Ever since the school year started, I’ve been getting questions about how to use my new Math Journaling Adventures logbooks.
[SIDE NOTE: These logbooks are included in this month’s Thanksgiving Sale! You’ll get an automatic 10% discount off all print books, applied at checkout, no special code required.]
“I love the way your math books get my children thinking.
“Finally, they are having fun with math!
“But sometimes I have no idea what the journaling prompt is all about or how to teach it. Where can I buy a solutions manual?”
Um, that’s not how math journals work.
The cool thing about journaling prompts is that they have no “right” answer. They are explorations into different parts of the world of math, nature walks in the land of numbers, shapes, and patterns. Springboards into whatever our children want to investigate, whatever sparks their interest.
A few of the problem-solving prompts may have specific answers, but it really doesn’t matter if our kids find the exact solution a math professional might give. If they write what makes sense to them, they’ve accomplished the goal.
If later, they think of something they hadn’t noticed, or they want to change their answer — well, that is mathematical thinking, too.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 