Employing best practices for teaching mathematics like math manipulatives, children's literature picture books, and GeoGebra can all be connected and better help to prepare students for a STEM world to develop confident young individuals in doing mathematics in a world of AI, distance learning, and online with emerging technologies. This paper will highlight all the above best practices and share how they can be connected and taught to make math meaningful and help learners be confident with technology and mathematics in a way that helps them see math in a hands-on, visual, and abstract way. Students can digitally engage with GeoGebra, Virtual and actual math manipulatives, and children's math literature/picture books. This paper will give a synopsis of the theory of these best practices, discuss manipulatives, the use of GeoGebra software in learning mathematics, and show the connections between picture books and everyday life math skills. Using such best practices in mathematics aims to develop confident young learners for a STEM and AI world where so much of the technology now focuses on AI and emerging technologies to stimulate learners, creating blazing new pathways for digital engagement in mathematics learning.