All About Math – Page 15 – Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math

Publication Day: The Tabletop Math Games Collection

Posted on October 10, 2023December 30, 2024 by Denise Gaskins

Now available on my publisher’s store: The Tabletop Math Games Collection, Volume One!

So many great games for playing math from preschool through high school, including the Best Math Game Ever and how children can make up their own Creative Nim math and logic games.

These printable (pdf) activity books include instructions and tips for the teacher, math game pages in full-color and ink-saving black-and-white, plus a variety of dot-grid journaling paper. Available with 8 1/2 by 11 (letter size) or A4 pages. For ages 3 to adult.

Have fun playing math with your kids!

Continue reading Publication Day: The Tabletop Math Games Collection

Playful Math Carnival 168 via Find the Factors

Posted on October 5, 2023February 8, 2024 by Denise Gaskins

The Playful Math Education Carnival is a monthly collection of mathy fun: tips, tidbits, games, and activities.

It’s like a free online magazine of mathematical adventures. If you like to learn new things and play around with ideas, you are sure to find something of interest.

Visit the Current Carnival

Iva Sallay’s put together a wonderful collectiom of great mathy activities and games to play with your kids.

You’ll find math projects, puzzles, stories, history, music, origami, and more — soooo much math to enjoy!

Would You Like To Host a Carnival?

The carnival is a joint effort. We need more volunteers.

Classroom teachers, homeschoolers, college professors, unschoolers, or anyone who likes to play around with math — if you would like to take a turn hosting the carnival, please speak up!

Find Out How To Volunteer

As always, you can browse the further-past editions of the Playful Math Carnival by scrolling backward down my blog.

And remember — Don’t miss Iva’s delicious carnival post:

Visit Carnival 168

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Thank you for reading!

“Playful Math Carnival 168 via Find the Factors” copyright © 2023 by Denise Gaskins. Image at the top of the post copyright © Iva Sallay.

Homeschool Musings: Math Manipulatives Part 2

Posted on October 4, 2023April 30, 2024 by Denise Gaskins

In my previous post, I examined fingers and found items (beans, buttons, leaves, and so on) as tools that can help our children learn math. This time, we move on to the kinds of math manipulatives you’ll find in stores or packaged with your favorite curriculum.

Standard base ten blocks

The standard base ten blocks consist of plastic or wooden cubes, a rod with the length of ten cubes, a flat shape the size of ten rods side-by-side, and a large cube equivalent to ten of the flat shapes stacked atop each other.

These are used primarily for modeling place value as a means of developing the standard arithmetic algorithms for addition and subtraction.

They can also be used for modeling decimals as a place value notation, without relying on fraction concepts. And with a bit of imagination (“Pretend the rods are stretchy, so we don’t know how long they really are”) they can model simple algebraic expressions.

Continue reading Homeschool Musings: Math Manipulatives Part 2

Homeschool Musings: Math Manipulatives Part 1

Posted on September 27, 2023April 30, 2024 by Denise Gaskins

I stumbled across another blogger’s post on the common question, “What are the best math manipulatives for homeschooling?”

My answer to this question has changed over the years, as I’ve grown in my understanding of math and of education. As my current stance is far different from much of what I read from other homeschoolers, I’m going to lay out my reasoning below.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, especially if you disagree, because comparing ideas with one another is a great way to learn.

Continue reading Homeschool Musings: Math Manipulatives Part 1

Living Books for Math

Posted on September 20, 2023April 30, 2024 by Denise Gaskins

What is a “living book”? English education reformer Charlotte Mason introduced this term for any book that brings the reader directly into contact with the major ideas that have fascinated humans across the ages.

We know that reading aloud helps build our children’s love for books. But did you know it works for math as well?

And that it can transform the parent’s attitude as well as the child’s?

A playful math book fleshes out the bones of abstract math,
brings it alive,
makes it human, relatable,
interesting to readers of all ages,
opening our eyes to the wonderful world of big ideas,
where concepts meet and topics intertwine
in a beautifully intricate dance
of understanding.

We live in an age of abundance, with more new creative math books being published every year, so many that I can’t keep track of them all, not to mention the older classics, some out of print, that can still be found in public libraries.

Here are a few of my favorite books of playful, living math, both old and new:

Continue reading Living Books for Math

Musings: School Math vs. Real Math

Posted on September 13, 2023April 30, 2024 by Denise Gaskins

I was asked to do an interview for a new podcast called Learning is Disruptable, and that got me thinking…

Is Math Education Ripe for Disruption?

Math education is not working. Too many people come out of school with math avoidance, math anxiety or even phobia, a profound conviction that math is not for them.

Generally, humans enjoy success, the feeling that things make sense, that they are capable of understanding big ideas. People like subjects that give them this type of success, where they are meeting and making sense of new ideas, growing in mastery.

But they hate subjects that make them feel like a failure, where things don’t make sense and there seems to be no real chance of success.

Therefore, understanding our students’ attitude toward math gives us a solid indication of how well they are learning.

Continue reading Musings: School Math vs. Real Math

A Revolutionary New Approach to Homeschool Math

Posted on September 12, 2023December 26, 2025 by Denise Gaskins

There’s a great new homeschool math program that can radically transform your children’s experience of math, building understanding through creative exploration.

First, a bit of history…

What Is Algebra Before Arithmetic?

Back when I was still homeschooling, I read a couple of articles by Keith Devlin about the benefits of teaching children algebra, even before they study numbers.

As a homeschooler leaning toward Charlotte Mason-style education, I found the notion of algebra-first math intriguing. What if we could introduce students to the big ideas of math, the foundational concepts that explain how numbers relate, before they get distracted by details like math facts and memorized rules?

Continue reading A Revolutionary New Approach to Homeschool Math

Podcast: Cultivating Math Curiosity and Reasoning in Kids

Posted on September 6, 2023November 15, 2024 by Denise Gaskins

I have a new podcast interview, and I think you’ll enjoy it!

Check out Learning Is Disruptable on your favorite podcast app, or listen on the website:

Go to the podcast ❱

Here’s an excerpt…

“I think the most important thing that we need to change…we need to radically change what our idea is of what it means to learn math.

“Our biggest failure, both in the classroom and in homeschool settings, is that we’ve given our children a totally wrong idea of what math is all about.

Continue reading Podcast: Cultivating Math Curiosity and Reasoning in Kids

Playing with Math: A Carnival of Carnivals

Posted on August 22, 2023February 8, 2024 by Denise Gaskins

The Playful Math Education Carnival (formerly “Math Teachers at Play”) is a monthly collection of mathy fun: tips, tidbits, games, activities, and more.

It’s like a free online magazine of mathematical adventures. If you like to learn new things and play around with ideas, you are sure to find something of interest.

Visit the Current Carnival

Normally, I post a blog about each month’s carnival as it goes live. But this year has been anything but normal!

First there was my daughter’s medical issue, which took up months of my time. Happily, that is resolved and she’s doing well, back to all her normal-life activities.

Then there was the big storm that dropped a tree on our house. (Don’t worry, we’re all fine!) Cleaning up from that has taken months of work and more than a dozen bonfires — and we’re still far from done.

But I have climbed out from under the To-Do list enough to notice my blogging negligence. So without further ado, here are all the carnivals I missed, full of great mathy activities and games to play with your kids…

Playful Math Carnival 163 at 1001 Math Problems

First up, Sian’s delightful collection of math projects, puzzles, and games posted in March. Don’t worry that these may be out-of-date, because playful math is evergreen.

Visit Carnival 163

Playful Math Carnival 164 at Leap of Dave

Dave took over to host April’s carnival, with puzzles, movies, games, and math poetry. Plus a John Conway quote: “Playing games IS mathematics.”

Visit Carnival 164

Playful Math Carnival 165 at Nature Study Australia

Jo put together an especially varied carnival, full of mathy goodness. She writes, “If you have always thought math is about right and wrong, yes and no, be prepared to be stretched and amazed at the fun ways math can be played with!”

Visit Carnival 165

Playful Math Carnival 166 at Math Mama Writes

Sue filled our summer break (or winter, for those down under) with puzzles, games, and more — even a peek at three upcoming math novels. And if you struggle with fractions, don’t miss Henri Picciotto’s Fractions on Grids.

Visit Carnival 166

Playful Math Carnival 167 at Learning Well at Home

Finally, this month’s carnival: Sonya found plenty of mathy goodness to enjoy, including the “seriously addictive” Number Hive game.