Have you met Sir Cumference? A living book approach to math

If you are looking for out of the box, fun ways to engage your kids in learning about math and math concepts, then I’d like to introduce you to Sir Cumference!

Making Math Fun with Sir Cumference

He’s such a wonderful person, along with his wife, Lady Di, and son, Radius. His friends can’t be beat either -King Arthur, Geo of Metry, Sym, Sir D’Grees, King Lell, Per, Countess Areana, Vertex, Sir Tangent, Sir Lionel Segment and others.

Living in Camelot under King Arthur, Sir Cumference and his buddies must work through many complications that require mathematical and logical thinking. During visits to such places as the Mountains of Obtuse, Angleland and the Isle of Immeter, people must be rescued, clues must be found and problems must be solved!

The stories are full of action and suspense that have kept my children enthralled time and time again.  The author, Cindy Neuschwander, is an absolute genius in the creativity of these books! It’s beyond me how the books not only have a great plot, but teach math concepts within the storyline – and don’t lose any qualities of living literature in the process!

Depending on the book(s) you read, the following concepts are covered:

• Circumference
• Diameter
• Radius
• Pi
• Angles
• Lines
• Measurement
• Perimeter
• Area
• 3-D shapes
• Counting by 10’s, 100’s, 1,000’s

These are the 12 Books in the Sir Cumference Series

1. Sir Cumference and the First Round Table – King Arthur was a good ruler, but now he needs a good ruler. What would you do if the neighboring kingdom were threatening war? Naturally, you’d call your strongest and bravest knights together to come up with a solution. But when your conference table causes more problems than the threat of your enemy, you need expert help. Enter Sir Cumference, his wife Lady Di of Ameter, and their son Radius. With the help of the carpenter, Geo of Metry, this sharp-minded team designs the perfect table conducive to discussing the perfect plan for peace.
2. And the Dragon of Pi – This time the math adventure is centered around a potion that changes Sir Cumference into a fire-breathing dragon. Can Radius change him back? Join Radius on his quest through the castle to solve a riddle that will reveal the cure. It lies in discovering the magic number that is the same for all circles.
3. The great Knight of Angleland – In this third installment of the beloved Sir Cumference series, Radius must prove himself on his quest for knighthood by rescuing a king. Sent off with the family medallion for luck, Radius dodges dangers and dragons. The ultimate challenge lies in a mysterious castle with a maze of many angles.
4. The Sword in the Cone – King Arthur has issued a challenge. The first knight to find the sword Edgecalibur will be the next king. Join Sir Cumference, Lady Di of Ameter, and their son, Radius, as they race to help their friend Vertex discover the secrets of cubes, pyramids, cylinders, and cones—and find the sword! 
5. The Isle of Immeter – When young Per visits her uncle Sir Cumference and his family, she learns how to play the game, “Inners and Edges.” After she finds a clue linking the game to the mysterious castle on the island of Immeter, she must figure out how to find the perimeter and area of a circle to unlock the island’s secret.
6. All the King’s Tens – Sir Cumference and Lady Di planned a surprise birthday party for King Arthur, but they didn’t expect so many guests to show up. How many lunches will they need? And with more guests arriving by the minute, what about dinner? Sir Cumference and Lady Di count guests by tens, hundreds, and even thousands to help young readers learn place-value. 
7. The Viking’s Map – While riding through the forests of Angleland, cousins Per and Radius realize they are lost and are desperate for a map to guide them home. Soon they come across a mysterious house in the hills. Inside they find a map to a treasure belonging to Xaxon Yellowbearyd, the fiercest Viking warrior of his time. Per and Radius must decode the strange numbered grid on the map, while trying to steer clear of the pack of bungling bandits who are on their tail. Will they find the treasure in time?
8. Off-the-Charts Dessert – Sir Cumference and Lady Di need a baker to prepare a special dessert for the annual Harvest Faire. Two bakers compete to see whose dessert is most popular. When Pia of Chartres and Bart Graf have trouble keeping track of the votes their desserts receive, they each develop a better system. Pia places a colored candy around the edges of a pie dough (like a pie chart), and Bart stacks up cookie tins (making a 3D bar graph). When there’s a tie, the two chefs cook up a hybrid dessert just in time for the Faire.
9. The Roundabout Battle – When Steward Edmund Rounds and Sir Cumference notice that there are strangers camped nearby, Rounds II decides to investigate despite being involved with the task of learning how to make accurate counts of the castle’s stores of food, supplies, and weaponry. When he reports back that an enemy is lying in wait, everyone moves quickly to defend the castle. But wait! Will Rounds II be able to figure out how many bows and arrows they have to create an appropriate battle plan? Using rounding techniques to figure out the totals more quickly, Rounds II is just in time to help stave off a potentially disastrous attack. 
10. Sir Cumference and the Fraction Faire – Sir Cumference and Lady Di discover “Fracton numbers” while purchasing cloth and cheese at the Fracton Faire. While two-fourths may seem like the same as one-half, in truth it denotes two parts of one-half, or two quarters of the whole. But the real mystery is the fact that items at the fair keep disappearing, and Sir C, Lady Di, and the Earl of Fracton must set a numeric trap for the thief, teaching an important lesson along the way about the comparative size of fractions.
11. Gets Decima’s Point – This time the focus is back on Pia of Chartres from Sir Cumference and the Off-the-Charts Dessert. She is kidnapped by a family of ogres–Tentt, the father, Hoondrit, the mother, and their ten daughters, Una to Decima. Pia is asked to help the ogres prepare a feast for a large celebration, which will involve tens, hundreds, even thousands of pieces of dessert!
12. Sir Cumference and the 100 PerCent Goose Chase – Percilla Centwell and Lady Di are off to Gaggleston-on-Green to deliver Percilla’s flock of one hundred geese to the townspeople who ordered them. When some of the geese go missing on the way, Percilla and Lady Di must figure out a way to make sure all of the customers still get their fair share of the flock. In this latest medieval math adventure, readers learn about finding percents as part of a whole by using fractions. The endnote includes step-by-step instructions for calculating percent.

Our Thoughts On Sir Cumference

Any child 1st grade and above will enjoy listening to the stories, but older children (4th grade and higher) will most likely grasp the math concepts best. I used to check the books out from the library until I almost wore my card out rechecking them! Now, I’m the proud owner of each and every one. (A CM homeschool can never have enough living literature on the bookshelves, can it?)

“If you’ve got a range of children at home who need you to teach (or reinforce) math, try a Sir Cumference book. The adventures will captivate your children, even if the younger ones don’t understand fully. The math fits nicely with upper elementary/middle school concepts, so your older children will benefit, too!” ~ Redeemed Reader

More Charlotte Mason Style Homeschool Resources

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~ Originally posted December 2009. Written by Cindy, an eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of three.