FAQ: Real Math for Early Learners

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
photo of family hiking a rocky trail

“I love your image of math as a nature walk. My children are ready to start their homeschooling journey, and I want to put them on the right track from the beginning. How can I help them think about math and problem-solving without using a textbook?”

The most difficult part of teaching our children real math is to change our own way of thinking about the subject you’ve already taken that step, so it looks like your family’s learning journey is off to a great start.

[For readers who are wondering what I mean by math as a nature walk, check out this post. You may also enjoy my article on natural learning: Math with Young Children.]

Continue reading FAQ: Real Math for Early Learners

Memories: The Oral Story Problem Game

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
photo of sheep in a field

Homeschool Memories…

Perhaps you’ve heard me mention the oral story problem game. It was one of my favorite ways to get my children thinking about math, back in our early days of homeschooling. We played in the car on the way to soccer practice, or while we washed dishes, or sitting in the lobby waiting for a doctor’s appointment.

The rules are simple: I’ll make up a math problem for you to solve. And then you make up one for me.

The kids always loved trying to stump me.

This problem from Henry Ernest Dudeney’s Amusements in Mathematics reminded me of those days. This is exactly the way my eldest loved to torture me…

Continue reading Memories: The Oral Story Problem Game

Start the New Year Right: Playful Math Carnival 177 via Math Hombre

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Talking Numbers from Playful Math Carnival 177

If you’re looking for an entertaining way to weather the coming storm — or just curious about how learning math could possibly be fun — you’ll definitely want to check out the latest edition of the Playful Math Carnival.

It’s a collection of awesome blog posts curated by John Golden and published on the Math Hombre website:

The whole point of the carnival is to show that math doesn’t have to be tedious or repetitive. Through a bunch of fun and engaging posts, we celebrate math that’s playful, creative, and totally relevant to everyday life.

Because what could be more relevant than having fun while we learn?

Continue reading Start the New Year Right: Playful Math Carnival 177 via Math Hombre

Puzzle: Henry Dudeney’s Pebble Game

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
photo of girl playing with pebbles on the beach

English mathematician and puzzle-meister Henry Ernest Dudeney once wrote:

“It may be said generally that a game is a contest of skill for two or more persons, into which we enter either for amusement or to win a prize. A puzzle is something to be done or solved by the individual.

    “The example that I give here is apparently a game, but, as in every case one player may win if he only play correctly, it is in reality a puzzle. The interest, therefore, lies in attempting to discover the leading method of play.”

    Below is the puzzle game as Dudeney explained it.

    Play it for fun at first, then see if you can solve the puzzle.

    Continue reading Puzzle: Henry Dudeney’s Pebble Game

    Holiday Countdown Craft

    Posted on by Denise Gaskins
    photo of calendar and hourglass timer

    Marking time is hard for children (and often for us adults, as well).

    I don’t mean telling time, which has its own difficulties. But waiting, marking time until the Big Day or Important Event arrives.

    Whether you’re counting down the days to Christmas, or the hours until New Year’s Day, or waiting for a birthday or visit to Grandma — it’s never easy to sit idly during the interim.

    Holiday Countdown

    Holiday Countdown craft bookHere’s a fun little craft that can make the waiting easier, or at least make it easier to keep track of how much longer until the time is right.

    It’s a spinning time-piece for kids to decorate and put together (with a bit of adult help wielding a craft knife).

    Holiday Countdown is a 28-page printable file includes illustrated instructions, along with countdown timers for birthday, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve celebrations, plus blank timers you can adapt to any occasion.

    Buy Now

    Mandala Version, with Video Instructions

    The ever-creative Manja designed a mandala-coloring version of the countdown timer for New Year’s Eve. Read all about it (and find the download links) on her Hattifant blog.

     
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    Are you looking for more creative ways to play math with your kids? Check out all my books, printable activities, and cool mathy merch at Denise Gaskins’ Playful Math Store. Or join my email newsletter.

    This blog is reader-supported. If you’d like to help fund the blog on an on-going basis, then please join me on Patreon for mathy inspiration, tips, and an ever-growing archive of printable activities.

    “Holiday Countdown Craft” copyright © 2024 by Denise Gaskins. Image at the top of the post copyright © BrianAJackson / Depositphotos.

    Math Games for the Holidays

    Posted on by Denise Gaskins
    Snowman Drive math party game

    Are you looking for fun ways to keep your children busy (and learning!) through the holidays? Here are two printable activity guides you might enjoy:

    Snowman Drive

    Snowman Drive math game book(My newest game activity.)

    Players roll the dice and build their creative snowman (or snowbeast). Will you make a fearless pirate or a dapper aristocrat — or a high-scoring snow spider?

    A Snowman Drive is a family-friendly party that can also serve as a fundraiser for your church, homeschool group, or organization. The Drive consists of several rounds of the Snowman Game played on a single worksheet, with prizes for the top-scoring players and overall champion.

    This activity book includes game instructions and gameboard pages for single-family or group play.

    For ages 5 and up.

    * * *
    Download a PDF preview file.
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    FORMAT: 13-page printable PDF file with your choice of 8.5″×11″ (letter size) or A4 pages.

    Buy Now

    Christmas Tree Math Games

    Christmas Tree Math Games book(Number play on a triangular hundred chart.)

    Christmas Tree Math Games features 4 easy-to-learn games and 6 additional activities for primary and middle-grade students. All you need is a set of dice and a few colorful markers.

    Math games build mental flexibility and strategic reasoning in players of all ages. And even people who hated math in school can enjoy the friendly challenge of a game.

    These are NOT the typical memory-and-speed-based math games you’ve probably seen online, but true battles of wit and skill (plus a bit of luck).

    Perfect ice-breakers for family gatherings, classroom warmups, or for launching a group game night. You’ll be surprised how much fun thinking hard can be!

    Christmas Tree Math Games includes instructions and tips for the teacher, math game pages for handouts or learning centers, plus a variety of dot-grid journaling paper.

    For ages 6 and up.

    * * *
    Download a PDF preview file.
    * * *
    FORMAT: 30-page printable PDF file with your choice of 8.5″×11″ (letter size) or A4 pages.

    Buy Now

     
    * * *

    Are you looking for more creative ways to play math with your kids? Check out all my books, printable activities, and cool mathy merch at Denise Gaskins’ Playful Math Store. Or join my email newsletter.

    This blog is reader-supported. If you’d like to help fund the blog on an on-going basis, then please join me on Patreon for mathy inspiration, tips, and an ever-growing archive of printable activities.

    “Math Games for the Holidays” copyright © 2024 by Denise Gaskins. Image at the top of the post copyright © prarinya / Depositphotos.

    Quick Note: Black Weekend Sale

    Posted on by Denise Gaskins
    Never Just One Way t-shirt photo

    This Weekend Only

    For US customers, ALL merchandise items at my Playful Math Store are on sale for the Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday season.

    Display your mathy spirit for everyone to see. And they make great gifts, too!

    Plus, each purchase comes with a free bonus book — see product listings for details.

    Check it out:

    Playful Math Merch Sale

    (International readers: I’m sorry. Due to tax issues, merchandise is only available in the US for now.)

    Math Art Sale Almost Over

    Remember, for November I’ve put all my digital printable math art activities on sale for 20% off. (Discount calculated automatically at checkout.)

    Just a few days left to take advantage of that discount!

    Charlotte Mason Math: Practical Tips for a Living Math Education

    Posted on by Denise Gaskins
    “Young italian woman with two sleeping children on coast’ painting by August Riedel, public domain

    Focus on the logic of reasoning.

    Correct answers are important, of course, but as children explain their thinking, they will often catch and fix mistakes on their own.

    “Two and two make four and cannot by any possibility that the universe affords be made to make five or three. From this point of view, of immutable law, children should approach Mathematics; they should see how impressive is Euclid’s ‘Which is absurd,’ just as absurd as would be the statements of a man who said that his apples always fell upwards, and for the same reason.”

     — Charlotte Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education

    “Most remarks made by children consist of correct ideas badly expressed. A good teacher will be wary of saying ‘No, that’s wrong.’ Rather, he will try to discover the correct idea behind the inadequate expression. This is one of the most important principles in the whole of the art of teaching.”

     — W. W. Sawyer, Vision in Elementary Mathematics

    • Tip: If you’re not sure how to draw out your child’s reasoning, read Christopher Danielson’s wonderful examples and advice on talking math with your kids: Talking Math with Your Kids.

    Continue reading Charlotte Mason Math: Practical Tips for a Living Math Education

    Charlotte Mason Math: Wrong Answers and Slovenly Teaching

    Posted on by Denise Gaskins
    "Playing with the kittens" painting by Emile Munier, public domain

    The second place where a surface-level reading of Charlotte Mason’s books can lead to misunderstanding involves the treatment of wrong answers. Mason wrote:

    “… quite as bad as these is the habit of allowing that a sum is nearly right, two figures wrong, and so on, and letting the child work it over again. Pronounce a sum wrong, or right — it cannot be something between the two. That which is wrong must remain wrong: the child must not be let run away with the notion that wrong can be mended into right.”

     — Charlotte Mason, Home Education

    Does this call to mind images of your own childhood schoolwork? It does for me: laboring over a worksheet or quiz and then taking it to my teacher to be graded. Right was right, and wrong could not be mended. In such a performance-oriented setting, mistakes can take on the flavor of moral failure.

    Is this authoritarian approach the way Mason wants us to teach math to our children? Where is the summa corda — the joyful praise — in that?

    No. Please, no. Very definitely no.

    Mason wanted us to avoid slovenliness in our teaching. In this passage, she warned against several forms this might take.

    Continue reading Charlotte Mason Math: Wrong Answers and Slovenly Teaching

    Gratis Games and Playful Math News

    Posted on by Denise Gaskins

    Get your free copy today!
    Do you want to help your children learn math?

    Teach them to play.

    Grab a free copy of my Let’s Play Math Sampler: 10 Family-Favorite Games for Learning Math Through Play, which contains short excerpts from my most popular titles. It’s a great way to get started with playful math. 😍

    As a bonus, I’ll add you to my Playful Math News email subscription and send you monthly tips and activity ideas for playing math with your kids.

    From time to time, I’ll even throw in a free sample of whatever I’ve been working on — an early draft of something that will eventually show up in one of my books or printable activity guides.

    For example, check out this fun freebie I sent last April:

    Don’t miss out on all this mathy goodness. Sign up today!

    Get the Games Book Now