For kids who don't enjoy math, it can be challenging to get them to practice skills -- whether its during the school year or during a long break over the summer. If there's no homework, why exercise those mental muscles? It's more fun to bake brownies or play outside!

Thanks to author and teacher Ann McCallum, though, there's a great way to combine the excitement of baking with math problems. Each section of McCallum's book, aimed at kids ages 7 to 11, includes an algorithm, or a step-by-step recipe, for making a tasty math project. While making Fibonacci Snack Sticks, kids are introduced to Leonardo Fibonacci, the Italian mathematician who popularized the now-famous Fibonacci sequence. For those who already love math, there are "Math Appateasers" that offer creative outlets for digging deeper into the issues covered; for those who find math intimidating, it's a great hands-on way to make patterns, geometry, and probability less mysterious.

Visit the Kitchen Explorers page for more information on the book and a recipe for Tessellating Two-Color Brownies! http://www.pbs.org/parents/kitchenexplorers/2011/07/05/eat-your-math-homework/