For grades 3-5
48-page softcover illustrated textbook, 8.5” x 11”
Includes 3 separate double page pamphlets: Vick’s Vet Clinic, Sadie’s Pet Grooming and Barky Pet Supply, consisting of price lists of various services to be used in completing the lessons in the textbook.
Published by Trigger Memory Systems https://school-workbooks.com/
By Jennie Winters and Marillee Flanagan
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Assessed by Michael Leppert
Pet Math is an ingenious way to present and reinforce math facts in an enjoyable and useful way through “story” problems. Most households have pets; children are typically drawn to dogs and cats, especially, so creating a math program revolving around pet care and feeding is a win-win product. Pet Math provides a real-life application of math, making the concepts easy to grasp and remaining with your child for life!
The story problems in the textbook provide instructions to use one of the pamphlets to obtain relevant price information to use in answering numerous questions. For instance, in one pamphlet are 3 receipts for Grooming services. Referring to the pamphlet’s price list, the child calculates the total cost of the 3 receipts; then the child calculates what change s/he would receive from paying the receipts with 3 $20 bills; then change from a $100 bill and finally, if you paid for receipt #3 with a $200 gift card, how much money would remain on the card. Math does not get any more “real” than that and your child will develop a sense of the actual value of money from working through Pet Math.
But Pet Math is not just about money. The next situation presented is about pet care at home. Brian brings home a new dog and a new cat from the pound. He will be scooping the waste from each animal and there is a chart to help the student calculate (1) how many piles Brian will scoop for each animal in 2 and 4 week durations; (2) using another pamphlet price list, the student calculates the cost of one month’s supply of dog waste bags and cat litter, necessary to accomplish the work and then, 3 month’s worth of the same supplies. For a child with a first-time pet, this lesson provides insight into pet care matters, as well as math-related issues.
Pet Math includes graphs and charts, multiplication and division problems, area and perimeter problems and data analysis.
All of Pet Math’s 48 pages follow this method. It is well-established that learning via fun is vastly more effective than learning via rote; there is no doubt that your child will be eager to do Pet Math every day and will retain the thinking and facts contained – some lessons might require a bit of review — but the enjoyment of using the Pet Math program will lead you and your child to apply the same lessons to your own pet care and costs, quietly reinforcing the concepts and math skills set forth in the program. Visit the website for complete cost and ordering information. MjL
