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.
The full quote:
For children (and adults) who have always considered math to be memorized rules, the experience of mathematical thinking — though difficult at first — can be as refreshing as a hike in pure mountain air.
As in hiking, so in math: It’s not the destination that matters, but the journey. Yes, you could give your students a rule that would help them get correct answers, but that’s no better than riding a helicopter up the mountain.
Slow down and take the time necessary to let your children fully explore these concepts.
— Denise Gaskins
Prealgebra & Geometry: Math Games for Middle School
Excerpted from my upcoming book, Prealgebra & Geometry: Math Games for Middle School, scheduled for publication in early 2021. Sign up for my newsletter to get updates.
CREDIT: “On the edge” photo by Joseph Gonzalez on Unsplash.
Shaista is a homeschooling mom who read an advance copy of my new book. Her response:
“I want to shout from the rooftops about it. It’s a wonderful read on the importance of play in maths — and a gentle reminder for those of us who know but feel pressured to make sure educational standards are met … and in the process of ticking off boxes we sometimes suck the joy out of maths, instead of realizing that it’s a journey to enjoy.”
— Shaista
Prealgebra & Geometry: Math Games for Middle School is scheduled for publication in early 2021. Sign up for my newsletter to get updates.
PHOTO CREDIT: “Outdoors kids” courtesy of Annie Spratt on Unsplash.
Here is a math problem in honor of one of our family’s favorite movies…
Han Solo was doing much-needed maintenance on the Millennium Falcon. He spent 3/5 of his money upgrading the hyperspace motivator. He spent 3/4 of the remainder to install a new blaster cannon. If he spent 450 credits altogether, how much money did he have left?
Stop and think about how you would solve it before reading further.
For children, learning always begins with play. This is how they wrap their minds around new ideas and make them their own.
“There should be no element of slavery in learning. Enforced exercise does no harm to the body, but enforced learning will not stay in the mind. So avoid compulsion, and let your children’s lessons take the form of play.”
—Plato, The Republic
If we want our children to enjoy learning math, our first job is to establish an attitude of playfulness.
This is especially important for anyone working with a discouraged child or a child who is afraid of math. The best way to help a discouraged child is to put away the workbook. Try something different, fun, and challenging.
Far too many people find themselves suddenly, unexpectedly homeschooling their children. This prompts me to consider what advice I might offer after more than three decades of teaching kids at home.
Through my decades of homeschooling five kids, we lived by two rules:
Do math. Do reading.
As long as we hit those two topics each day, I knew the kids would be fine. Do some sort of mathematical game or activity. Read something from that big stack of books we collected at the library.
Conquer the basics of math and reading, then everything else will fall into place.
The question came up again:
“What is the best curriculum for my children? They are four and six years old, and I’m afraid of letting them fall behind.”
I remember being a young parent, eager to start homeschooling. I used to get mad (without letting it show, like a true introvert) when people told me, “They are young. Just let them play.”
Now I see the wisdom in it.
The most important thing for your children right now, by far, is for them to enjoy learning. The joy of learning is a child’s natural state. As a parent, your primary job is to keep yourself from stomping it out.
But our parental fears can push us into joy-trampling before we realize it.
And our own experience of school makes it hard for us to see how much of our children’s play really is learning. We expect education to look like schoolwork, but natural learning looks nothing like that.
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.
Halfway down the stairs
Is a stair
Where I sit.
There isn’t any
Other stair
Quite like
It.
I’m not at the bottom,
I’m not at the top;
So this is the stair
Where
I always
Stop.
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.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 