Join My Mailing List for Math Tips and Book Updates
Learning is a lifelong adventure.
Are you looking for playful ways to help your children learn math? Now you can get math tips and activity ideas by email, as well as find out when I put out a new book or revise an old one.
I hope to send out a “Math Snack” (no-preparation math activity idea) at least once a month. In the meantime, your sign-up bonuses include a 4-page article on solving word problems and a pre-publication peek at my new Math You Can Play book series of games for preschool to prealgebra.
Free This Weekend
Our Christmas gift to you: my daughter’s fantasy adventure Banished will be FREE for Kindle on Amazon.com this weekend only, December 11-15.
I don’t know whether the other Amazons (UK, CA, AU, IN, etc.) will also run the sale, but I hope so.
As I type, the paperback edition is also on sale at a 10% discount, though we have no control over how long Amazon will be offering that price. Banished is part of the Kindle Matchbook program, so if you buy a copy of the paperback, you can get the ebook for free — even after our weekend sale runs out.
Read an excerpt: the first four chapters of Banished
Don’t have a Kindle? You can get a Kindle app that will let you read Teresa’s book on almost any device.
Watch for Upcoming Books
The second book in The Riddled Stone series is scheduled for publication in Spring 2015, and so are the first two volumes of my Math You Can Play series. If you want a head’s-up when these books arrive, be sure to join my Tabletop Academy Press Updates email list:
And Be Thankful
[Feature photo (above) by alicepopkorn via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).]
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved,
clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness,
humility, gentleness and patience.
Bear with each other and forgive
whatever grievances you may have against one another.
Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
And over all these virtues put on love,
which binds them all together in perfect unity.Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
since as members of one body you were called to peace.
And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly
as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom,
and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs
with gratitude in your hearts to God.And whatever you do,
whether in word or deed,
do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.— Colossians 3:12-17
[Taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, (c)1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.]
Math Storytelling Day: The Hospital Floor
[Feature photo above by Christiaan Triebert via flickr (CC BY 2.0).]
Have you ever heard of Math Storytelling Day? On September 25, people around the world celebrate mathematics by telling stories together. The stories can be real — like my story below — or fictional like the tale of Wizard Mathys from Fantasia and his crystal ball communication system.
Check out these posts for more information:
- Happy Math Storytelling Day
- Math Storytelling Day resources
- Moebius Noodles: Math Storytelling Day archive
My Math Story
My story begins with an unexpected adventure in pain. Appendicitis sidewhacked my life last week, but that’s not the story. It’s just the setting. During my recovery, I spent a lot of time in the smaller room of my hospital suite. I noticed this semi-random pattern in the floor tile, which made me wonder:
- Did they choose the pattern to keep their customers from getting bored while they were … occupied?
- Is the randomness real? Or can I find a line of symmetry or a set of tiles that repeat?
- If I take pictures from enough different angles, could I transfer the whole floor to graph paper for further study?
- And if the nurse finds me doing this, will she send me to a different ward of the hospital? Do hospitals have psychiatric wards, or is that only in the movies?
- What is the biggest chunk of squares I could “break out” from this pattern that would create the illusion of a regular, repeating tessellation?
I gave up on the graph paper idea (for now) and printed the pictures to play with. By my definition, “broken” pattern chunks need to be contiguous along the sides of the tiles, like pentominoes. Also, the edge of the chunk must be a clean break along the mortar lines. The piece can zigzag all over the place, but it isn’t allowed to come back and touch itself anywhere, even at a corner. No holes allowed.
I’m counting the plain squares as the unit and each of the smaller rectangles as a half square. So far, the biggest chunk of repeating tiles I’ve managed to break out is 283 squares.
What Math Stories Will You Tell?
Have you and your children created any mathematical stories this year? I’d love to hear them! Please share your links in the comments section below.
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If you’d like to help fund the blog on an on-going basis, then please head to my Patreon page.
If you liked this post, and want to show your one-time appreciation, the place to do that is PayPal: paypal.me/DeniseGaskinsMath. If you go that route, please include your email address in the notes section, so I can say thank you.
Which I am going to say right now. Thank you!
“Math Storytelling Day: The Hospital Floor” copyright © 2014 by Denise Gaskins.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
His love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say this —
those He redeemed from the hand of the foe,
those He gathered from the lands,
frome east and west, from north and south.
…
Whoever is wise, let him heed these things
and consider the great love of the Lord.— Psalm 107:1-3 and 43
[Feature photo above by Martha_chapa95 (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr. Quotation from Holy Bible, New International Version, (c)1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.]
Monday Morning Surprise
This is a good way to start the week. Amazon rankings are like a roller-coaster ride, so this won’t last for long — but I’ll enjoy it while I can. 🙂
If you’re curious about my book, here is the introduction and first chapter, free to download:
Sample Chapter from Let’s Play Math Book
As I’ve been working on the layout for the paperback edition of Let’s Play Math: How Homeschooling Families Can Learn Math Together, and Enjoy It!, I thought, “Why not post an excerpt?” So here is the introduction and first chapter, free to download:
This excerpt isn’t exactly how the paperback will look, because it’s based on the current ebook edition. For the paperback, I’ll be adding plenty of new illustrations — not quite a picture on every page, but close. (Yes, that’s one reason it’s taking soooo long to finish!)
For Example …
Here is one of the new illustrations, along with its caption:
Fractals are self-similar, which means that subsections of the object look like smaller versions of the whole thing. Your children may enjoy making a Sierpinski triangle with tortilla chips.
Want To Buy the Book?
Let’s Play Math should be available wherever you usually buy books.
Back to School Sale
Our homeschool runs a bit off-schedule from the rest of the U.S. school system, as we are still finishing up last year’s work. Even so, we’re calling this month the “beginning” of Kitten’s high school years, which seems to me like something to celebrate.
Therefore, I’m launching a one-week sale on my math book:
- Let’s Play Math at Amazon.com Regularly $5.99, marked down to $3.99. No coupon code required.
- Sale expires September 2, 2013.
Please feel free to share the coupon code with your friends.
Update: I’ve just opened up a Ganxy showcase with the sale price, for anyone who would prefer to buy the ebook (in pdf, mobi, and epub) directly from me:
- Let’s Play Math at Ganxy Buy directly from me, no coupon required.
My Ebook: Kindle & Smashwords Updates Available
If you bought an early edition of my ebook Let’s Play Math, you can now update your copy to the latest version.
This update includes:
- typo whack-a-mole (fixing all I could find)
- toc.ncx navigation (the ebook magic that lets you skip ahead to the next chapter)
- additional living book and internet references in the appendix sections
- new quotations: insights from W. W. Sawyer, Malke Rosenfeld, and Maria Droujkova
- an expansion of the Homeschooling with Math Anxiety section
- How to Recognize a Successful Homeschool Math Program
- and several new sections in the high school math chapter, which I hope to publish on the blog as well (maybe next week?)
How To Update
If you bought at Smashwords, the latest update is always available for download at their site.
If you are an Amazon.com customer, you can get the updated version of this book by going to your Content and Devices page. Find the book in your Kindle Library, click on the “Update Available” link next to the book’s title, and then follow the update prompts. After you do this, all of your Kindle devices that have the ebook currently downloaded will be updated automatically the next time they connect to wireless. If you tucked the book away in a folder, the update will replace it there, rather than cluttering up your home screen.
Good Friday: Sunday’s Coming!
My all-time favorite Good Friday sermon. If the video doesn’t show, see it on YouTube.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 