ALL Mathy Merchandise on Sale Now

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Cool Cats Play Math T-shirt

April has been a crazy month here at my little one-person business, which means promotion fell through the cracks.

I try to run a sale on something every month, to give you a reason to drop by my Playful Math Store. And I’m supposed to post blogs and social media about the discount, so nobody misses saving money on something they’ve been waiting for.

This month’s sale was a hefty 20% off every bit of mathy merchandise in the store. Cool T-shirts, fun mugs, handy totebags, and more!

My plan was to offer a big discount before all the tariffs kick in and mess up my pricing, since even items that are produced in the US often use components from overseas, which makes me expect prices to rise over the coming months.

Continue reading ALL Mathy Merchandise on Sale Now

Skit: The Handshake Problem

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
The handshake problem

If seven people meet at a party, and each person shakes the hand of everyone else exactly once, how many handshakes are there in all?

Our homeschool co-op held an end-of-semester assembly. Each class was supposed to demonstrate something they had learned.

I threatened to hand out a ten question pop quiz on integer arithmetic, but instead my pre-algebra students presented this skit.

Download a Printable Script

Cast

1-3 narrators (or more, if you have a large group)
7 friends (non-speaking parts, adjust to fit your group)

Props

Each friend will need a sheet of paper with a number written on it big and bold enough to be read by the audience. The numbers needed are 0, 1, 2, 3, … up to one less than the number of friends. Each friend keeps his paper in a pocket until needed.

Continue reading Skit: The Handshake Problem

Charlotte Mason Math: Living Books

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
“The Reading Lesson” painting by Jonathan Pratt, public domain

[An addendum to my earlier Charlotte Mason Math series.]

“Our business is to give [children] mind-stuff, and both quality and quantity are essential. Naturally, each of us possesses this mind-stuff only in limited measure, but we know where to procure it; for the best thought the world possesses is stored in books; we must open books to children, the best books; our own concern is abundant provision and orderly serving.”

— Charlotte Mason, Toward A Philosophy of Education

Most homeschool teachers, whatever our curriculum or schooling approach, understand the importance of teaching with living books. We read aloud biographies, historical fiction, or the classics of literature. We scour library shelves for the most creative presentations of scientific topics that interest our children, and encourage our high school students to go back to the original documents whenever possible.

And we teach math with a textbook.

Not that textbooks are inherently bad, because math is an abstract science. We need to meet the ideas  — the “mind-stuff” — of math on their own terms, and textbooks can help with that.

But it’s not enough.

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Musings: Math Is a Social Game

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
photo of three young girls talking about numbers

Childhood Memories

When I was in school, math was something each person did on their own for homework, quizzes or tests.

Even when the teacher sent us to work on the chalkboard, each person did their own problem. We would never think to collaborate on math.

To look at someone else’s answer was considered cheating.

Continue reading Musings: Math Is a Social Game

Morning Coffee: Anyone Can Learn Math

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Morning Coffee Lifelong Learning for Parents

One of the best ways we can help our children learn mathematics (or anything else) is to be lifelong learners ourselves.

Here are a few stories to read as you sip your morning brew:

Once again, my rabbit hole started with a thought-provoking blog post from Dan Finkel…

“Not everyone can become a great artist — but a great artist can come from anywhere.”
—Ego, from Ratatouille

    “Ego’s parsing of the phrase anyone can cook is not obvious, and it’s not really the primary meaning of the phrase. The truth is, there are really three meanings all wrapped up there: anyone can learn to have the joy and pleasure of cooking in their life, even if they don’t become a master chef. Some people will get serious about it. And the visionaries who change the way we think about the art can come from anywhere — lock them out of the field and we all suffer.”
    —Dan Finkel

    Read more about how anyone can learn math in this third installment of professional development for homeschooling parents.

     
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    “Morning Coffee: Anyone Can Learn Math” copyright © 2025 by Denise Gaskins. Image at the top of post copyright © Kira auf der Heide / Unsplash.