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Memorizing the Math Facts

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Central City Times Tables[Photo by dsb nola via flickr. (CC BY 2.0)]

The most effective and powerful way I’ve found to commit math facts to memory is to try to understand why they’re true in as many ways as possible. It’s a very slow process, but the fact becomes permanently lodged, and I usually learn a lot of surrounding information as well that helps me use it more effectively.
…
Actually, a close friend of mine describes this same experience: he couldn’t learn his times tables in elementary school and used to think he was dumb. Meanwhile, he was forced to rely on actually thinking about number relationships and properties of operations in order to do his schoolwork. (E.g. I can’t remember 9×5, but I know 8×5 is half of 8×10, which is 80, so 8×5 must be 40, and 9×5 is one more 5, so 45. This is how he got through school.) Later, he figured out that all this hard work had actually given him a leg up because he understood numbers better than other folks. He majored in math in college and is now a cancer researcher who deals with a lot of statistics.

— Ben Blum-Smith
Comment on Math Mama’s post What must be memorized?

The entire discussion (article and comments) is well worth reading:

You may also enjoy:

Quotable: On Teaching

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

classroom scene

[Photo by City of Boston Archives via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).]

I’ve started collecting quotes about teaching math for the chapter pages in my next Math You Can Play book. Here are a couple snippets that don’t fit the theme of “Multiplication & Fractions,” but they struck my fancy anyway:

If teachers would only encourage guessing. I remember so many of my math teachers telling me that if you guess, it shows that you don’t know. But in fact there is no way to really proceed in mathematics without guessing. You have to guess! You have to have intuitive judgment as to the way it might go. But then you must be willing to check your guess. You have to know that simply thinking it may be right doesn’t make it right.

teaching

[Photo by Nathan Russell via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).]

One of the big misapprehensions about mathematics that we perpetrate in our classrooms is that the teacher always seems to know the answer to any problem that is discussed. This gives students the idea that there is a book somewhere with all the right answers to all of the interesting questions, and that teachers know those answers. And if one could get hold of the book, one would have everything settled. That’s so unlike the true nature of mathematics.

— Leon Henkin
from “Round and Round at the Round Table”
Teaching Teachers, Teaching Students: Reflections on Mathematical Education

What Are Your Favorite Quotes?

Do you have some favorite quotes on math and teaching? I’d love to hear them! Please share in the Comments section below.

Did You Get Your Playful Math Snacks?

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

NumberPuzzles-300My March “Let’s Play Math” newsletter went out early this morning to everyone who signed up for Tabletop Academy Press math updates. This month’s issue focused on math history stories and puzzles, and it also included links to my newly expanded Math with Living Books pages:

  • Picture Books and Early Readers
    From counting books to math history, picture books offer a gentle introduction to a variety of topics. Elementary and middle school students will also enjoy many of these.
  • Elementary and Middle School
    Patterns, puzzles, games, and activities — here are plenty of ideas to get your children playing around with math.
  • Problem Solving and Math Circles
    From the elementary puzzles to Olympiad-level stumpers, the problems in these books will intrigue and challenge your students.
  • High School and Beyond
    These histories, biographies, and explanations of mathematical concepts are written for an adult general audience, so most of them assume no mathematical knowledge beyond a vague memory of high school.

If you’re a subscriber but didn’t see your newsletter, check your Updates or Promotions tab (in Gmail) or your Spam folder. And to make sure you get all the future newsletters, add “Denise at Tabletop Academy Press” [Tabletop Academy Press @ gmail.com, without spaces] to your contacts or address book.

If you missed this month’s edition, no worries—‌there will be more playful math snacks coming soon. Click the link below to sign up today!

And remember: Newsletter subscribers are always the first to hear about new books, revisions, and sales or other promotions.

New Picture Book: Tessalation!

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

When I run a math circle or co-op class, I love starting with a picture book. This new beauty from Emily Grosvenor will be perfect.

You could say that Tessalation is a book about tessellations (repeating tiled patterns), but it is really a children’s picture book about discovering order in a chaotic world.

— Emily Grosvenor

Seeing Math in the World

In taking a playful approach to mathematics, I hope to open children’s eyes to math in their world. Schooly math lessons have led many of my math group kids to think a “pattern” has to be a strictly repeating (and rather boring) series of shapes or colors.

But in the real world, patterns are so important that American mathematician Lynn Arthur Steen defined mathematics as the science of patterns.

“As biology is the science of life and physics the science of energy and matter, so mathematics is the science of patterns,” Steen wrote. “We live in an environment steeped in patterns — patterns of numbers and space, of science and art, of computation and imagination. Patterns permeate the learning of mathematics, beginning when children learn the rhythm of counting and continuing through times tables all the way to fractals and binomial coefficients.”

Tessa Truman-Ling’s delight in patterns is contagious. And it will provide a wonderful jumping-off point for a variety of math activities.

Visit Grosvenor’s Kickstarter page to find out more about her lovely book:

Further Exploration

March 2016 Math Calendars

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Once again, a few of my favorite bloggers have come through with math calendars for our students to puzzle over. Check them out:

algebra calendar

Things to Do with a Math Calendar

At home:
Post the calendar on your refrigerator. Use each math puzzle as a daily review “mini-quiz” for your children (or yourself).

In the classroom:
Post today’s calculation on the board as a warm-up puzzle. Encourage your students to make up “Today is…” puzzles of their own.

As a puzzle:
Cut the calendar squares apart and trim off the dates. Then challenge your students to arrange them in ascending (or descending) order.

Make up problems to fill a new calendar for next month.
And if you do, please share!

Playful Math Carnival #95 via Life Through A Mathematician’s Eyes

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

MTAP95

Check out the new playful math education carnival at Life Through A Mathematician’s Eyes. Parabolas, fractions, numbers square puzzles, edible math manipulatives, and all sorts of mathy fun:

Excitement!! The MTaP Math Educational Blog Carnival is at its 95 issue and I am extremely excited to host it. Moreover, February is one of my favorite months so I am extra excited for the opportunity.
First thing, let us think a little about the interesting properties of the number 95…

Click here to go read the carnival post.

Review and Giveaway

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

LPM-book-with-coffee-800There’s still time to enter the book giveaway at Our Home on the Range blog:

Here on the Range, I’m determined to establish an environment where math is not just numbers and answers. I firmly believe my children can learn all the math they want, when they’re ready, as long as they don’t convince themselves they can’t learn it, they don’t like it, or that it’s too hard. To reach this goal, math must be a regular part of our lives in a way that encourages conversation and exploration.

  • Let’s Play Math could be the very introduction a young family needs as they contemplate the first few years of homeschooling. First Son’s early years may have been completely different if I had read this book when he was five.
  • It could be a fantastic book for a family with a child that’s struggling (in homeschool or otherwise) with math. A few years ago, when First Son first showed signs of a potentially life-long hatred of all things numerical, reading this book may have helped me adapt the curriculum we were then using to meet his needs and enrich him. (We ended up switching and I’m happy with that, but I could have avoided quite a bit of angst.)
  • This book would be perfect for a parent who has always struggled with inadequacies in math or for someone like me, who always did just fine in math but never understood the claims of math’s beauty or fascination. I find myself excited to explore some of the resources the author has gathered together for my own growth and new challenges.

—Kansas Mom

Let’s Play Math Back Cover Blurbs

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

LPM-book-with-coffee-800

Advance review comments for Let’s Play Math: How Families Can Learn Math Together—and Enjoy It:

Want to help your kids with math? Don’t help with the homework. Get them to engage with math by doing things together — many of which don’t even look like math. Let’s Play Math is charming, intelligent, and practical; full of family fun and sound advice.

—Ian Stewart, author of Professor Stewart’s Casebook of Mathematical Mysteries

This book is well researched, well annotated, and includes loads of activities you can try with kids K-12 at home.

—Jennifer Bardsley, credentialed teacher and author of TeachingMyBabytoRead.com

This is the math helper I wish I’d had years ago.

—Anne White, author of Minds More Awake

A crash course in how to enjoy math with your children! Denise Gaskins uses her years of experience to show parents how to teach math with games, stories, puzzles, manipulatives, and living books. Full of useful advice and pedagogical insight, this book is a treasure trove for parents who want to help their children appreciate the beauty, history, and fun of math but don’t know where to start.

—Kate Snow, KatesHomeschoolMath.com and author of Preschool Math at Home

Buy now:
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Updated to Add

More details about the book:

How to Update Your Let’s Play Math Ebook

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

LetsPlayMath-300

I love how seeing math as a playful game can help even the busiest parents enjoy learning alongside their children.

My math books grew from more than a quarter-century of playing math with children — my own and those of our friends — at my house, at the library, in the park, and in group workshops. The kids and I learned from each other as we shared the adventure of learning mathematics.

Now that the publication dust has settled and the typos and formatting glitches have been sorted out, I’ve updated all the Let’s Play Math ebook files to match my shiny new, greatly expanded paperback edition.

Changes Include

Do You Need an Update?

If your version shows the family playing together on the cover, then you’re all set. The copyright notice should say “Ebook version 3.0.”

But if you have an earlier edition of Let’s Play Math, you will probably want to update to this new, revised edition. Be warned: this is a totally new file, so you’ll lose all your highlights and bookmarks. But the expanded version has SO many wonderful changes, believe me, it’s well worth the inconvenience.

The following instructions are for Amazon.com. If you bought your book somewhere else, check the book dealer’s webpage — if the new cover (above) is showing, then they have the updated file. Find the Customer Service section of their website and follow their procedure.

Amazon Policy Change

I’ve asked Amazon to release the new ebook files to everyone who bought the earlier edition — as used to be their standard policy. But they’ve had too many complaints about people losing their bookmarks, so they no longer issue updates except by customer request.

The only way to get the updated file is to contact Customer Service and ask for it yourself.

Step by step instructions:

  1. Click the contact Customer Service link. Log into your account.
  2. Under “What can we help you with?” click the option “Digital Services.”
  3. Under “Tell us more about your issue,” click “Kindle eBooks” and then “Something else.”
  4. Under “Enter short summary of issue,” copy and paste the following text:
    I bought the ebook Let's Play Math (ASIN B0095POAX4). This book has recently been updated with new material. Would you please send the updated ebook files to my account? Thank you.
  5. Choose how you want to be contacted. I always pick “Email,” but you can pick a more immediate option if you like.

And then wait for the support people to do their magic. You should get the new file within 24 hours.

What About the Paperbacks?

What if you got a bad copy of a paperback book?

The machines that print POD (Print On Demand) books — like my math book or my daughter’s fantasy novels — are basically giant computer printers. As everyone knows, printers get glitches. And the humans who take a book off the machine and put it in a shipping box won’t necessarily notice the mistake.

If you ever get a messed-up copy of my math paperbacks (or any book by anyone, for that matter), you can always contact customer service to have it replaced.

Just follow the same steps as above, but choose the options that make sense for whatever complaint you have. Or if you didn’t buy from Amazon, then find the Customer Service section for whatever book dealer you used, and follow their procedure.