There's just something about grilling in the summer. I love the warm evening air, the smell of delicious food, and the comfort of being with friends and family. Whether you realize it or not, there's a lot of math that goes into a successful barbeque! When it comes to feeding people, amounts and quantities are … Continue reading Summer Math Talk: At the Grill
Here in Nashville, we're quickly heading towards, and the end of school is in sight. With the newfound freedom comes the question of what to do with all of the hours in the day and how to get rid of some of the energy. Perhaps your child will attend a summer camp or two and … Continue reading Adding Math to the Summer Routine
Valentine's Day is all about letting loved ones know that you love and care for them. One of the best things you can do to show your child you care about them is to spend some quality time together. Take advantage of the extra family time and Valentine's Day goodies to support your child's math … Continue reading Valentine’s Day Math Talk
Math games are a great way to build foundational math skills and math confidence. Children develop an intuitive sense of mathematics on their own. Through games, children have the opportunity to formalize their ideas as they make connections, communicate with others, and represent their ideas in multiple ways. Playing games also builds important problem solving … Continue reading Parents’ Guide to Math Games: Setting the Foundation
All children are born with the ability to learn math. As children experience rich and stimulating environments, their brains build pathways and connections (Boaler, 2016). Rich and stimulating environments may sound fancy, but it's not - no snazzy toys or doctorate required. All you need to do is talk about math with your child! Talking … Continue reading Math Talk for Early Learning
Math homework has been known to cause tears, frustration, and headaches for parents and children alike. Unfortunately, something that is intended to help children get better at math tends to turn them against it. Regardless of what you believe about homework (more on that in another post), you can't control what your child's math homework … Continue reading Homework Help Part 2: Strategies to Add Confidence and Subtract Anxiety
When helping your child with math homework, there's a good chance you've thought something along these lines: Doing the problem that way doesn't make any sense! If this resonates with you, you're not alone. Although the Common Core Math and its new approach to math education has been in classrooms since 2010, many parents still … Continue reading Homework Help Part 1: Core Math
In my more-often-than-normal conversations about math, I have found that many adults use the following phrase as evidence that they're not math people: I still use my fingers to do math problems. The underlying assumption is one that has been passed down from one math classroom to the next: using your fingers to help you … Continue reading Counting Fingers and Toes
At some regrettable point in time, math and speed became intertwined: The faster you can do math, the better you are at it. This common belief contains two key misconceptions about math: Math is about calculations (the actual addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) How fast you can do the calculations matters Unfortunately, these misconceptions create … Continue reading Subtracting speed from the equation
Math, more than any other subject, is associated with innate ability. I just didn't get the math gene. I have always struggled with numbers. These phrases suggest that the sacred "math brain" is a gift that a small percentage of children receive at birth. However, research over the past few decades has revealed that our … Continue reading We are all born with math brains
