Build skills!
Develop confidence!
Crush math anxiety!
The Math You Can Play books help families learn while having fun together. You’ll love this natural, no-stress way to strengthen your child’s understanding and confidence.
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.
The articles that attract a browsing reader aren’t the same as the ones that pull on my heart. Yesterday, I shared my most-visited blog posts of 2019. Today, I give you my most-loved posts of the year.
A fun challenge, based on an old family-favorite game.
Players around the world have played poker-style dice games for ages. Reiner Knizia included this mathematical version in his book Dice Games Properly Explained…
Math art — what a delightful way to learn!
Updated Geometric Coloring Designs
I created these coloring pages for my homeschool co-op math kids, and then collected them into a downloadable 42-page PDF coloring book for your family to enjoy…
I could watch this video every day.
Do you have trouble believing that math can be beautiful?
In “Inspirations,” artist Cristóbal Vila creates a wonderful, imaginary work studio for the amazing M.C. Escher…
One of my favorite hobbies is collecting inspirational quotes as I read.
Good problems can help us fall in love with math and make a delicious meal of it, sinking our teeth into tough problems, tenderized by their intrigue…
From the beginning of this blog, more than a decade ago, my desire has been to help homeschooling parents (and other teachers) change how they look at math.
Math Makes Sense — Let’s Teach It That Way
Annie Fetter is talking to classroom teachers, but her message is just as important for homeschoolers. Math is all about making sense. Let’s help our kids see it that way…
An excerpt from the draft of my coming-someday-it-always-takes-longer-than-I-expect Prealgebra & Geometry Games book.
Did you know that numbers can be polite? In math, a polite number is any number we can write as the sum of two or more consecutive positive whole numbers…
A sweet little game that was a big hit with my K–2nd grade homeschool co-op math class this year.
Playing with a Hundred Chart #35: The Number Grid Game
You’ll need a 6-sided die, a hundred chart (printables here), and a small token to mark each player’s square. A crumpled bit of colored construction paper works well as a token…
This number-pattern activity was so much fun with my upper-elementary class.
Here’s a math puzzle for palindrome week — or any time you want to play with math…
For years, I’ve been meaning to create an email series about learning math through play. This year I finally did.
8 Weeks of Playful Math for Families
Yes, your kids CAN learn to love math. Keep your children’s math skills fresh with my 8-week email series of math games and activities…
Not a single blog post but a whole new feature, which I hope to continue in the new year.
One of the best ways we can help our children learn mathematics (or anything else) is to always be learning ourselves…
The Playful Math Blog Carnival is a labor of love for all our volunteer hosts. This year, August was my month to play.
Playful Math Education Carnival 130
The Playful Math Carnival is like a free online magazine devoted to learning, teaching, and playing around with math. It’s back-to-school time in the U.S., so this month’s edition focuses on establishing a creative math mindset from preschool to high school…
But the work closest to my heart this year wasn’t math at all. My daughter finally concluded her fantasy novel series, the major project of her teen homeschooling years. When she gave me the manuscript to edit, I didn’t get any sleep that night. She had me hooked — I had to find out how it ended!
The Final Books from a Homeschooled Teen Author
Do you enjoy binge reading tales of epic fantasy? Love exploring magical worlds wracked by the struggle of good against evil? Then don’t miss Teresa Gaskins’s four-book serial adventure, The Riddled Stone…
Do you play math with kids? Please tell us one (or a few) of your favorite things. What touched your heart this year?
CREDITS: “Sparkling heart” photo (top) by Jamie Street on Unsplash.
Want to help your children learn math?
Teach them to play.
My new Let’s Play Math Sampler: 10 Family-Favorite Games for Learning Math Through Play contains short excerpts from my most popular titles, including a preview of two games from my work-in-progress Prealgebra & Geometry Games.
It’s a great way to get started with playful math!
This week, my publisher Tabletop Academy Press is offering a free copy of the Sampler to TWO lucky winners.
[Winners with a U.S. mailing address will receive both paperback (by U.S. Media Mail) and ebook (by online download) versions of the book. International winners will receive ebooks only.]
The giveaway is over, but I’d still love to hear your “math memory” comments.
Congratulations to our winners: Michael and Caroline. Check your email for details on how to claim your Let’s Play Math Sampler books.
Oops! I can’t believe I forgot to post these links when my latest book came out way back in March. Indie author fail…
Do you want your children to enjoy learning math?
Teach them how to play!
In excerpts from five of my most popular books, the Let’s Play Math Sampler features ten kid-tested games covering math concepts from counting to prealgebra.
Pick up a copy of the Let’s Play Math Sampler today, and make math a playful family adventure.
Love exploring magical worlds wracked by the struggle of good against evil?
Then don’t miss Teresa Gaskins’s four-book serial adventure, The Riddled Stone.
Those of us who read her earlier books have waited eagerly to hear how the story ends. Two years longer than we hoped, since she had to squeeze in her writing between calculus exams and college essays.
But finally, it’s done!
Now a homeschool graduate, she wrote the last few scenes right at the tail end of her nineteenth year — which means these will be Teresa’s final books as a teen author.
Check them out…
How can a knight fight magic?
Christopher Fredrico loved the quiet life of a scholar-in-training. Plenty of spare time to spend with his friends. But the night Crown Prince Tyler came to dinner, everything changed.
Falsely accused of stealing a magical artifact and banished under threat of death, Chris leaves the only home he knows.
But as he and his three friends travel towards the coast, they find a riddle that may save a kingdom — or cost them their lives.
Discover the full story of The Riddled Stone, complete in one volume.
Buy now at:
… and other online retailers, or by special request at your favorite local bookshop.
Or for those who already read the earlier books…
A gift she never wanted. A curse she can’t escape.
Alone in the dark, Nora of Yorc feels the dungeon walls pressing in. Even worse, the duke’s sorcery weaves itself around her, unseen and deadly. But as the spell tightens, shy, fragile Nora breaks — and something new takes her place.
Or something old beyond memory.
Nora joined this quest to help her friends. But can she stop herself before the wildness within destroys them all?
Find out in Revealed, the exciting conclusion of Teresa Gaskins’s four-book serial fantasy adventure, The Riddled Stone.
Buy now at:
… and other online retailers, or by special request at your favorite local bookshop.
“A captivating fantasy story with a well-thought-out plot…”
— Wayne S. Walker, Home School Book Review
“There are some obvious protagonists and some obvious villains, but Gaskins creates a nice ambiguity around several of the key characters. The plot itself is interesting and engaging with multiple levels of motivation that drive it along.”
— Phanwadee, online reader review
“I enjoyed the book and I am absolutely amazed at how such a young author can write so well. I definitely see her going far in her writing career, and I can’t wait to see what stories she publishes next.”
— Tia, Homeschool Literature.com
CREDITS: Feature image of Neuschwanstein Castle, Schwangau, Germany, (top) by William West via Unsplash. Author photo by Christina Vernon, MelliRu.com.
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!”
Math games meet children each at their own level. The child who sits at the head of the class can solidify skills. The child who lags behind grade level can build fluency and gain confidence.
And (as Peggy Kaye pointed out in her book Games for Math) both will learn something even more important — that hard mental effort can be fun.
Now I’ve put together a short, inexpensive book to help families begin playing with math.
Let’s Play Math Sampler: 10 Family-Favorite Games for Learning Math Through Play contains short excerpts from my most popular books, including a preview of two games from my work-in-progress Prealgebra & Geometry Games.
Don’t miss it: Order your copy today.
“Denise Gaskins is that sound voice of reason that comes into my head when I get agitated teaching. This isn’t performance — this is play. My kids aren’t on trial, they are learning to learn.”
—Sonya Post
“By exploring math in a playful way, your kids will be happy to learn and will discover an enjoyment of math in the process. You might even have fun, too! ”
—Olisia Yeend
In honor of Public Domain Day…
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
—Robert Frost
[And Why the Public Domain Matters.]
CREDITS: “Snow falling in a forest” photo (top) by Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.
Do the holidays mess with your schedule? They sure do mine!
Every year, we get busy. Distracted. Just can’t focus on lessons.
I love easy activities that require minimal preparation so I can pull something out and play when we’re having one of those no-energy days.
If that sounds good to you, too, then you’ll want to check out my new ebook 70+ Things To Do with a Hundred Chart: Number, Shape, and Logic Activities from Preschool to Middle School.
Long years ago, when I did workshops at homeschooling conferences, I used to share a list of seven ways to play with a hundred chart. The all-time most visited post on my blog offers 34 playful activities. Now I’ve more than doubled that total for this book.
So many ways to play! One of them is sure to be perfect for you and your children.
Take your child on a mathematical adventure with these playful, practical activities.
Who knew math could be so much fun?
“It is exactly the kind of math exploration that I want to undertake with my kids.
“After reading through the book, I noticed myself making more room to trust my kids’ ability to make connections and not try to dominate by telling them how math ‘should’ work.
“An excellent way for me to move outside my math and teaching comfort zones and explore math more deeply with my kids.”
— Olisia Barron, author of ThimbleberryHome.wordpress.com
P.S.: If you have a blog and would like to host a giveaway for 70+ Things To Do with a Hundred Chart (or any of my other books), I’d be glad to provide the prize. Leave a comment below or use the contact form on my “About” page, and we’ll set up all the details.
Check out my new printables for playing math with your kids:
The free 50-page PDF Hundred Charts Galore! file features 1–100 charts, 0–99 charts, bottom’s-up versions, multiple-chart pages, blank charts, game boards, and more. Everything you need to play the activities in my new 70+ Things to Do with a Hundred Chart book.
Download Hundred Charts Galore
Or you can use these charts with the activities in my all-time most popular blog post:
