My eight-year-old daughter’s first encounter with improper fractions was a bit more intense than she knew how to handle. And I hadn’t learned yet how to use the Notice-Wonder-Create cycle to help kids think about tough problems.
Sometimes I wonder how our children survive their parents’ learning curve. It’s a good thing God made them resilient enough to thrive despite our mistakes!
If you find a free hour this week, you may enjoy listening to my latest Notice & Wonder podcast discussion with Sonya and Della about the power of playful math:
We share plenty of tips, stories, and practical advice for bringing a sense of curiosity and exploration into your math lessons.
Plus, the Best Math Game Ever!
I love this podcast, because it always feels like sitting down to chat over coffee with good friends who love kids and love teaching.
Taking our focus off answer-getting can be hard for the adult, because that right answer gives us security that we know what we’re doing. It’s hard to give ourselves the freedom of saying, “I’m going to go into this lesson, and I have no idea where it’s going to go. I have this puzzle, I have this problem, but I don’t know where it will lead.’’
That’s a scary situation to be in as the adult who’s used to being in control of everything.
But we’re exploring this landscape of math. There are a lot of cool things to discover, and we’ll find something. We may not find the answer, but we’ll find something interesting, if we just explore it.
— Denise Gaskins,
“From Right Answers to Adventure”
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If you enjoy listening to podcasts, check out my other interviews here.
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: From Right Answers to Adventure” copyright © 2024 by Denise Gaskins. Podcast logo copyright © 2024 Sonya Post.
Can your students solve this problem?
There are 20% more girls than boys in the senior class. What percent of the seniors are girls?
This is from an old discussion of the semantics of percent problems and why students have trouble with them, going on over at MathNotations. (Follow-up post here.)
Our homeschool co-op prealgebra class had just finished a chapter on percents, so I thought my son might have a chance at this one. Nope! He leapt without thought to the conclusion that 60% of the class must be girls.
After I explained the significance of the word “than”, he solved the follow-up problem just fine.
When I was a novice homeschooler, our local Moms’ Night Out provided mentoring and kept me sane. We’d leave the children home with their dads and meet up at a local restaurant for a cup of coffee, a slice of pecan pie, and a robust discussion of educational philosophy.
This spring, my friend Sonya Post launched a new podcast called “Notice & Wonder” — and it captures that same feeling perfectly.
Sonya explains: “What is Notice, Wonder, Discover? It’s the development of cognitive skills, without which you have never learned anything in your life. We are developing the underlying skills that will make anyone more proficient at learning anything.”
I’ve had the privilege to join Sonya for three episodes of the podcast so far, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed our conversations.
Here’s a taste…
We’re continuing our series of posts on how to build robust thinking skills instead of forcing our children to walk with crutches.
When we say, “Use this method, follow these steps,” we teach kids to be mathematical cripples.
If your student’s reasoning is, “I followed the teacher’s or textbook’s steps and out popped this answer,” then they’re not doing real math. Real mathematical thinking says, “I know this and that are both true, and when I put them together, I can figure out the answer.”
But what if our kids get stumped on a fraction calculation like 7/8 − 1/6?
In the weeks since I opened my new Playful Math Store, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how all the books relate to each other.
For example…
Q: Your books look so interesting! Is the material in the books all different?
A: There is a bit of overlap between books, but not much in most cases.
I have a new podcast interview, and I think you’ll enjoy it!
Check out Pam Barnhill’s 10 Minutes to a Better Homeschool on your favorite podcast app, or listen on the website:
Here’s a couple of excerpts…
Continue reading Podcast: How to Transform Math Lessons without Changing your Curriculum
I’ve tried a few times over the years to express my philosophy of teaching math. Back when I first started doing workshops for homeschooling parents, I told them:
“Instead of drudgery, mathematics should be a game of discovery. It should give children the same ‘Eureka!’ thrill that sent Archimedes running through town in his birthday suit. I call this the ‘Aha!’ factor, the delight in solving a challenging puzzle.”
Years later, as the internet developed and much of life moved online, I started a blog about playing with math. And since all good blogs need an “About Me” page, I had another chance to sum up my thoughts:
“Math is like ice cream, with more flavors than you can imagine — and if all your children ever see is textbook math, that’s like feeding them broccoli-flavored ice cream.”
But over the years, some people got the impression that my goal was all about playing games. They asked, “How can we make math fun for our kids?” — as if gamification adds a candy coating to make the disgusting medicine more palatable.
And of course, I do write a lot of books about games. I think games serve much better than worksheets for practicing basic math skills.
Still, I wanted people to see that the ideas of math themselves are tasty tidbits worth playing with.
Did you know that, with our recent stretch goals, the Tabletop Math Games Kickstarter now features more than 90 amazing ways to play math with your kids?
And every pledge pushes us closer to the next new bonus, which means more new games and playful math goodies for every backer.
Don’t miss out on the excitement. Order your copy today:
Visit the Math Games Kickstarter ❱
I love how the challenge of a well-fought math game pushes players of all ages to think more creatively and build fluency.
So my Tabletop Math Games Collection is designed to make it easier than ever for busy families and over-stressed teachers to play with math.
All you need are common household supplies like cards, dice, and scratch paper. Children can open a Tabletop Math Games Collection book to any page and start playing right away, and the digital files make great classroom handouts or learning center games.
Continue reading Math Games Kickstarter: It Keeps Getting Better
And so it begins: the Tabletop Math Games Collection is LIVE on Kickstarter!
To have a successful campaign, we need plenty of people to back the project early. The more supporters we get in these early days, the more likely the Kickstarter platform folks will help spread the news for us.
To give you a feel for the Tabletop Math Games Collection books, I’ve put together a free printable sampler file, with 4 ready-to-play card games you can enjoy today.
I think you’ll love it!
Continue reading Tabletop Math Games Kickstarter: Order Your Copy Today
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 