Teaching math

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.

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.

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.

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.