Early Book Review: Outdoor Math: Fun Activities for Every Season by Emma AdBage

Outdoor Math: Fun Activities for Every Season by Emma AdBage is a book that helps parents, teachers, and children to find ways to get outside and do some math at the same time. It is currently scheduled for release on April 1 2016. The book includes twenty-two outdoor activities, organized by season. With these activities, children will learn about numeracy and arithmetic, as well as math concepts such as shapes, time, greater/less than, even and odd numbers, patterns and grids. The activities have simple-to-follow instructions and are accompanied by adorable illustrations that provide clear visual demonstrations. The natural materials required (stones, pinecones, snowballs, worms) are easy to find in many environments. Supplementary spreads introduce the numbers 1 to 10 and further explore addition/subtraction and multiplication/division, with simplified explanations and illustrated examples. There are also science lessons here, regarding the properties of nature and how things change during the four seasons. Many of the activities can be done in pairs or groups, promoting teamwork and cooperation. A list of activities in the back matter indexes the activities and categorizes them by the math skills they develop.

Outdoor Math is full of pictures and detailed instructions and suggestions for engaging children in games that can help solidify math concepts. There are some very simple games and activities for the youngest learners such as working with shapes, there were more advanced activities that included multiplication and division. I think some of the games and pictures seemed a little dated to me, like the guides my teachers and parents had when I was a kid, the ideas are still sound and would be engaging for the right children. I did like that there was a good variety of games to chose from, and some for every season. It is a useful book, one that would be a good resource to have on hand or for checking out of the library and making copies of the activities you are most likely to implement with your own children or the group you work with or care for.

Outdoor Math is a great resource for parents and teachers to have at their disposal. Using these activities they can help teach or reinforce math lesson, all while having the children playing outside and active. A win-win as far as I am concerned.