11 Plus Exams Forum

It's an oxymoron to me, but my daughter (end of Yr 3) really enjoys maths, much prefers it to literacy She's just about a level 4C at the mo, but really wants to be as good as some other members of her class. I'm getting her to learn her tables off by heart, but when she asks about more complicated questions I can't really explain the basic ideas clearly Can anyone recommend something? She wants a book to dip into "at bedtime, instead of a story book" - I'm not bothered about her doing exam-style questions, I'd just really like her to feel more confident (and, of course, it can only help in the future )

TIA

We have the Usborne Junior Illustrated Maths Dictionary - bitesize and very clear explanations of concepts. Great for understanding, revision and for those concepts which have come in since my time at school. There is also a more advanced version which is supposed to go up to GCSE level.

Thank you! Am off to google

Edited: That looks great, have bought it! This is such a helpful forum, cheers

The Number Devil - Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Penrose the Mathematical Cat books - Theoni Pappas

Sir Cumference series - Cindy Neuschwander

The Life of Fred books - Stanley Schmidt.

The first three are story books with maths in. The last is a series of many books - each is a maths text book written in the form of a story.

Now I am buying the Number Devil

Lots of free stuff on the internet.

http://www.nrich.maths.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; for example

Also you could look at the Primary Maths challenge questions.

Thank you aliportico - I like the look of The Number Devil too

And thanks guest55, very useful resources there.

We have the Johnny Ball book "Think of a number" which my daughter (now 10) loves, although parts were rather over her head when I got it - I had the old paperback version as a child (it went with a TV show) and found it really inspiring/interesting. It has tricks like the 9-times-table on your fingers, history of numbers etc etc.

My son loved the number devil and pen rose the mathematical cat. Also the I hate mathematics book which has lots of fun Maths activities! He still loves Maths at ten, and is looking forward to September at BIG school ( don't call it big school mum) where he knows he'll be stretched even more. Wonder if it's true hat Maths and music have an affinity. True in our household. The humanities side like art and the Maths side love music!