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To Badger a Child

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Here’s the full quote:

Audrey seemed, for once, at a loss for words. She was thinking about the question.

I try to stay focused on being silent after I ask young children questions, even semi-serious accidental ones. Unlike most adults, they actually take time to think about their answers and that often means waiting for a response, at least if you want an honest answer.

If you’re only looking for the “right” answer, it’s fairly easy to gently badger a child into it, but I’m not interested in doing that.

—Thomas Hobson
Thank You For Teaching Me

CREDITS: “Pismo Beach, United States” photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash.

Bookshelf Cat

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Only a writer who loves wordplay (my daughter) would name her cat Hypocorism. Hypocorism’s hypocorism is “Puck,” which well suits the little trouble-maker. He loves to climb up to the top of the bookshelf by the window, where we hung a couple of toys for him.

When he was little, he used to climb across the curtain rod to the opposite set of shelves. He still tries it from time to time, though the rod bends under his adult weight. And at least once he took a fall and had to grab for the curtain on his way down. We didn’t see it, but that’s the only explanation we could think of for the huge rip we found later.

One other disadvantage to growing up: The places he loves to sleep have somehow shrunk. After playing for a bit, he stretches out for a nap — and his back hangs dangerously over the edge.

Playing Math with Michael and Nash

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Michael and Nash have been creating and posting new math games with astonishing regularity throughout the pandemic. Their YouTube channel is a great resource for parents who want to play math with elementary-age children.

Today’s entry: Closest to Ten, a quick game for addition and subtraction fluency with a tiny bit of multiplication potential.

And here’s one of my favorites for older players: Factor Triangles, a card game for 2-digit multiplication.

Check out their channel, and have fun playing math with your kids!

Visit Michael and Nash on YouTube

How to Build Math Literacy

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Here’s the full quote:

We all know reading a book each day to our child develops their love of literacy… well, playing games is the equivalent in maths.

Through playing card games and board games (just short and sweet ones) children develop problem solving, counting and so many other skills.

Imagine if every time you play a game you say, “Let’s do some maths.” What a positive association your child will develop with maths!

—Ange Rogers
Instagram post

Discover more creative ways to play math with young children at the Number Doctors blog.

CREDITS: “Falling dice” photo by Riho Kroll on Unsplash.

Prime Factor Art on a Hundred Chart

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

The best way to practice math is to play with it — to use the patterns and connections between math concepts in your pursuit of something fun or beautiful.

So this art project is a great way to practice multiplication. Use the prime factors of numbers from one to one hundred to create a colorful design.

Start with a Hundred Chart

First, download this printable file of hundred charts in non-photo blue (or light gray, if you’re printing in grayscale). The file includes:

  • Line-by-line traditional chart, counting from top to bottom.
  • Line-by-line bottom’s-up chart, counting from bottom to top.
  • Ulam’s Spiral chart, spiraling out from the center.
  • Blank grids for making your own patterns.

Download the Printable Charts

Continue reading Prime Factor Art on a Hundred Chart

Limited Time: If You Missed the Kickstarter

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Math You Can Play series by Denise Gaskins

Do you still want a chance at the Kickstarter book deals? Or did a friend of yours miss out?

I’ve had a couple of requests from people who missed the campaign deadline but still wanted to order a book. So for a limited time, I’m taking direct orders at the Kickstarter price.

Here’s what to do:

  1. Go to the Kickstarter page and read through the pledge levels on the sidebar. Decide which level you want to buy.
  2. Send me a direct message through Kickstarter, or come back to the blog and use the contact form here.
  3. I’ll reply with details on how to order directly through Paypal.

This offer will expire in about a week — whenever Kickstarter finishes processing all the pledges and sends me their paperwork. So if you want to make an order, do it quickly.

Morning Coffee – 31 August 2020

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Morning Coffee image

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

Here are a few stories to read with your morning coffee this week:

  • David Butler’s post Twelve matchsticks: focus or funnel presents an interesting puzzle. But even better, it opened up a rabbit hole of thought-provoking posts about how to talk with children — or anyone.

“The approach where you have an idea in your head of how it should be done and you try to get the student to fill in the blanks is called funnelling. It’s actually a rather unpleasant experience as a student to be funnelled by a teacher. You don’t know what the teacher is getting at, and often you feel like there is a key piece of information they are withholding from you, and when it comes, the punchline feels rather flat.”

—David Butler
Twelve matchsticks: focus or funnel

Continue reading Morning Coffee – 31 August 2020

Playful Math 140 at Find the Factors

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Check out new Playful Math Blog Carnival at Find the Factors blog:

A blog carnival is like a free online monthly magazine of mathematical adventures. And this edition is a great one!

Iva put together a huge collection of articles on learning, teaching, and playing around with math. There’s such a wealth of interesting things to read, you’ll want to bookmark the post and come back to it again and again.

Click here to go read the carnival blog

Continue reading Playful Math 140 at Find the Factors