Authors try to make math and magic come together for kids

For most people, math and magic are two words that don't go together. Not so for Annette Payne.

Payne, an educator who lives in Cedar Hills, recently published a series of picture books titled "Me + Math = Magic," which teachers and parents can use to help students learn essential math concepts at an early age.

"Nine out of 10 adults and children I talk to admit that math is not their favorite subject and that they have very little confidence in their ability to do it," Payne said.

Payne hopes to change that through her books.

Payne came up with the book series when she took a long-term substitute position in a Title 1 school, where pre-testing scores for kindergartners in math and other subjects, such as word recognition, were very low.

Payne found that kindergarten students in these schools who are behind in their reading skills find it very hard to catch up. For this reason, most of the kindergarten curriculum is focused on helping kids learn to read, and not much time was spent working on math.

"What I realized was that kids don't have a firm foundation in math concepts when they moved on from kindergarten" Payne said. "And because of this, kids get behind, and they get frustrated, and that's why they don't like math. So I thought, if we had a way to introduce math concepts in a way that helped kids connect with their environment, they would have more of an opportunity to understand it."

Payne joined with her daughter, Caytlin Sampson, a math specialist who works in the Jordan School District, and her daughter-in-law, Megan Payne, a graphic designer, to create the math magic series.

The series includes five books that introduce concepts such as patterns, sorting, counting and shapes. In order to engage young children, the concepts are introduced using colorful illustrations and talking animals.

"Our goal was to introduce math through literature," Payne said.

Payne has also published a resource book as a companion to the picture books for teachers and parents to use.

"We tried to make these books teacher- and parent- friendly, because we want both to use them," Payne said. She said the book offers teaching ideas for teachers, and ideas for learning activities parents can do at home. "We've found that students are better prepared to learn at school if their parents are helping them learn at home," she said.