Morning Coffee: That Moment of Epiphany

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Morning Coffee Lifelong Learning for Parents

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

Here are a few stories to read as you sip your morning brew. . .

Download your printable Morning Coffee journal

This week’s rabbit hole started with a thought-provoking article from Dan Meyer…

“It would have been quite easy, nothing at all really, to share the epiphany with students, to share the short-cut, to tell my kid that these are all the even numbers and here is where you’ll find them…”

—Dan Meyer

Read more about the value of taking the harder long-cut in this fifth installment of professional development for homeschooling parents.

 
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Are you looking for more creative ways to play math with your kids? Check out all my books, printable activities, and cool mathy merch at Denise Gaskins’ Playful Math Store. Or join my email newsletter.

This blog is reader-supported. If you’d like to help fund the blog on an on-going basis, then please join me on Patreon for mathy inspiration, tips, and an ever-growing archive of printable activities.

“Morning Coffee: That Moment of Epiphany” copyright © 2025 by Denise Gaskins. Image at the top of post copyright © Kira auf der Heide / Unsplash.

Morning Coffee: What Is Mathematics?

Posted on by Denise Gaskins
Morning Coffee Lifelong Learning for Parents

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

Here are a few stories to read as you sip your morning brew. . .

Download your printable Morning Coffee journal

This week’s rabbit hole started with a thought-provoking blog post by Sara Van Der Werf…

“We are all mathematicians. We all have the power to notice, describe, and generalize patterns. You have all had this ability since birth.

    “If we believe this then every day we must plan lessons that allow students to act as mathematicians. We must put something in front of our students to notice. We must put something in front of our students to describe, to generalize.”

    —Sara Van Der Werf

    Read more about how to develop mathematical thinking in this fourth installment of professional development for homeschooling parents.

     
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    Are you looking for more creative ways to play math with your kids? Check out all my books, printable activities, and cool mathy merch at Denise Gaskins’ Playful Math Store. Or join my email newsletter.

    This blog is reader-supported. If you’d like to help fund the blog on an on-going basis, then please join me on Patreon for mathy inspiration, tips, and an ever-growing archive of printable activities.

    “Morning Coffee: What Is Mathematics?” copyright © 2025 by Denise Gaskins. Image at the top of post copyright © Kira auf der Heide / Unsplash.

    Morning Coffee: Anyone Can Learn Math

    Posted on by Denise Gaskins
    Morning Coffee Lifelong Learning for Parents

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

    Here are a few stories to read as you sip your morning brew:

    Once again, my rabbit hole started with a thought-provoking blog post from Dan Finkel…

    “Not everyone can become a great artist — but a great artist can come from anywhere.”
    —Ego, from Ratatouille

      “Ego’s parsing of the phrase anyone can cook is not obvious, and it’s not really the primary meaning of the phrase. The truth is, there are really three meanings all wrapped up there: anyone can learn to have the joy and pleasure of cooking in their life, even if they don’t become a master chef. Some people will get serious about it. And the visionaries who change the way we think about the art can come from anywhere — lock them out of the field and we all suffer.”
      —Dan Finkel

      Read more about how anyone can learn math in this third installment of professional development for homeschooling parents.

       
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      Are you looking for more creative ways to play math with your kids? Check out all my books, printable activities, and cool mathy merch at Denise Gaskins’ Playful Math Store. Or join my email newsletter.

      This blog is reader-supported. If you’d like to help fund the blog on an on-going basis, then please join me on Patreon for mathy inspiration, tips, and an ever-growing archive of printable activities.

      “Morning Coffee: Anyone Can Learn Math” copyright © 2025 by Denise Gaskins. Image at the top of post copyright © Kira auf der Heide / Unsplash.

      Morning Coffee: When Math Makes You Feel Stupid

      Posted on by Denise Gaskins
      Morning Coffee Lifelong Learning for Parents

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

      Here are a few stories to read as you sip your morning brew. . .

      Download your printable Morning Coffee journal

      This week’s rabbit hole started with a thought-provoking newsletter from Dan Finkel, which led me to his blog…

      “Everyone who learns math is familiar with the experience of being stuck on some new idea or problem, banging their head against it, and then, when they finally understand the answer (or having someone tell them), feeling stupid. There’s something fundamental in the nature of mathematics that makes it easy once you get it, and impossible before.

        “These jumps in comprehension can be thrilling, and they’re one reason math is so fun. But they do create a challenge for the student. The evidence that you learned something hard is that you feel like you’re stupid. That stupidity is essential to the process. Students need to know this feeling is the norm when it comes to learning math.”

        —Dan Finkel and Katherine Cook, The centrality of stupidity in mathematics

        Read more about the value of feeling stupid in this second installment of professional development for homeschooling parents.

         
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        Are you looking for more creative ways to play math with your kids? Check out all my books, printable activities, and cool mathy merch at Denise Gaskins’ Playful Math Store. Or join my email newsletter.

        This blog is reader-supported. If you’d like to help fund the blog on an on-going basis, then please join me on Patreon for mathy inspiration, tips, and an ever-growing archive of printable activities.

        “Morning Coffee: When Math Makes You Feel Stupid” copyright © 2025 by Denise Gaskins. Image at the top of post copyright © Kira auf der Heide / Unsplash.

        Morning Coffee: Professional Development for Homeschooling Parents and Other Teachers

        Posted on by Denise Gaskins
        Morning Coffee Lifelong Learning for Parents

        Lately, I’ve spent most of my writing time thinking about the value of narration—the Charlotte Mason approach to teaching by getting kids to put ideas in their own words.

        For students, I’m writing a new series of Math Adventure Journals to get them thinking about math and putting those thoughts into words. If you’re interested, sign up to be notified when the Kickstarter goes live.

        But we parents can harness the value of narration in our own learning. After all, one of the best ways we can help our children learn mathematics (or anything else) is to be lifelong learners ourselves.

        To that end, I’ve decided to relaunch my “Morning Coffee” series of professional development posts for homeschooling parents.

        Here’s How It Works

        As I read articles and follow rabbit trails around the internet, I’ll collect the posts that speak to me. Then I’ll share these in a printable format with journaling pages for your response.

        Since I’m interested in math education, many of the articles I read will be about math—but the principles of learning apply to every subject we teach.

        To kick off the series, let’s start with one of my favorite articles ever…

        Morning Coffee # 1: Learning to Ask Good Questions

        Download your printable Morning Coffee journal

        David Butler’s post Twelve matchsticks: focus or funnel presents an interesting math puzzle. But even better, it opens 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.”

          The printable file includes links to three more articles as I follow the rabbit around the internet. Enjoy!

           
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          Are you looking for more creative ways to play math with your kids? Check out all my books, printable activities, and cool mathy merch at Denise Gaskins’ Playful Math Store. Or join my email newsletter.

          This blog is reader-supported. If you’d like to help fund the blog on an on-going basis, then please join me on Patreon for mathy inspiration, tips, and an ever-growing archive of printable activities.

          “Morning Coffee: Professional Development for Homeschooling Parents and Other Teachers” copyright © 2025 by Denise Gaskins. Image at the top of post copyright © Kira auf der Heide / Unsplash.