25 Best Math Books for Homeschooling (Think Outside the Curriculum!)

This post shares a booklist of the best math books for homeschooling, NOT including curriculum! These are picture books, story books, and anthologies that illustrate and explain math concepts. Take a break from the workbooks and read one of the best homeschool math books instead!

This will come as no surprise to anyone who’s been here for a while, but we do most of our homeschooling by simply reading good books and talking about them. Each year I seem to buy less formal curriculum and more old books… and I’m not mad about it. We’ve used some workbooks at certain points, but in general they’re not my favorite (and, for most kids, they’re usually not the best way to learn things).

However, for most of my homeschool career I have felt that math was different. Math is the one subject where you have to use individual, grade-level course books, and a workbook or two to go along with it probably wouldn’t hurt. There isn’t any other way to teach math – is there?

Actually, there is.

Enter: math picture books! We discovered this fantastic genre a few years ago, and they are so much fun. Now, for the record, we still do use a traditional math curriculum, and I still believe it is valuable. We don’t plan to quit it anytime soon. However, these books that I will share with you today are a gentle way to introduce or reinforce the concepts your children might be learning.

Another bonus to math picture books is that you can read them with all your 935 children at once! Okay, no, you probably don’t have quite that many – but it sure feels like it sometimes when you’re all piled on the couch and everyone is climbing over each other in an attempt to see the pictures.

Anything we can do all together as a family is a big win in my homeschooling book. Sure, the kindergartener probably still won’t understand fractions by the end of it, but she will enjoy a fun story with her siblings, and she will also come away with a basic familiarity with the vocabulary related to fractions – which will serve her well later on.

So, without further ado, here are our top favorite (non-curriculum) math books for homeschooling. I’ve organized them into three different genres, all of which are fantastic though for different reasons. Take a peek, and add a few of them to your library list!

Also, if you have any favorites that I’ve missed, leave a comment and let me know! I love love love hearing new book recommendations.

Stories and Adventures

These books are some of our favorites, because they are actual stories that you can sit down and read through in one sitting. Some are fictional, some are real, but all of them have to do with actual, useful math, and the people who have fallen in love with it. What could be better?

Fractions in Disguise
What’s Your Angle, Pythagoras?
Pythagoras and the Ratios
Multiplying Menace: the Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin
The Multiplying Menace Divides
Rabbits Rabbits Everywhere
Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci
The Librarian Who Measured the Earth
The Sir Cumference series (there are many, but here a few of the ones we’ve loved best)

Picture Books

These books do not necessarily have a “story” or plot, but they do use beautiful pictures to illustrate a specific math concept – which I put in parentheses, so you can tell which one might be best for your kiddos at this particular time! Even children who might be still too young to fully understand the concept can still enjoy reading through the book and looking at the pictures (and, unbeknownst to them, getting a gentle introduction to math vocabulary and ideas at the same time!).

The Power of Snow (powers)
What in the World (number patterns in nature)
A Million Dots (visualizing one million)
If You Were an Even Number (even numbers)
If You Were a Plus Sign (addition)
A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars (visualizing billions and trillions)
Infinity: Figuring Out Forever (infinity)
Math Curse (a series of math “problems”)

four math books for homeschooling lying on the floor

Anthologies

These books are larger, more comprehensive books that cover a multitude of math concepts. Their benefit lies in the illustrations (often more frequent, detailed, and interesting than a regular textbook) and also in alternative ways of explaining concepts. Perhaps a different viewpoint will help the ideas to click in your child’s mind!

These are NOT the sort of books where you would sit down and read it every word straight through (unless you happen to have a particularly math-loving, fact-loving child), but they are great fun just for flipping through! Put a few out and see what page catches your (or your child’s) eye.

more math picture books for homeschooling lying on the floor

Conclusion

Friends, every subject you might want to teach in your homeschool will be better with a good book or five. Even MATH, that dreaded and intimidating colossus, can be made beautiful and interesting through picture books! It feels just a tiny bit miraculous.

I hope that one or more of these books will inspire you to check out the math section of your library, grab a few books to haul home with you, and spend some cozy time reading (about math) to your child. Cheers!

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