Addition Facts that Stick: Help Your Child Master the Addition Facts for Good in Just Six Weeks

I homeschool my child to stay away from books like these. I was recommended this book for my child to get ready for first grade and after reading it and feeling LOST on first-grade math I was confused and looked up common core math and that's what this is. A simplified version of it. I loved how the author states in the beginning that she "realized kids these days needed to learn basic math problems like 4+7 because they didn't know them anymore as they used too." That is paraphrasing and not an exact quote but that was her reason for writing this book. The reason kids don't know math is because they have to read stuff like this. I taught college years ago and each year I taught the new students coming in were dumber than the last because they had less and less of real education and more of this kind of stuff. Parents if you are wondering what to do. Stay away. Colleges don't accept common core math and will not accommodate for it so what you are doing to your kids is making everything so much harder.

After a weird 4th quarter of school this past year thanks to COVID we decided to transfer our kids to a different school in our area, one that works a year ahead in math. While my kids know their addition and subtraction facts for the most part, their speed is down and I didn’t think they were problem solving their faces well (like thinking of 5+6 as 1 more than 5+5 which they should know quickly is 10.

This book is designed to take 4 days per lesson; however, I’ve been doing 2 days per lesson so that we will have time this summer to also go through the subtraction book and maybe (if we are really diligent) also be able to do some multiplication.

My kids really like the games (like playing Go Fish to make pairs that make 10) and tolerate the worksheets for review. I’ve made the worksheets fun this summer as well by having them rollerblade to the door and back between each question, etc, just to make it more fun too.

I would recommend this for any student who has already had a small intro to addition, although you could likely introduce them as you go, and for any older elementary students who could use a boost with speed.

The only reason this book doesn’t get a full 5 stars from me is because the game boards would really be ideally printed on card stock, so I made copies of those pages on card stock. It might work for gentle students on regular paper but my kids are just rough.

Two more small notes:
1. This book is a consumable for one child, or you can make photocopies for other children. It’s fine, but I just wish I had known that before purchasing or I may have purchased two instead of making copies every lesson to make it work for us this summer.

2. Make sure you’ve got a deck of cards, two types of counters (like red and blue buttons or whatever), and a coin.

I wish I could give this 6 stars. I really do! The lessons are so easy and concise; you can open up the book and gather the materials (pennies or other counters, deck of cards, etc.) in a matter of minutes. I'm really impressed with Kate Snow's methodology and application of math concepts. Her games are ingenious.

We just finished up Week 4 with an almost 6 year old, and the only game he didn't absolutely love was the first one. All the other ones have been a hit, and even that first one was pretty much a hit. He begs me to play extra rounds of the games with him, and he begs me to teach him more math lessons.

I'm amazed to see how playing these games and visualizing on the ten-frame has increased his confidence and speed. We have done a lot of work with cuisinaire rods using Miquon Math and the Math Enhancement Programme, but a lot of the math facts weren't sticking. I am so thankful that Kate wrote this book, and that I happened upon it. I wish she could write full math curricula for K-12. Please, Kate! It's not too much to ask, is it ;-)

we're homeschooling 1st grade but we wrapped up our Singapore Math curriculum in March and rather than plow through to 2nd grade, I decided on the recommendation of homeschooling friends, to pause and really cement the math facts in my son's mind before moving on. We're finishing up week 6 now and the difference is stunning! He used to get frustrated trying to remember his addition facts or just throw out haphazard guesses, but now they're really part of his memory! The games are easy and fun, the lessons completely simple to deliver, and the practice sheets just right! After this we're going to move on to the Subtraction Facts that stick. I absolutely recommend working this into your homeschool, or for my public school friends using it to shore up these basics this summer before moving onto 2nd grade. Older students could definitely benefit too!

This book does not help a child memorize their addition facts with games and activities. It just teaches to manually count each time using a ten frame-my daughter already has a better book for math practice or understanding what addition is. The 'games' consist of a board with the numbers 6-10 on it or 3 bingo pages which they're supposed to mark each time they manually count an addition problem using their own go fish or card deck. Now I'm stuck with a book we'll never use, and I need to find something else to help my daughter memorize her math facts.

I bought this book in conjunction with Subtraction Facts that Stick by the same author. My 7 year old son did not struggle with the concept of addition but the execution was slow because he did not have his math facts memorized. I decided to just pause the other work we were doing with him for math and just drill down on his math facts to see if it would help.

We finished up this book 2 weeks ago and started the next book, Subtraction Facts that Stick. As he was working on the subtraction facts he had never seen before, he was spouting them off because he made the connection that 8-5= 3 was easy now that he has 5+3 = 8 memorized. He looked at me with a huge smile and proclaimed that he now thinks math might actually be fun. I wanted to cry! This is the same boy who was also shedding tears-- of anger and frustration-- just a few months ago. Although the ah-ha moment of liking math now was declared during Subtraction Facts that Stick, it was because of Addition Facts that Stick that we got to that point.

Each week consists of a lesson (very well written out and it tells you what to say and do) on day 1 as well as learning a simple math game. Days 2-5 each week they have a practice math sheet and you play the game. Unlike other math we were doing, he did not fight me or tell me it was too hard.

Guys-- this is absolutely worth the money. I highly suggest it for any kids who are struggling with their relationship with math and addition facts!

Returned this book. It's really about teaching kids concepts using manipulatives, which is what they are taught at school. This is a great approach, but not helpful for us as my daughter just needed to build fluency with her addition facts.

A brilliant book! See my review for Subtraction Facts that Stick. If you hate the thought of rote memorization of math facts, then these books are for you. I started my daughter with this book and then completed Subtraction Facts - she learned all her facts this summer and is now applying what she's learned in school and breezing through :)

This book seemed to complicate a very simple subject to my kids... seems easier to just memorize the math facts. The worksheets seemed very involved and not practical for busy families. We returned and simply spent time memorizing the math facts, faster and easier with our kids.

Our 7 yr. old son is blind in one eye and has been going thru multiple surgeries (long story). I have homeschooled all four of my children and he is the last..but the only one that could not grasp the principles and strategies I taught the other 3 kids. We used Ray's Arithmetic Series and transitioned into Lifepac Math curriculum for all 3 of them. He has been the only child that could not grasp anything higher than the addition facts for 2's. Being sight impaired in the right eye, we figured out that he couldn't visualize the way I had taught the other children. This curriculum by Kate Snow has helped us in so many ways. I bought the multiplication fact and the division facts for our 10 year old to use. He knows all of his multiplication facts and can add/subtract etc in his head. But, Kate Snow's way of teaching is a great way to learn and I found that this has helped him grasp his facts a little better. We haven't tried the division fact book yet, but we will be in a few weeks. I am purchasing the subtraction facts book this week, because our 7 yr. old is almost done with the addition facts book.
I searched and searched, watched many videos, and perused many curriculums and found that her curriculum to be the best fit. If you watch her videos, she explains it very well.