The Final Books from a Homeschooled Teen Author

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Teen author Teresa Gaskins
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.

Those of us who read her earlier books have waited eagerly to hear how the story ends. Two years longer than we hoped, since she had to squeeze in her writing between calculus exams and college essays.

But finally, it’s done!

Now a homeschool graduate, she wrote the last few scenes right at the tail end of her nineteenth year — which means these will be Teresa’s final books as a teen author.

Check them out…

The Riddled Stone: Omnibus Edition, Four Books in One

How can a knight fight magic?

Christopher Fredrico loved the quiet life of a scholar-in-training. Plenty of spare time to spend with his friends. But the night Crown Prince Tyler came to dinner, everything changed.

Falsely accused of stealing a magical artifact and banished under threat of death, Chris leaves the only home he knows.

But as he and his three friends travel towards the coast, they find a riddle that may save a kingdom — or cost them their lives.

Discover the full story of The Riddled Stone, complete in one volume.

Free Online Preview

Buy now at:
Amazon-Kindle-logo the_book_depository_logo Barnes-Noble-logo kobo-logo ibookstore-badg
… and other online retailers, or by special request at your favorite local bookshop.

Or for those who already read the earlier books…

Revealed: The Riddled Stone, Book Four

A gift she never wanted. A curse she can’t escape.

Alone in the dark, Nora of Yorc feels the dungeon walls pressing in. Even worse, the duke’s sorcery weaves itself around her, unseen and deadly. But as the spell tightens, shy, fragile Nora breaks — and something new takes her place.

Or something old beyond memory.

Nora joined this quest to help her friends. But can she stop herself before the wildness within destroys them all?

Find out in Revealed, the exciting conclusion of Teresa Gaskins’s four-book serial fantasy adventure, The Riddled Stone.

Free Online Preview

Buy now at:
Amazon-Kindle-logo the_book_depository_logo Barnes-Noble-logo kobo-logo ibookstore-badg
… and other online retailers, or by special request at your favorite local bookshop.

Praise for The Riddled Stone

“A captivating fantasy story with a well-thought-out plot…”

— Wayne S. Walker, Home School Book Review

“There are some obvious protagonists and some obvious villains, but Gaskins creates a nice ambiguity around several of the key characters. The plot itself is interesting and engaging with multiple levels of motivation that drive it along.”

— Phanwadee, online reader review

“I enjoyed the book and I am absolutely amazed at how such a young author can write so well. I definitely see her going far in her writing career, and I can’t wait to see what stories she publishes next.”

— Tia, Homeschool Literature.com

CREDITS: Feature image of Neuschwanstein Castle, Schwangau, Germany, (top) by William West via Unsplash. Author photo by Christina Vernon, MelliRu.com.

Even a Math Workbook Can Be a Game

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Homeschool Memories…

My youngest daughter wanted to do Singapore math. Miquon Red was her main math text at the time, but we added a bit of Singapore Primary Math 1B whenever she was in the mood.

We turned to the lesson on subtracting with numbers in the 30-somethings.

Continue reading Even a Math Workbook Can Be a Game

Rabbit Trails and Fibonacci Poetry

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Homeschool Memories…

Well, I hadn’t planned on spending my day that way. But one of the great things about homeschooling is the freedom to follow rabbit trails.

While browsing the Carnival of Homeschooling, I found a link to Farm School blog’s article Fib Foolery, which sent me to Gotta Book for his articles The Fib and More Fibbery (read the comments on both threads, but be warned that some are crude) and several other posts, all of which set me off on a morning of poetic fun.

A “Fib” is a Fibonacci poem. It’s based on syllable count, like a haiku, but the lines follow the Fibonacci counting series: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8… Each number is the sum of the previous two numbers.

I knew what I was going to share at our Tuesday Teatime and Poetry Reading that afternoon.

Continue reading Rabbit Trails and Fibonacci Poetry

Noticing Fractions in a Sidewalk

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

fraction-circle

My daughters didn’t want to admit to knowing me, when I stopped to take a picture of the sidewalk along a back street during our trip to Jeju. But aren’t those some wonderful fractions?

What do you see? What do you wonder?

Here is one of the relationships I noticed in the outer ring:

\frac{4 \frac {2}{2}}{20} = \frac {1}{4}

sidewalk

And this one’s a little trickier:

\frac{1 \frac {1}{2}}{12} = \frac {1}{8}

Can you find it in the picture?

Each square of the sidewalk is made from four smaller tiles, about 25 cm square, cut from lava rock. Some of the sidewalk tiles are cut from mostly-smooth rock, some bubbly, and some half-n-half.

I wonder how far we could go before we had to repeat a circle pattern?

Continue reading Noticing Fractions in a Sidewalk

A Review for my Daughter’s Novel

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

“… a captivating fantasy story with a well-thought-out plot … people who like medieval-style fantasies with wraiths, spirits, and even an attacking swamp tree will enjoy the story. I certainly did, and the excitement, adventure, and suspense will easily keep the reader’s attention …”

— Wayne S. Walker
Home School Book Review

Thank you, Mr. Walker!

As a fantasy fan myself, I agree that Teresa did a great job on this book. She improved in every way from Book — more world building, more complex plotting, and a deeper emotional identification with the characters. I can’t wait to see what she writes next.

Check it out for yourself:

Hunted600

Find out how the adventure began:

BanishedKindleCover

New Internet Math Reference Pages

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

The Internet boasts a wide-ranging assortment of math websites, and for years I maintained (or mostly neglected) a huge page of reference links. This spring I’ve been working on the paperback edition of my book‌—‌with its appendix of favorite books and internet sites‌—‌and I decided to revise my blog links to match.

Blogging while we watch the tide come in. :)
Blogging while we watch the tide come in.

So this week, I’m in Jeju, South Korea, visiting my daughter who teaches English there. In between seeing touristy sites and gorging ourselves on amazingly delicious food, she took me to a beautiful coffee shop that overlooks the beach in Aewol.

Great place to work on my blog!

The long monster list morphed into eight topical pages. I hope you find something useful.

Playing tourist with two of my daughters at Halla Arboretum.
Playing tourist with two of my daughters at Halla Arboretum.

I will try to keep these pages up to date, but the Internet is volatile. If you find a broken link, you can search for the website by name or enter the defunct URL into the Internet Wayback Machine at Archive.org.

Changing of the guard at Old City Hall, Jeju-si.
Changing of the guard at Old City Hall, Jeju-si.

And if you know of a fantastic website I’ve missed, please send me an email (LetsPlayMath@gmail.com, or use the comment form on my “About” page). I appreciate your help.

Feature photo above by Fractal Ken via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). Korea photos ©2015 Denise Gaskins, all rights reserved. For more math resource suggestions, check out my Math with Living Books pages. They’re not finished yet, but I’ll be working on them next.

New Fantasy Novel by Homeschooled Teen Author

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Hunted600After months of editing, formatting, proofreading, sweat, and tears:

Teresa Gaskins’s new ebook Hunted: The Riddled Stone ~ Book Two is available now at Amazon worldwide.

You can download the first five chapters here:

To celebrate the release of Hunted, the ebook version of Banished‌—‌the first book in the Riddled Stone series‌—‌will be on sale for 99 cents for the next few weeks.

Math Storytelling Day: The Hospital Floor

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

[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:

My Math Story

tiles2

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.

tiles1

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.

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Which I am going to say right now. Thank you!

“Math Storytelling Day: The Hospital Floor” copyright © 2014 by Denise Gaskins.

Reblog: A Mathematical Trauma

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

Feature photo (above) by Jimmie via flickr.

My 8-year-old daughter’s first encounter with improper fractions was a bit more intense than she knew how to handle.

I hope you enjoy this “Throw-back Thursday” blast from the Let’s Play Math! blog archives:

Photo (right) by Old Shoe Woman via Flickr.

Nearing the end of Miquon Blue today, my youngest daughter encountered fractions greater than one. She collapsed on the floor of my bedroom in tears.

The worksheet started innocently enough:

\frac{1}{2} \times 8=\left[ \quad \right]

[Click here to go read the original post.]

A Pretty Math Problem?

Posted on by Denise Gaskins

As we were doing Buddy Math (taking turns through the homework exercises) today, my daughter said, “Oooo! I want to do this one. It’s pretty!”

CodeCogsEqn

She has always loved seeing patterns in math. I remember once, years ago, when she insisted that we change the problems on a worksheet to make the answers come out symmetrical. 🙂