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Homeschooling Math: Start Where You Are

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

There’s a well-known quote attributed to tennis champion Arthur Ashe (and to President Theodore Roosevelt, and probably others):

“Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.”

How does this apply to learning math?

Many homeschoolers fear that their students have fallen behind grade level in math and worry about how to catch up.

We have an educational myth that math is a steady progression of topics arranged by ever-increasing complexity with regular signposts like mile markers that identify what students must learn at each stage along the way.

For example, first-grade students can add one-or two-digit numbers, but three-digit numbers are beyond them. Second-grade students can add three- or four-digit numbers, but never wander off into millions and billions. And so forth.

That is one valid path to learning math.

Continue reading Homeschooling Math: Start Where You Are

5 Tips for Better Homeschool Math

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Many homeschoolers hate or even fear math. It’s the topic most likely to bring our children to tears.

In my last several posts, I’ve indulged my theoretical muse letting my thoughts wander over topics that may seem esoteric to parents in the midst of a daily struggle to help their child learn.

So today, let’s put away the theory and get practical:

  • What can you do today to make learning stick?
  • How can you transform tears of frustration into the satisfaction of “Aha! I get it”?

You don’t have to invest in a new curriculum to revolutionize your child’s experience of math. Just change how you use the math program you have.

Here are five tips that will help you and your child work together to build mathematical understanding.

Continue reading 5 Tips for Better Homeschool Math

Math Musings: Lies My Teacher Told Me

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

I mentioned last time that the common phrase “Multiplication is repeated addition” is a mathematical lie we tell our children. And it’s not the only one.

Did you ever say, “Subtraction means take-away”? Or how about “Division is sharing”? I know I have, but both of those statements are also mathematical lies.

One of the reasons I like Cuisenaire rods so much is that they can help us avoid lying to our children about math.

Continue reading Math Musings: Lies My Teacher Told Me

Math Musings: Teaching the Big Ideas

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Earlier, I wrote that “the big ideas of number relationships are found in algebra, not in arithmetic. If we want to bring our children into direct contact with these ideas, we need to teach with algebra in mind from the very beginning.”

Whether we teach the traditional way, beginning with counting and whole number arithmetic or take the road less traveled and explore algebra first — either way, we need to look at number relationships with an algebraic mindset.

So you might wonder, what are these big ideas of number relationships? How can we recognize them?

Continue reading Math Musings: Teaching the Big Ideas

Homeschool Musings: Math Manipulatives Part 3

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

We’ve talked about several types of math manipulative that homeschooling parents might use to help their children learn math (see part 1 and part 2), but we never stopped to ask the most basic question:

Why use math manipulatives at all?

Math manipulatives are a tool for solving educational problems, so we should first decide what problem we are trying to solve. That will help us know which tool to use.

Continue reading Homeschool Musings: Math Manipulatives Part 3

Publication Day: The Tabletop Math Games Collection

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Now available on my publisher’s store: The Tabletop Math Games Collection, Volume One!

Tabletop Math Games Collection

So many great games for playing math from preschool through high school, including the Best Math Game Ever and how children can make up their own Creative Nim math and logic games.

These printable (pdf) activity books include instructions and tips for the teacher, math game pages in full-color and ink-saving black-and-white, plus a variety of dot-grid journaling paper. Available with 8 1/2 by 11 (letter size) or A4 pages. For ages 3 to adult.

Have fun playing math with your kids!

Continue reading Publication Day: The Tabletop Math Games Collection

Playful Math Carnival 168 via Find the Factors

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

The Playful Math Education Carnival is a monthly collection of mathy fun: tips, tidbits, games, and activities.

It’s like a free online magazine of mathematical adventures. If you like to learn new things and play around with ideas, you are sure to find something of interest.

Visit the Current Carnival

Iva Sallay’s put together a wonderful collectiom of great mathy activities and games to play with your kids.

You’ll find math projects, puzzles, stories, history, music, origami, and more — soooo much math to enjoy!

Would You Like To Host a Carnival?

The carnival is a joint effort. We need more volunteers.

Classroom teachers, homeschoolers, college professors, unschoolers, or anyone who likes to play around with math — if you would like to take a turn hosting the carnival, please speak up!

Find Out How To Volunteer

As always, you can browse the further-past editions of the Playful Math Carnival by scrolling backward down my blog.

And remember — Don’t miss Iva’s delicious carnival post:

Visit Carnival 168

 
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Thank you for reading!

“Playful Math Carnival 168 via Find the Factors” copyright © 2023 by Denise Gaskins. Image at the top of the post copyright © Iva Sallay.

Homeschool Musings: Math Manipulatives Part 2

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

In my previous post, I examined fingers and found items (beans, buttons, leaves, and so on) as tools that can help our children learn math. This time, we move on to the kinds of math manipulatives you’ll find in stores or packaged with your favorite curriculum.

Standard base ten blocks

The standard base ten blocks consist of plastic or wooden cubes, a rod with the length of ten cubes, a flat shape the size of ten rods side-by-side, and a large cube equivalent to ten of the flat shapes stacked atop each other.

These are used primarily for modeling place value as a means of developing the standard arithmetic algorithms for addition and subtraction.

They can also be used for modeling decimals as a place value notation, without relying on fraction concepts. And with a bit of imagination (“Pretend the rods are stretchy, so we don’t know how long they really are”) they can model simple algebraic expressions.

Continue reading Homeschool Musings: Math Manipulatives Part 2

Homeschool Musings: Math Manipulatives Part 1

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

I stumbled across another blogger’s post on the common question, “What are the best math manipulatives for homeschooling?”

My answer to this question has changed over the years, as I’ve grown in my understanding of math and of education. As my current stance is far different from much of what I read from other homeschoolers, I’m going to lay out my reasoning below.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, especially if you disagree, because comparing ideas with one another is a great way to learn.

Continue reading Homeschool Musings: Math Manipulatives Part 1

Living Books for Math

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

What is a “living book”? English education reformer Charlotte Mason introduced this term for any book that brings the reader directly into contact with the major ideas that have fascinated humans across the ages.

We know that reading aloud helps build our children’s love for books. But did you know it works for math as well?

And that it can transform the parent’s attitude as well as the child’s?

A playful math book fleshes out the bones of abstract math,
brings it alive,
makes it human, relatable,
interesting to readers of all ages,
opening our eyes to the wonderful world of big ideas,
where concepts meet and topics intertwine
in a beautifully intricate dance
of understanding.

We live in an age of abundance, with more new creative math books being published every year, so many that I can’t keep track of them all, not to mention the older classics, some out of print, that can still be found in public libraries.

Here are a few of my favorite books of playful, living math, both old and new:

Continue reading Living Books for Math