the beauty of understanding the Quraan. To truly understand what it means to be Muslim. And to hope that the lifestyle we adopt during this blessed month becomes a permanent fixture for the rest of our lives, Insha Allah.

We are blessed to be able to live out the values that Islam guides us to have. We can give 'learning' a 'break' and can rather pack food parcels for the needy, or bake treats to give to family and friends. Prepare an entire iftaar meal for a family or start a charity drive, where our children learn the importance of giving back. Let our children learn about kindness directly by watching our actions.

Ramadhaan Superb Sunnah List

Some homeschoolers love lists and plans that help us achieve our goals. At the beginning of Ramadhaan this aspirational habit has translated into a Superb Sunnah list in an attempt to establish, strengthen and study certain sunnah as a family. Ramadhaan offers us an opportunity to capitalize on the distinctive and shared spirit of establishing good as well as the collective mindfulness of self-improvement.
Our Superb Sunnah List is simple. The plan is to introduce or revisit one practice of our Nabi (saw) in more detail each week.
1. Siwaak- The virtues of which have been enumerated in many Saheeh Ahadeeth. Allowing kids to use the siwaak as often as possible helps reinforcing that every little deed counts, InshaAllah. Though my son is bound to pull his out of his pocket and initiate a sword fight on the back seat.
2. Salatul Duha- The nafl forenoon prayer with the great benefit. [Muslim720]
A steady encouragement of a few moments of morning energy to be channelled into an accepted practice of Nabi (saw).
3. Surah Mulk- The daily recitation of Surah Mulk as advised by Nabi (saw) as it benefits one on in the Qabr .[Tirmidhi2891, Abu Dawood 1400]
The length of Surah Mulk gives children an opportunity to establish a sunnah related to Tilawat of the Quran with relative ease and motivates a connection with the Quran.
4. Sadaqatul Fitr- The obligatory nature, amount and practice of discharging Sadaqatul Fitr before Eid Salah. [Bukhari 579]
This can be reviewed as a family as excitement builds towards Eid ul Fitr.
May Allah grant us the ability to emulate Nabi (saw) in a manner that pleases Him. How are you approaching teaching Sunnah this month? We’d love to hear from you……


#

Cave of Hira Moments ...

I open the tap to wash my hands. As the warm water washes away the smell of the kebaabs that I frantically rolled in preparation for iftaar, the scented handsoap stings the tiny cut from house maintenance. Streaks of Sharpie appear like the bar code of most homeschool mums and my unmanicured nails are an unwelcome reminder of the lack of self care.

As the disc of the sun disappears on our first few fasts, Ramadhaan has truly begun Alhamdullilah. The silver lining during last Ramadhaan was that Covid-19 forced many of us into some sort of seclusion.

As homeschoolers, we have the added advantage of not being bound by liftclubs or socials, assessments or time-consuming compulsory assignments. Alhamdulillah we have the freedom to structure our day to suit our needs of each month.

As we wash away the remains of our normal busy routines, we have an opportunity to step into a space of seclusion and solitude. Much like Nabi (saw) did in his time in the cave of Hira. An opportunity to allow academics, cooking, socializing and other activities to fade into the background as we sit quietly and reflect. To step away from the noise of the world and sit in consciousness.

InshaAllah, these Cave of Hira moments will help us reconnect with Allah and His Book.

May it also allow us beneficial introspection, renewed intentions, accepted Istighfaar and supplications, a deepened love for Nabi (saw) and an accepted Laylatul Qadr, InshaAllah.

What about the best interests of my child?

• Under the Constitution of South Africa, the best interests of the child is always paramount and you are obliged to parent and educate in a way that is in your child’s best interests.

• Our government claims that the laws and regulations that it makes are also in the best interests of children in this country and that the home education laws and regulations consider the best interests of children as well.

• If you believe that the best interest of your child is not served by the law, then the legal remedy that is open to you is to challenge those laws in court.

Is there an alternative to registering?

•The only way to legally homeschool in South Africa is by registering with the Department of Education to do so.
•If you choose not to register for homeschooling, you are choosing not to comply with the law.
•If you homeschool without registering, you may be called upon by the government to register your child or place your child in school, if you fail to do so then you may be convicted of an offence, the penalty for this offence is currently 6 months in prison.
•Signing up with home education associations or other organisations will not be sufficient to escape your obligation to comply with the law.

I you've been looking for a tribe, needing support, a place to pick up tips and hear homeschooling talk, then this session is for you!

Those who attend this session are eligible for Fitra membership if they want to join the Fitra sisterhood.

https://www.quicket.co.za/events/135411-fitra-home-education-discussion-on-home-education/

What are my legal obligations once I have registered?

•Unfortunately, it is not entirely clear what a parent’s legal obligations are once your children are registered with the Department of Home Education.

•As part of the registration process the department requires that you must have a “learning programme” for each child that you home educate

•According to the DBE website, as a home educating parent you must keep:
~A record of attendance
~Records (a “portfolio”) of your child’s work
~Records of your child’s progress
~Records (a “portfolio”) of the education support given to the child
~Evidence of continuous assessment
~Evidence of assessment at the end of each year
~Evidence of an assessment at the end of each foundation phase (end of Grade 3, Grade 6 and Grade 9)

(It is currently unclear whether the requirements on the DBE website are in fact legal obligations)

Why do some homeschoolers not register with the government?

Many homeschoolers in South Africa are under the mistaken impression that it is not legally necessary for them to register with the government to home educate their children.
Some homeschoolers in South Africa believe that if they are signed up with other home education organisations they do not need to register with the government.
Some homeschoolers are aware of the legal obligation to register and choose not to comply with the law for various reasons, some of these being:
Their legal obligations once they register are unclear
They do not want to follow certain curricula and they feel government’s regulations do not cater to the many different educational approaches that homeschoolers can choose to follow
They do not want to keep and submit records pertaining to their homeschooling because they feel the requirements are onerous
They do not believe in formal educational assessments for children
They do not believe that following the government regulations are in the best interests of their children
They feel that home visits invade their right to privacy
They are unsure of how the educational laws will be implemented and amended in future and are worried that their rights to educate as they choose will be curtailed and regulated further.

Do I need to register my child/ren with the South African government in order to homeschool and if so, how do I register?

According to the law, any parent who opts out of sending their child (between the ages of 7 and 15) to school MUST register their child for home education with their Provincial Education Department.

How do I register?

There is an online registration form on the Department of Education website that needs to be completed and that, along with certain documents (listed on the website) which must be submitted to your Provincial Education Department. The process is free.
In non-covid times, a PED official usually does a visit to your house before your application is approved.
During Covid, home visits have been suspended.
At the moment, due to Covid, you may home educate before you have received approval from the PED.

What is home education?

According to the 2018 Policy on Home Education, Home education is:

An educational Programme
Done in the home
By the parents
For children from Grade 1 (age 7) to Grade 9 (age 15)

Tutor centres and learning centres that teach your children outside of the home are not considered home education
Boxed and online curriculum do seem to fall into this definition (even when the learning happens online)
Eclectic schooling (putting your own programme together) does fall into this definition.

How to go from feeling like a misfit to finding your tribe
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Homeschoolers often felt like misfits in their families and communities. But once we embraced that, we started to get comfy and in time, find our tribe.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The people who get burnt out but know how to rise; the ones who are real enough to have messy kitchens but also share hacks on how to remove stains; these are the people homeschool groups have brought into my life.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
If this is you - feeling lost and not knowing where the shore - we welcome you to join the Fitra homeschool community. And even if you aren't lost, but are looking for a safe space to connect and chat with other homeschoolers, a place of support and sisterhood then this is the place for you.
Homeschooling doesn’t have to be a lonely journey.
Find your tribe.
Membership opens soon!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Salaam and Hello Everyone!

Good news for anyone who is looking for homeschooling support and wants to consider homeschooling as a lifestyle - Fitra will soon be ready to start taking on new members 🎉

Early next month we will be having an interactive session for anyone interested in Homeschooling, with the option to join Fitra if you complete the session and want to be part of our village. To make the sessions truly interactive, spaces will be limited.

Simply fill out the form on this link:
https://forms.gle/Tr9NX958afYfGkm57

to indicate your interest and be put on our waiting list.

Have some old see through CD covers lying around?

They make excellent observation planters .

All you need to do is open up the CD case and remove the inside bit that holds a CD in place.

Put a bit of soil in it with some grass seeds. Sprinkle in some water.

Close the CD cover and tape it along its edge so moisture stays in and also it stays closed .

Rest it in a nice sunny place with the slit side up. Drizzle water in everyday through that slit.

In no time you will see roots pop out and your grass begin to grow.

Observe how the roots grow down towards the ground and the leaves grow up towards the light.

For a twist, if you have done two CD planters, just as you see it sprout and establish its roots and shoots, turn 1 CD cover on its side to observe where the plants will now grow. Point out how it still tries to grow up and the roots down.

Enjoy

-RM

Keeping the kids off from electronics can be a big challenge – especially if lockdown has you stuck at home for the holidays. But here is a cool activity – one that kids can be involved in from conception :
A life-sized snakes and ladder mat.

You can search for design options online or make up your own.

You need a piece of fabric or old sheet big enough for your design (We ran out of fabric so only went to 90.) .
Copy your design in pencil on your fabric – making sure the blocks are big enough for your children to stand in – roughly 20-25cm long.
Using fabric paints – colour in your design and outline the blocks. Follow instructions based on the fabric paints/pens you have selected.
You can add a non-slip or water-proof backing fabric if needed.
You can also make a giant dice to go along with your game.
Enjoy climbing and sliding !

This mat can also be used for interactive maths fun – adding and subtracting, identifying numbers, skip counting.

-Carimah

Handy activity for when you need to keep a younger child busy:

Keep old, broken appliances with a set of screw drivers for those days when you need to focus on something else and need to keep your energetic younger (or even older) kids busy.

Excellent learning happens when they explore what the inside of a machine or appliance they see daily looks like . Brilliant for fine motor co-ordination and trying to figure out how to take it apart and maybe even how to put it back together again.

What would be even better is if you could try to figure out what all the components are, what they do and how they all come together to make the appliance work (we still have yet to get to that still).

-RM

Easy science experiment.

We were learning about mammals and because we are not generally stuck on any particular science curriculum, but rather choose to explore science as a living subject, I followed my child's interest and curiosity and we found ourselves learning about bats.
We learnt that bats tend to keep their pups with the pups of other bats . All the little bats look the same. Mummy bat finds her pup in and amongst the cluster by relying on her sense of smell and sound.

So for a nice, easy experiment we decided to explore our sense of smell.

We took 17 packets (we recycled medical packets from a Doctors practice that had closed down but 17 harder containers may have worked better). And I filled each one with a cotton wool pad which had a different scent on it.

I chose common household smells which my children would have been exposed to at some point like lavender, jasmine, lemon, burnt logs, paint , sea w**d fertilizer, turmeric, vanilla etc .

First, I played a game with the kids where they would smell each scent and guess what it was. My dad joined us for the fun and we enjoyed trying to figure out the scents which I offered to them individually to sniff and guess.

Then I put all the scent packets together and asked my daughter to choose a scent that she liked. This, I told her, we will pretend is her pup. She chose the one with the lavender scent.

With all the scents together I asked her to close her eyes and try sniff out her "pup".

Such a giggle when she first chose the sea w**d fertilizer which was next to her lavender "pup" but she learnt her sense of smell is a powerful tool when a person or animal goes about its daily affairs.

-RM

We’ve been talking about audiobooks for the past few weeks. Last week we chatted about Audible. This week we have two other options that we’ve tried: Scribd and Tales2Go.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Tales2Go has a selection of audiobooks for a children of all ages. The app is ad free, but the titles don’t include newer releases. It’s great if your child enjoys a particular series and would like to listen to them all - Boxcar children is a popular one and Tales2Go has them all. The subscription is pricey, however they offer a group buy discount: if you can get a group of 20 or so people together, the app will cost you $25 dollars for the year. One drawback, however, is that you cannot download multiple books to listen offline, so it’s not the best to use whilst road tripping. You need an internet connection to open the book, but once you start listening to the story you no longer need a connection. The books aren’t separated into tracks by chapters, but instead hour long tracks. You still have the option to bookmark, but you cannot use a sleep timer where the story will stop at the end of a chapter like Audible and Scribd. You’re also restricted to two devices with the same log in details.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Scribd is a monthly subscription based app, and at $8 a month it has both audiobooks and ebooks (and podcasts and articles and Curiosity Stream, and a whole host of other things- you get the gist). It works similarly to Audible Plus: You don’t own the books, but you can listen to an unlimited amount whilst you have a subscription. When you don’t have a subscription, you won’t be able to listen to anything, even if you’ve downloaded them to listen offline. The selection is great. The audiobook is generally the same version as the one on Audible. You can also listen on multiple devices with the same log in details. This works well if you have more than one child, or if you yourself want to use the scribd app.

The Scribd search function, however, is not so great. Titles come and go, and if you see a book you or your kids like, save and download it immediately.The other thing is that even though it’s unlimited borrowing, they often restrict you from certain titles for the rest of the month. So if you want to listen to a whole series of books, you might only have access to a few before they’ve blocked the rest. The title will be listed as unavailable until a certain date (usually a month later when your next payment is due). It is still more affordable than Audible, unless you find that you enjoy titles in their Audible Plus collection.
Scribd allows users to upload things too, and they have books not suitable for children, and so it could be unsafe for a child to search the app or to use the app without supervision.

Both Scribd and Tales2Go offer free one month trials - to make use of them this holiday season!
Remember to set a reminder before the trial expires to remind you to cancel if you wish to do so.
Do you use these apps? Share in the comments below!

Last week we discussed where to find free audiobooks. Today we’re looking at paid options. We can’t talk about audiobooks without mentioning Audible. If you’re looking for a particular book, you’ll most likely find it there. The app is user friendly; it’s easy to download books to listen offline, you can return books you don’t like, and the customer service is amazing.
Unfortunately, it’s one of the more (most!) expensive options. Audible now has two subscription options: Audible Plus: $7 a month you get unlimited access to a limited selection. You can download the books to your library for offline listening, but once your subscription ends, so does your access to the books.
Audible Premium: $14 dollars a month. With this, you receive one credit, which you’re allowed to use to buy any book - yours forever, even after the subscription has ended. This is great if your kids like listening to the same book multiple times. You also have unlimited access to the same audible plus titles.
You can still purchase books from audible without a membership, but Audible books average around $20 each so it’s cheaper to purchase a book using your audible credit, and members also get to purchase additional books at a discounted rate.
You can use free trials for both memberships. So far my kids haven’t been that impressed with the audible plus titles, but new titles are added all the time. Stories.audible.com still has free audiobooks for kids - you have to stream from your browser, no offline listening option. These titles (and more) are all included in the Audible Plus catalogue.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Do you use Audible? Comment below!

📸 credit .photography

Where to find audiobooks?
Suhaylakids has an awesome round up of (mostly) free Islamic audiobooks on her blog . We love her selection, and if you’re looking for Islamic audiobooks, this is a great place to start.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Here are other free options:
Libby: you will need your library card to access this, and it’s completely free. The app is user friendly, and depending on your province, you may find audiobooks. The Gauteng database has a number of audiobooks for kids and adults, however the KZN one does not. New content is added often, so keep checking!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Librivox: A selection of books from public domain. You’ll find plenty of classics here and other older titles. They’re read by volunteers, and so the narrator often changes within the book. Your kids may or may not like this. Remember - a narrator can make or break an audiobook! A good narrator goes a long way in enjoying audiobooks.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Podcasts: Podcasts are free, shorter than chapter books, and a great introduction to audiobooks, especially if you don’t want to spend money initially (make use of free trials though!). You can listen to podcasts through the iOS or Android Podcasts app but there are other listening options. You can also download podcasts to listen offline. Some podcasts we’ve enjoyed are , ,
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
YouTube :You can search for any book title + audiobook and you will find a host of them. However, unless you have YouTube Premium (which is not free) you won’t be able to play it in the background and ads may pop up during listening time.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Pinna: This isn’t free, but currently has a 6 month free trial for teachers (homeschool teachers included!), with no credit card details required to access it. The app is completely ad free, user friendly, allows for playlists, and includes podcasts and audiobooks. It’s aimed at kids ages 3-12, and has mostly shorter titles.

My tap seemed to laugh at me the other day as it kept dripping even though I was putting all my effort into stopping the drip. I was grumbling as our precious resource just kept on trickling away. I looked over at my five year old son, who was looking on curiously.



"Ammi, one day I will be a plumber and fix your tap for you“, he said



"Thank you my darling, I would like that, Ammi needs someone in her life to fix a tap"



"Why doesn't Abba fix the tap Ammi?"



"Abba doesn’t know how to fix the tap baby…"



"Why not Ammi? Abba is so clever!"



"He is my darling, but he was always too busy studying instead of learning to fix taps, and now he is too busy working to try. We will now have to call someone to do it"





The next day out came the plumber. R500 and a spent washer later we had ourselves a newly fixed tap.



My husband and I both have tertiary qualifications but we do not know how to fix a tap. We don’t know how to change spark plugs, or fix the electricity thingamabobby that shorted out. We don't know how to sort out the sewage pouring through our gardens, and have never plastered our walls.



These are useful skills. Thinking back, wouldn’t it have been awesome to learn how to build a chicken coop or lay the foundations for a concrete pathway instead of wasting my youth behind a Tv screen or sitting in assembly listening to our principle rant on about the state of the school toilets?



Couldn't I have been doing pottery with my friends rather than gossiping with them on the playground about the "wretch" in math class?



I never used my hands much except to write endless lines upon lines of knowledge I would most likely never get to see or experience in real life.



Now when I want to try to learn skills, everything costs so much money. No one wants to impart knowledge without it being this formal workshop that costs an arm and a leg because they need to pay for a venue, make money and print out indemnity forms.



When things go wrong in my home, I cannot fix these things myself, and so I call people to fix it for me which is always such an expensive affair. You Tube can show me how to do it, but it overwhelms me to try to learn it all by myself. When I ask the workmen coming to my home if they could teach us how to do what they do, they politely decline or diplomatically say they will think about it and get back to me and never do.



When I ask on social groups if there is anyone willing to teach my children something that they know, the silence is deafening. And no, I cannot be spending thousands of rands to attend workshops for everything I wish to learn that could be taught by an artisan in all of 15 minutes.



I want my kids to know these useful things that I never learnt. I want their minds to be filled with beneficial knowledge instead of the names and ages of the latest boy band. I want them to learn to use their hands so that in old age they can still keep using their hands because of muscle memeory even when their body or brain is failing them.



I am now on a mission to learn 1 skill every few months. Just 1.

So if this means I need to pay for it, then fine. OR if I must trawl through You Tube, okay then. However I would just be so grateful if someone who found that skill easy could just share it with it us from the goodness of their being so that we may have lots of useful adults in many years to come instead of two tertiary educated adults who have to pay for everything they need done around them.

I recently picked up an inexpensive loom from a charity store and made a bag for my daughter to play with. My kids saw me create something using my own hands from beginning to end. They saw me trawl through you tube to find videos to show me how to do it because the instructions were in german .

Invaluable learning right there.


Do you have a skill you would like to share and an easy way to learn it. Post in the comments below

-RM

Read aloud secret number 3 
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
*Audiobooks count as read alouds!*
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
 Who says that YOU have to ALWAYS be the one who reads aloud to your children? 
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Audiobooks carry the same benefits as any read aloud, with the bonus of giving your voice a rest.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
In fact, as parents we have found that listening to others masterfully reading aloud stories has improved our own read aloud abilities too :)
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
 So find an audio story that you all will love (we will do a roundup on where you can find them in our next few posts), grab a cup of coffee and an adult colouring book (or knitting or puzzle or whatever YOU enjoy) and also reap the benefits of being read aloud to!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Parenting hack that we've discovered : Use audio stories as an alternative to screen time. Give yourself some quiet time, or get on with some work you may have, whilst your kids enjoy a story. 
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
(How do we listen to audiobooks?
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Usually, we use a Bluetooth speaker. I bluetooth the audiobook from my device or tablet to the speaker. The speaker is portable and kids take it wherever they are in the house - even outside.   They also sometimes listen via a tablet. The screen is locked and they usually leave it aside whilst they’re playing LEGOs or doing handstands.)
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Read Aloud: Maths

Maths.... some love it, some hate it. But most kids enjoy listening to a story.

Enter 'living books' for maths.
Books that show maths in a real life application, that present a concept in an engaging way. The books we've used have been colourful, enjoyable and memorable.

There's lots of websites that will give you a list of story books according to topics, with suggestions to check your library. A few years later, I'm still waiting for our local library to get any of the books I've been requesting.
There are a plethora of books out there, and as it's unlikely that South African libraries will have many (or any) of the titles, a couple of things have helped stretch my book budget:

Youtube read alouds. Not ideal, but they worked. I then chose a few to purchase through takealot. Ebook apps like Reading IQ and Scribd (both are subscription based, but free trials available to try). We read the Sir Cumference Series (more on that later) through these apps. I also managed to find some books second hand.

Once you've read the book – don't stop there. The books often include activity suggestions or discussion points, and if they don't, there are websites that have free printables based on these books.

There's too many maths living books to list here, but here are some websites to help you explore:

This was my starting point. Some links may not work, but it's still a good resource.
https://www.livingmath.net/reader-index

Denise Gaskins has put together a great list. We've used quite a few from the Elementary and Middle School section (side note: be sure to explore her website! She has fantastic maths games that don’t require more than a pack of cards or dice)
https://denisegaskins.com/living-math-books/

Maths Through Stories: The website includes books that weren't written with the intention to teach a maths concept, but can be used to illustrate one. The books they've listed include some which are available in our local libraries, and the website also has free lessons to download and use alongside the titles.
https://www.mathsthroughstories.org/

This website has free downloadable short stories with activities.
http://stern.buffalostate.edu/CSMPProgram/Storybooks/byage.html

When my kids were younger, we loved all books by Stuart J Murphy. We purchased a couple from takealot. The author has read aloud videos on his website
https://www.mathstart.net/
with free printable activities. He has over 60 books, aimed at kids Pre K - 4th Grade.

Marilyn Burns is another favorite maths story book author. Her book, Spaghetti and Meatballs for All, has us in laughter each time we read it. It's a fantastic way to learn about perimeter. We've also read The Greedy Triangle numerous times, focusing on different aspects of shapes each time we read it.

Sir Cumference Series by Cindy Neuschwander, is an amazing series. We have used printables from Math Geek Mama
https://mathgeekmama.com/teaching-math-with-sir-cumference/
and a wonderful unit on Real Life Statistics by Sandra Balisky (on Teachers Pay Teachers) that dovetailed beautifully with Sir Cumference and the Off the Chart Desserts. Some books in the series cover concepts like angles, and, yes, circumference, so may be suited for slightly older children, but kids as young as seven will enjoy listening to the stories.

One last book I'd like to mention, is How Much is Million by David M Schwartz. I purchased this book from a second hand book group, and I was delighted. A million is so abstract to young children, and I loved how this book made it just a little more tangible.

Do you read maths story books? Which ones have you enjoyed?

Tips for Teaching Math with Sir Cumference Teaching math with Sir Cumference makes it fun and engaging! These books are clever and entertaining, and teach important math at the same time.