Math Conversation Starter

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
(Click for larger image.)

What do you see?

Does it make you wonder?

How is perspective art similar to the isometric drawing in yesterday’s post? How is it different?

You may also enjoy:

CREDITS: William Hogarth – “The importance of knowing perspective” (Absurd perspectives), Engraving on paper. From Wikimedia Commons.

Math Game: Hit Me

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

I believe this was the first math game I ever invented. Of course, ideas are common currency, so I’m sure other math teachers thought of it before I did. But to me, it was original.

I’ve blogged about the game before, but here’s the updated version as it appears in my new book Prealgebra & Geometry: Math Games for Middle School — scheduled for publication in early 2021. Sign up for my newsletter to get updates.

Hit Me

Math Concepts: integer addition, absolute value.

Players: two or more.

Equipment: playing cards (two decks may be needed for a large group).

Continue reading Math Game: Hit Me

Math Game: War with Special Decks

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

The all-time most-visited page on this site is my post about Math War: The Game That Is Worth 1,000 Worksheets. It’s easy to adapt to almost any math topic, simple to learn, and quick to play. My homeschool co-op students love it.

But Math War isn’t just for elementary kids. Several teachers have shared special card decks to help middle and high school students practice math by playing games.

Take a look at the links below for games from prealgebra to high school trig. And try the Math War Trumps variation at the end of the post to boost your children’s strategic-thinking potential.

Have fun playing math with your kids!

Continue reading Math Game: War with Special Decks

Math for Star Wars Day

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

May the Fourth be with you!

Here is a math problem in honor of one of our family’s favorite movies…

Han Solo was doing much-needed maintenance on the Millennium Falcon. He spent 3/5 of his money upgrading the hyperspace motivator. He spent 3/4 of the remainder to install a new blaster cannon. If he spent 450 credits altogether, how much money did he have left?

Stop and think about how you would solve it before reading further.

Continue reading Math for Star Wars Day

A New Take on Multiplication Flash Cards

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Dan Finkel, creator of the Tiny Polka Dot and Prime Climb games, is running a new Kickstarter campaign.

If your children struggle with multiplication math facts, or if you’re planning to teach the times tables next year, you may want to check it out.

And do it today — Kickstarter campaigns are limited-time deals!

Continue reading A New Take on Multiplication Flash Cards

How to Homeschool Math

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Far too many people find themselves suddenly, unexpectedly homeschooling their children. This prompts me to consider what advice I might offer after more than three decades of teaching kids at home.

Through my decades of homeschooling five kids, we lived by two rules:

Do math. Do reading.

As long as we hit those two topics each day, I knew the kids would be fine. Do some sort of mathematical game or activity. Read something from that big stack of books we collected at the library.

Conquer the basics of math and reading, then everything else will fall into place.

Continue reading How to Homeschool Math

FAQ: Math with Young Children

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

The question came up again:

“What is the best curriculum for my children? They are four and six years old, and I’m afraid of letting them fall behind.”

I remember being a young parent, eager to start homeschooling. I used to get mad (without letting it show, like a true introvert) when people told me, “They are young. Just let them play.”

Now I see the wisdom in it.

The most important thing for your children right now, by far, is for them to enjoy learning. The joy of learning is a child’s natural state. As a parent, your primary job is to keep yourself from stomping it out.

But our parental fears can push us into joy-trampling before we realize it.

And our own experience of school makes it hard for us to see how much of our children’s play really is learning. We expect education to look like schoolwork, but natural learning looks nothing like that.

Continue reading FAQ: Math with Young Children

Play Math with Your Kids for Free

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

One of the most common questions I get from parents who want to help their children enjoy math is, “Where do we start?”

My favorite answer: “Play games!”

And as the world slowly recovers from the pandemic crisis, it’s even more important for families to play together. So my publisher agreed to make my ebook Let’s Play Math Sampler: 10 Family-Favorite Games for Learning Math Through Play free for the duration.

Continue reading Play Math with Your Kids for Free

2020 Mathematics Game — Join the Fun!

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

New Year’s Day

Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.

Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever. We shall also reflect pleasantly upon how we did the same old thing last year about this time.

However, go in, community. New Year’s is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls, and humbug resolutions, and we wish you to enjoy it with a looseness suited to the greatness of the occasion.

— Mark Twain
Letter to Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, Jan. 1863
quoted in Early Tales & Sketches, Vol. 1: 1851-1864 (affiliate link)

If you’d like to enjoy a mathematical New Year’s Resolution, may I recommend Evelyn Lamb’s Math Reading Challenge? I haven’t decided if I’m going to follow along, but it does look like fun.

Meanwhile, I do resolve to challenge myself with more math puzzles this year. Would you like to join me?

Here’s a great way to start: with the 2020 Mathematics Game!

Click here to continue reading.

Top Playful Math Posts of 2019

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Here are my most-visited posts and pages in 2019. So many ways to play with math!

#12

I love books, don’t you?

Math with Living Books

Do you want to enrich your mind with the great ideas of mathematics? Are you looking for a good book to whet your child’s appetite? Then the following pages of “living” math books are for you…

#11

A logic challenge that doubles as addition practice. Or is it the other way around?

Math Game: Thirty-One

Thirty-One comes from British mathematician Henry Dudeney’s classic book, The Canterbury Puzzles…

#10

Turn a regular deck of cards into math flashcards. Adaptable to any operation.

Review Game: Once Through the Deck

The best way to practice the math facts is through the give-and-take of conversation, orally quizzing each other and talking about how you might figure the answers out. But occasionally your child may want a simple, solitaire method for review…

#9

Seasonally popular enough to make the list every year. You’ll find even more mathy fun in my updated Holiday Math Carnival.

Christmas Math Puzzles and Activities

We interrupt our regularly scheduled math program to bring you the following Christmas links…

#8

A counting game for all ages.

Math Game: Fan Tan (Sevens)

Fan Tan may also be called Crazy Sevens. Like any folk game, it is played by a variety of rules around the world…

#7

The updated post (which ranked at #18 for the year) is better: My Favorite Math Games. Eventually I hope it will surpass this old one.

20 Best Math Games and Puzzles

Over the years, Let’s Play Math blog has grown into a sprawling mess, which can make it very hard to find the specific math tip you’re looking for…

#6

What a wonderful, inspiring movie! You may also enjoy the related Women of Mathematics Carnival.

Hidden Figures Teaching Resources

Before computers were machines, computers were people who computed things. This complicated task often fell to women because it was considered basically clerical. That’s right: computing triple integrals all day long qualified as clerical…

#5

One of my all-time favorites, still helpful after all these years.

Number Bonds = Better Understanding

Number bonds let children see the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction. Subtraction is not a totally different thing from addition; they are mirror images…

#4

I intended to write a follow-up series based on this post. Maybe in 2020?

How to Read a Fraction

Fraction notation and operations may be the most abstract math monsters our students meet until they get to algebra. Before we can explain those frustrating fractions, we teachers need to go back to the basics for ourselves…

#3

A dark horse in third place! I never expected this post to draw much interest.

Puzzle: Factoring Trinomials

My high school class ended the year with a review of multiplying and factoring simple polynomials. We played a matching game, and then I gave them this puzzle worksheet…

#2

A perennial favorite: widely adaptable, easy to learn, and kids enjoy it.

The Game That Is Worth 1,000 Worksheets

Have you and your children been struggling to learn the math facts? The game of Math Card War is worth more than a thousand math drill worksheets, letting you build your children’s calculating speed in a no-stress, no-test way…

#1

A well-deserving winner, with activities for preschool through middle school.

30+ Things to Do with a Hundred Chart

Are you looking for creative ways to help your children study math? Even without a workbook or teacher’s manual, your kids can learn a lot about numbers. Just spend an afternoon playing around with a hundred chart…

CREDITS: “Sparkling 2019” photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash.