We’re starting a new series on the K5 Learning blog where we’ll be introducing children’s book authors to you, our readers. Our first author is a very talented math teacher with a doctorate in math education who applied her skills to a series of math puzzle books for kids. Evelyn tells us about her books in her own words.
By Evelyn B. Christensen, Ed.D.
Hi! I’m an award-winning author with a doctorate in math education and more than 13 years of teaching experience in the elementary classroom. I love to create resources to help make learning fun for children. Over 40 of my educational puzzle books have been published. You can find information about them at http://evelynchristensen.com.
I wrote my first puzzle book when I was a stay-at-home mom with three small children. The idea was sparked by a gift of colored paperclips from one of my children to a sibling. I was fooling around with those clips one day, entertaining the kids, and I thought, “I should be able to do something ‘neat’ with these. Most math manipulatives are so expensive, but anybody can afford paperclips.” The result, Clip Clue Puzzles, was a set of fun logic puzzles in which you use clues to try to determine the correct color order of the clips in a chain.
More ideas and more books followed. Many parents (and teachers, too) have found them to be helpful, so that sales have now topped 350,000--something I never imagined at the beginning.
Are you looking for ideas for your own children? Maybe they need practice mastering math facts? My Math Mosaic books from MindWare or my Math Busters from Fat Brain Toys provide fun ways to do that. Do you want to introduce your kindergartner to adding/ subtracting or your first grader to measurement? My award-winning Inchimals is a set of delightful animal rods, measuring 1-inch to 12-inches, accompanied by a full-color, write-on/wipe-off activity book. Is your fourth or fifth grader itching for an extra math challenge to stretch their thinking? My Aba-Conundrums, winner of a Parents’ Choice Award, is a set of math puzzles based on the abacus.
My newest book, just out from MindWare, is Coin Clues: Making Change. It’s 100 puzzles that give children practice making change with money at the same time they’re using their logic, math, and reading skills.
In addition to my books, my website is a helpful resource for parents, providing free puzzles and learning activities for their children. Many of the puzzles are ones the whole family can enjoy working on together. When children see parents getting excited about mind-stretching activities, then they’re more likely to view learning challenges in a positive light themselves.
Wishing you and the children you know an exciting learning year.
