There’s a new Math Game Monday this week.
Have your kids tried it yet?
This week’s game is one of my favorites for early elementary grades, a logic game that makes children think about numbers and strategy.
Or, if you’re reading this post later and missed that one, there’s another great new game this week for you to play.
Check it out:
In my previous post, I encouraged parents, homeschoolers, and teachers to think of math as a nature walk through an infinite world of wonder.
A math journal is a record of your child’s journey through this world of mathematics.
In a math journal, children explore their own concepts about numbers, shapes, and patterns through drawing or writing in response to a question. Journaling teaches them to see with mathematical eyes — not just to remember what we adults tell them, but to create their own math.
Journaling brings math back into the liberal arts. It makes abstract ideas accessible and stretches children’s understanding, building math fluency and creating a solid foundation for future learning.
Are you a parent, homeschooler, or teacher? Do your children struggle to learn math? Are you worried about them falling behind?
So many parents (and teachers, too!) feel like they are “not a math person,” yet they know how important math is for their children to learn. How can we teach something we don’t really understand ourselves?
Others feel comfortable with math themselves — and may even love it — yet still struggle to pass on their knowledge to their kids. How can we share the joy we see in numbers, shapes, and patterns with youngsters who think they hate math?
Continue reading The Creative Way To Help Your Kids Learn Math
Tomorrow is Tuesday 2/22/22 (or 22/2/22, if you prefer). What a wonderfully epic Twosday!
Here’s a puzzle your family or class may enjoy…
Use only the digit 2, and try to use as few of them as you can for each calculation. You may use any math operations you know.
For example:
0 = 2 − 2
8 = 2 + 2 + 2 + 2
You might enjoy practicing your math art skills with this 2-digit challenge from Steve Wyborney.
How many blocks make the digit 2? How did you count them?
Once again, the delightful Nrich Maths website offers a seasonal selection of activities to encourage your children’s (and your own!) mathematical creativity.
Click the images below to visit the corresponding December Math Calendar pages.
Here are twenty-four activities for elementary and middle school, one for each day in December during the run-up to Christmas.
When you get to the Nrich website, click a number to go to that day’s math.
Here are twenty-four favorite activities for middle and high school, one for each day in December in the run-up to Christmas.
2021 Secondary Advent Calendar
When you get to the Nrich website, click a number to go to that day’s math.
I encourage you also to explore my HUGE holiday math post:
Or check out these pages for more ideas:
Have fun playing math with your kids!
Are you looking for new ways to explore math with your kids?
Would you like an easy, no-prep resource for creative problem-solving, number play, math art, word problems, mini-essays, math poetry, geometry investigations, research projects, and much more?
I’ve just launched a Kickstarter project for people to preorder my new book, 312 Things To Do with a Math Journal. It just might transform your child’s experience of math.
In a math journal, children explore their own ideas about numbers, shapes, and patterns through drawing or writing in response to a question. Journaling teaches them to see with mathematical eyes. Not just to remember what we adults tell them, but to create their own math.
Scroll down the Kickstarter project page to download the free 16-page printable “Math Journaling Sampler” file. It includes one of my all-time favorite math activities.
If you like what you see, I’d love to have your support. The more people we can get to share the project in the early days, the more likely Kickstarter will join in and promote it to new readers.
Have fun playing math with your kids!
I love listening to podcasts during my morning walk with the dogs. One of my favorites over the past year has been Pam Harris and Kim Montague’s Math is Figure-Out-Able podcast.
Figure-out-able. What a great word!
Figure-out-able sums up what I mean when I tell parents that math is “applied common sense.” Kids can use the things they know to figure out things they don’t yet know.
And figuring things out like that is fun, like a mental game where we play with the ideas of numbers, shapes, and patterns.
Usually, the podcast targets teachers, and the hosts try to show how they can help students learn to mathematize — to think mathematically. Over the past few weeks, however, Pam and Kim have been talking directly to parents about how to help their children learn math.
Christy Thomas interviewed me for her Keep Calm and Mother On podcast. We had a wonderful chat. I think you’ll enjoy it:
“School math sometimes is more stress-inducing. Real math is more freeing and more joyful, and just more interesting.
“Real mathematics is basically applied common sense.
“Real mathematics is noticing patterns, seeing connections, figuring things out.
“These are all things that you can do. You do them in other areas of your life. Real mathematics draws on those same abilities and focuses those abilities on numbers, shapes, and patterns.
“Real mathematics is about solving puzzles. It’s about creative reasoning. These are the things you want your child to understand.”
—Denise Gaskins, Real Math and Family Fun
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I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Christy. If you run a math, education, or homeschooling podcast, and you’d like to have me on sometime, I’d love to hear from you!
Are you looking for more creative ways to play math with your kids? Check out all my books, printable activities, and cool mathy merch at Denise Gaskins’ Playful Math Store.
This blog is reader-supported. If you’d like to help fund the blog on an on-going basis, then please join me on Patreon for mathy inspiration, tips, and an ever-growing archive of printable activities. 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.
“Podcast: Real Math and Family Fun” copyright © 2021 by Denise Gaskins. Image at the top of the post copyright © Bruno Nascimento via Unsplash.com.
Pam Barnhill interviewed me for the Your Morning Basket podcast. We had a great talk. I think you’ll enjoy it:
“Let me give you this new vision. I want you to think of math as a nature walk.
“There’s this whole world of interesting things. More things, more concepts, more ideas than you and your children would ever have time to explore. And everywhere you look, there’s something cool to discover.
“If you explore this world with your children, you’re not behind. Wherever you are, you’re not behind because there is no behind. There’s only, “We’re going this direction.” Or, “Let’s move that way.” Or, “Hey, look what I found over here!”
“And as long as your children are thinking and wondering, and making sense of the math they find, they’re going to learn. They’re going to grow.
“So what you want to do is, you want to embrace this adventure of loving God with all your mind and approach math with an attitude of playful exploration.
“And you know, you’ll be surprised how much fun thinking hard can be.”
—Denise Gaskins, Math in Morning Time
* * *
I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Pam. If you run a math, education, or homeschooling podcast, and you’d like to have me on sometime, I’d love to hear from you!
Are you looking for more creative ways to play math with your kids? Check out all my books, printable activities, and cool mathy merch at Denise Gaskins’ Playful Math Store. Or join my email newsletter.
This blog is reader-supported. If you’d like to help fund the blog on an on-going basis, then please join me on Patreon for mathy inspiration, tips, and an ever-growing archive of printable activities.
“Podcast: Math as a Nature Walk” copyright © 2021 by Denise Gaskins. Image at the top of the post copyright © Jessica Rockowitz via Unsplash.com.
How to Homeschool Math: A long page full of my best tips on homeschooling math in a low-stress, creative, playful way. No matter which curriculum you use—unschoolers, too!
Get regular email updates with playful math activity ideas and other fun tidbits when you join my email newsletter.
My Let’s Play Math Sampler ebook contains short excerpts from my most popular books. You can get it for free!
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 