This book gave lots of examples / games for teaching math to kids. It was colourful, fun and very appreciated to provide new ways of demonstrating math knowledge.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Love this book. I’m excited to try a lot of these math games with my students. They’re just challenging enough to hook them, but not impossible to solve with some perseverance. I checked out the website as well, I appreciate that the materials needed for many of the puzzles can easily be downloaded.

This is a marvelous book to get students (even ones who don't enjoy 'typical' math activities) involved in and having fun with concepts such as patterns that will help them with math. Also, these activities are a lot of fun even if they didn't have a math angle!

Little Learning Labs: Math Games for Kids is a book with a number of activities for kids to learn about math (note: the title describes them as games but to me they are really activities). This is a think outside the box type of book, far outside the normal reinforce math facts type that you normally see. I'm afraid I fall into the population described in the intro as thinking that the activities do not look much like math. Perhaps that shows how my own math education was too much rote thinking though. I think this book would be good as an extra activity for kids in the lower grades and especially for those that enjoy hands on activities, or who have decided they don't like math at all -- as an add-on to help the child think and play with math as a creative endeavor.

Is your kid totally into math? Or maybe the opposite is true and they do everything they can to get out of completing mathematics assignments. Both traditional schoolers and homeschoolers alike struggle with mathemtaics concepts. One of my favorite ways to overcome this is through hands-on activities, especially where games are involved!

My kids really love games of all kinds. Mathematics games are a genius way to introduce as well as solidify topics in a concrete manner. I've always loved titles form Little Learning Labs. I was certainly not disappointed in this title either.

The games are arranged by topic in the table of contents making it easy for you as teacher or parent to find exactly what you need. Geometry, curves, graphs, mathematical theory and more can be covered in a clear and understandable way...even for those of us adults who are not super "mathy" by nature!

My favorite activity was right at the beginning! By using toothpicks and gum drops you can clearly explain prisms. They are 3D models...and absolutely delicious! I firmly believe that in addition to hands-on, food is a wonderful way to retain understanding!

I highly recommend this title if you are looking for some new and creative ways to present mathematical concepts.

Wow, so many of the shapes are so new and the names . so specific. I knew of mobius strip from my math degree. So its fun that kids get to know such topology. Fun activities which make concepts easy to understand.

When my children were in school, a wise teacher said to always encourage girls to do math and to let them know that they can do every bit as well in math as in English. While this book is for all children, I was reminded of how important it is to introduce math as a fun subject and one that can lead to experimentation and knowledge. Math is not just supposed to be learning the basic four functions as this book so ably proves.

Geared toward children ages six to ten (though I think older children too), the book is divided into sections on topics like geometry and fractals. The experiments and activities are very hands on and photos help to show kids what to do. Wise adults will encourage children to explore and not focus on perfection, but rather on the learning process as they do the activities that they find appealing.

Filled with things that can be done at home or school, this book is an excellent resource. Many thanks to NetGalley and Quarto for this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a great book to help children understand the concepts of geography and other areas of math. Using basic items, the labs allow kids to make things that will make the concepts real.

From the beginning, the book provides amazing projects. Who knew you could build a prism with toothpicks and gum drops? Some of the labs build on previous ones and others are independent. This helps to reinforce facts from earlier lessons. It covers old standby labs like using tape and string to make a perfect circle. However, it also shows more in-depth things such as topology and the Eulerian circuit. A fun, stitching section is also included.

This is a great book to show concepts that many people shy away from. By teaching children, the ideas found in geometry earlier in their schooling the concepts will not be as frightening later in school.

I received an ARC from Quarto Publishing through NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion or rating of this book. I am voluntarily submitting this review.

Great easy games that are filled with hands on learning experiences. Definitely will be implementing these throughout my instruction. What a great way to promote learning.

You know how there are books that you read when you think you hate math or science and you realize you actually like that subject? I'm not sure why, but this book had the opposite effect on me. I like math and like playing with math with my children, and this book made me like it less.

The book is designed to be used with kids ages 6 to 10 and features math activities where kids use some element of math like geometry or fractals while playing. Examples are drawing a big circle on the driveway with a rope and piece of chalk, graphing parabolas, and tracing eulerian circuits (copy a shape without lifting your pencil).

Parts of it were hard for me to follow and I'm much older than 10 ("The perimeter of a Sierpinski triangle is infinite. Every time we add more (smaller) triangles to a Sierpinski triangle, the perimeter gets 1.5 times larger than the previous iteration." -- I get it, but this is for a 6 year old?). I went cross-eyed trying to figure out how to set up the Creative Curves project (why are there no real steps? The materials list and steps don't match at all, and it's missing the actual instructions of what on earth the child is supposed to do). If I'm going to be perfectly honest, many of them just seemed so boring and long, too. They are so detailed. Draw this with this exact measurement all these times and then add this and then do this and then do this and add this and then you have a big shape... Do I have to?

The author has math degrees from Harvard and Michigan State and says she is one of the "pioneers" of Harvard's Internet education, Amazon.com and the Internet Revolution, despite having three small children. She clearly enjoys the subject and her children seem to as well, but past the first (basic) activities I'm not sure that most children would get as much out of them.

Most of the activities just left me feeling frustrated, bored or annoyed, which is not what I want when I try to further stoke my children's love of math. Maybe I don't like math after all? As mentioned, this is exactly the opposite of what I want in a math activity book.

I think the book is best suited for kids and parents who already love math and consider it fun for playing. Also, kids will need to be very good at details and neatness. Many of the activities will not be as successful if kids can't make very precise lines and measurements, which is not always easy for kids of this age range.

My rating system:
1 = hated it
2 = it was okay
3 = liked it
4 = really liked it
5 = love it, plan to purchase, and/or would buy it again if it was lost

I read a temporary digital ARC of the book for the purpose of review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Quarry Books for an early copy of Little Learning Labs: Math Games for Kids by Rebecca Rapoport and J. A. Yoder. This book is divided into six sections that include geometry, topology, color maps like a mathematician, stitching curves, fantastic fractals, and graph theory. It is more a book of activities and labs than games to play. I was expecting games, but the activities were still fun.

The introduction explains that “failure provides a great chance to learn” which is a great attitude to teach younger people. Each chapter starts with a “think about it” question that can be used for discussion later. Each chapter starts with a brief description of the concept for the chapter and then there are additional facts scattered throughout the book.

Some of the activities I liked the best were: drawing giant circles and ellipses with chalk, broomsticks, and string, Mobius strips, and squiggle maps.

This book provided some new ways to look at math concepts that were fun, but were not the games the title promised.

I absolutely loved this! As a math teacher and coach now I am constantly looking for hands on activities for my middle school students. These are engaging, enriching, and creative. I love how these have step by step instructions as well as list all materials needed. This is such a colorful book. It takes abstract math concepts and allows young kids to be creative and visualize math without just solving problems.

Can't wait to do some of these activities with my seven year old grandson. Gum drops and toothpicks are on my shopping list and I know we will have fun with the mobius strips. Lots of great math related activities and wonderful illustrations.

I received an electronic ARC from Quarto Publishing through NetGalley.
Introductory math challenges and puzzles for younger students. Math isn't boring or scary and these authors offer information and labs to explore various mathematics areas.
Easy to follow steps and illustrations for each challenge.
Kids will learn complex math without realizing it.

Telling a kid that the book you're gifting them has some forty pages of math might well make the kid turn and run the other way. Is math fun? Well that depends how it's done. If you lead with the idea of building 3-D shapes using toothpicks and...gumdrops, then you might get the kid's attention, and that's how this book starts out!

Not all kids are math averse, of course. Some do love it already, but for many, if they're at all like me (and hopefully they're not!), then math might seem daunting rather than haunting. The first thing you should know is that this isn't really about working with numbers, but about working with shapes and patterns, and reading this made me wonder if maybe our approach to math ought to include topics like these early - bring math to your kid as fun and games and maybe when the tougher and more numerically-oriented materials inevitably crop up, they'll be less inclined to run? I know I would have been.

Colorfully- and simply-illustrated and full of fun topics laid out intelligently and attractively, this book begins with creating shapes using toothpicks for the edges and gumdrops for the vertices, teaching about prisms and pyramids, but before your child becomes completely imprismed, the book moves on to drawing circles and ellipses, including how to create a giant one in the playground. Next up is topology and Möbius strips, which might sound scandalous to some but it really isn't, because Möbius knows where to draw the line.

This is followed by a little bit of geography and a lot of four-color maps, and then stitching curves (which commendably shows both boys and girls at work) followed by fractals. And trust me if you understand only a part of the fractal section you've got it all. Snowflakes and graph theory lead to Eulerian circuits and a trip to Königsberg which now has a much less appealing name I'm afraid to say. No! I'm not afraid to say it. I will say it! It's Kaliningrad! There, I said it!

All the solutions to the various puzzles are included toward the back of the book along with an index. I liked this book, and consider it very useful and effective way to introduce young children to math. I commend it as a worthy read.

Math has traditionally been a subject that causes anxiety for many. A great many mathematicians have been trying to change that perception lately. This book explores simple and not so simple concepts in a fun way. Truth be told, kids might not even realize that what they are doing is math!

This has some fantastic maths activities, which I know KS2 children would enjoy. It's just the right sort of low threshold-high ceiling tasks that work well with a mixed ability class. The creativity of the activities would work well to entice children who think they don't like maths or that they 'can't' do it. I liked the way that some activities could be taken outside or produced as a group on a large scale, as this would adapt well to a classroom environment. Good links to real-life maths too, e.g. the parts about patterns in nature or the city of Konigsburg. This is an attractive, clearly laid out book that could be very useful in school.

I was permitted to have this advance review copy of 'Little Learning Labs: Maths Games for Kids' in return for an objective review.

Little Learning Labs is a fun way to get kids involvd in science. II rembeer that hand on projects like this was always a call to me and I loved doing them. The book has a avariety fo activiies using diagrams and photos to supplment teh nstructions and make them easy to follow. The autor includes science tips as well as base knolwdge that is accessible to children. This is a book I would buy for my child.

Some interesting ideas that I hadn’t thought of. Wonderfully illustrated to ensure the reader understands how to deliver.