Who can benefit
The Big Yellow Book is for kids who love solving challenging math word problems. A Problem Flowchart is included in the free Home Study Guide to help students become better problem solvers.
Successfully solving math word problems requires both training and setting goals:
- Training: Learning how to analyze and persevere in solving complex math word problems.
- Goal: Successfully solving complex word problems.
The Big Yellow Book is both an instructional guide for parents and a workbook for kids. A Home Study Guide has been prepared to assist your child in gaining the most from The Big Yellow Book.
The Big Yellow Book was written by classroom teachers for classroom and homeschool teachers, and any parent who wants to stimulate her or his child’s learning. A core feature of The Big Yellow Book is questions teachers would ask to further stimulate student learning. These questions are to be used by the students at home to expand their problem solving skills.
Recommendations for parents
- Home study requires parent involvement in directing their child’s growth in the area of mathematical problem solving.
- You do not need to be mathematically strong to support your child’s learning.
- The emphasis of Math Olympiad problems is on math thinking skills, not computation skills.
- You should encourage your child to verbally explain the material presented in the book to you.
- Your role is to listen and ask questions. Mastering problem solving requires patience and perseverance.
- To maximize benefit, students should follow the study sequence shown in the Problem Flowchart included in the Home Study Guide.
- When using The Big Yellow Book, allocate more time to solve each problem as you proceed through the book.
- Encourage your child to take as much time as needed for each problem, focusing on understanding not speed.
- Encourage your child to do work from The Big Yellow Book over an extended period of time. They may want to do some problems, leave the book for a while and return at another time.
- Each year your child’s mathematical knowledge and experience increases. Encourage your child to return to The Big Yellow Book over the years as their ability to do and understand the problems will change over time.