When students are in the grammar stage of learning, picture books and reading aloud take center stage.  According to the classical tradition, students in the grammar stage are repetitive creatures.  They love to read the same books over and over and often end up memorizing large chunks of information.  Through repetition, these children easily memorize everything from poems to commercials. 

How do we utilize this strength in math education?

One of the grammar stage goals for any course of study is vocabulary.  Learning what words mean and how they are used in context is a major focus to expand comprehension. Teaching children the vocabulary of mathematics is a great way to help prepare them for higher level mathematics.  Often, high school students find themselves not just having to learn how to compute large equations, but the terms used to describe each equation are also foreign.  This quickly leads to a student becoming overwhelmed. 

There are numerous books written for younger students that introduce them to higher level math vocabulary.  These books are written to be fun and include such things as knights on a quest or old riddles. 

One of the most prominent book series for mathematics vocabulary is the Sir Cumference series.  Sir Cumference is a king who is faced with adventures among which one leads him to choose a round table, and another to discover the value of pi. 

The Sir Cumference series is fun, engaging, and worth reading over and over.  By the time your children have read through the short series, they will have been introduced to numerous mathematical terms and will be well on their way to understanding mathematics.