Hit Me! (A Math Game)

Photo by paparutzi.

Math concepts: addition, subtraction, negative numbers, mental math, absolute value
Number of players: any number
Equipment: math cards (two decks may be needed for a large group)

Set Up

One player (the dealer) shuffles the math cards and deals one card face down for each player, beginning with the player on his left and proceeding in turn around the table. Then he deals one card face up beside each face down card.

Continue reading Hit Me! (A Math Game)

Not Just a Math Geek

It took 4+ years of practice and one solid hour of sweating — which included punching and kicking his dad as hard as he could (holding the karate pad is no easy job!) and the breaking of two boards — but it was worth it.

Last night, Chickenfoot received his black belt, being presented in the photo by his instructor, Sir John.

Congatulations, son!

[Disclaimer: I gave in to blogger’s poetic license for a catchy title. To tell the truth, I am sure Chickenfoot wouldn’t consider himself a math geek at all. Math is far from being his favorite subject, even though he is good at it.]

My New Blog: Frugal Homeschooling


Photo by ninjapoodles.

As if I didn’t have enough things to do, I have started a new blog: Frugal Homeschooling, [It’s still there, but no new posts since Sept. 2008. I was stretched too thin, trying to do two blogs.] inspired by the popularity of my math resource page. For months, I have been wanting to write a similar page about homeschooling, but it always seemed like too big a chore even to get started.

On the new blog, however, I can enter links one post at a time — check out the latest Frugal posts in the sidebar widget, just under my Popular Posts list. Bit by bit, I hope it will grow into a helpful resource list for homeschoolers.

Continue reading My New Blog: Frugal Homeschooling

Welcome to Blogland, Niner!


Photo by Niner.

The daughter who supplies my header photos has started a blog to show off her pictures:

Niner’s SnapFair
[It’s pronounced “NEE-ner.”]

Update: She no longer posts to that blog, but has been writing and posting photos, recipes, and craft projects to her new blog — College & The Years After.

Her photography skills continue to improve, and her sense of humor comes through in the stories that accompany each photo. I’m sure she’d love to have you stop by and visit!

Continue reading Welcome to Blogland, Niner!

Checking for Old, Rusty Links


Photo by Clearly Ambiguous.

If you blog about MathCounts, beware that they recently overhauled their website — which made almost everyone’s links to them obsolete. I ran a routine check for dead links and found quite a few on my blog. I hope that I’ve caught most of them, but if you stumble across one of those nasty “Page not found” messages when you click a link on my blog, I hope you will report it in the comments section.

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Backwards Math

Photo by Complicated.

Princess Kitten is recovering from her cold and getting some energy back. She came to me and said wistfully, “I wish I could do backwards math.”

I looked up from my keyboard. “Backwards math? What do you mean?”

“Umm. It’s kinda hard to explain, but I can show you.”

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March Update: Expanding Blogroll

funny pictures

At our house, we’re fighting persistent colds, and I think these “new and improved” Puffs would be just the thing to cheer up my 9yo! Now that the season has officially turned, I need to put my talented photographer daughter to work on spring pictures for my header. Meanwhile, here is a round-up of the happenings at Let’s play math! blog this month…

Continue reading March Update: Expanding Blogroll

Easter: He Is Risen!

sunrise off the bow
Photo by joiseyshowaa.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade
— kept in heaven for you,
who through faith are shielded by God’s power
until the coming of the salvation
that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice,
though now for a little while
you may have had to suffer grief
in all kinds of trials.

Continue reading Easter: He Is Risen!

Good Friday: He Was Despised and Rejected by Men

Good Friday crosses
Photo by dengski.

Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Continue reading Good Friday: He Was Despised and Rejected by Men