On a friend’s blog, I found this delightful letter written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson to a young man named Wilton Cox.
The pseudonym Lewis Carroll comes from an alteration of the Latinized name Carolus (for Charles) and the replacement of Lutwidge with Lewis.
On May 5, we celebrate one of the rarest math holidays: Square Root Day, 5/5/25.
Here are a few ideas for playing math with squares and roots.
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.
1-3 narrators (or more, if you have a large group)
7 friends (non-speaking parts, adjust to fit your group)
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.
There’s still time to check out my Math Journaling Adventures project and discover how playful writing activities will help your students learn mathematics. Preorder your books today!
Meanwhile, here’s a math puzzle to share with your kids…
Write down any whole number. It can be a single-digit number, or as big as you like. For example:
64,861,287,124,425,928
Now, count up the number of even digits (including zeros), the number of odd digits, and the total number of digits your number contains. Write those counted numbers down in order, like this:
64,861,287,124,425,928
even 12, odd 5, total 17
Then you’ll love the Math Journaling Adventures series because these logbooks guide your children to explore mathematics at a deeper level, building a strong foundation to support future learning.
It’s a fun way to enrich any math curriculum, and great for unschoolers, too.
But you have to ACT FAST: The Kickstarter campaign ends in 2 days!
Continue reading Only Two Days Left for Math Journaling Adventures
Here are three quick math games you can fit in whenever you have a few minutes’ free time. Have fun playing math with your kids!
And if you enjoy these games, check out my Math Journaling Adventures project to discover how similar playful writing activities can help your students learn mathematics. Preorder your books today!
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…
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.
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…
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!
