My favorite mathy moments are the ones I didn't expect. Several months ago, I decided to make a whiteboard mandala for my kids to color. They had fallen in love with an adhesive one that was stuck to a table at the children's library in town, but I didn't want to pay $100 to buy... Continue Reading →
Bed time has become more difficult for the 6-year-old since school has started. I think it has to do with adjusting to first grade. It's a big transition year, and he's got a lot of concerns that come up just as I'm about to turn out the lights. He's no dummy. He knows how to... Continue Reading →
The 9-year-old took the MCAS (the Massachusetts school standardized tests) for the first time last year as a 3rd grader. The results are in. I didn't show them to him immediately, though, because I wanted to be thoughtful about how I communicated my interpretation of the results and how I hope he will interpret them.... Continue Reading →
We lucked out when the 6-year-old was in a swim lesson with only one other child. Semi-private lesson for the price of a group lesson! Nice. I sat on the pool deck to watch from afar...not so close that I was "present" at the lesson, but not so far that I couldn't hear the instruction... Continue Reading →
Not sure how to get your kids to play math? Here's one way...strategically leave something out for them to discover. We all know that if we require our kids to do something, we will often get push-back. But...if the kid is choosing to engage on his own, the same activity that otherwise was "required" is... Continue Reading →
I grew up playing ping-pong in my family's basement. And in the garage. And, on nice days, in the driveway. My father would roll the table out for picnic and grill parties and challenge anyone willing to take him on. He was good. I could talk about how my eye-hand coordination strengthened from playing often... Continue Reading →
Ugh. I am so sorry. That is a terrible title for anything. Overused. Though accurate. It is always surprising to me how quickly we adjust back to the school schedule and how soon we lose that full but flexible feeling of summer. It's not necessarily a smooth transition, but within a week or so, we... Continue Reading →
I keep saying that games are a great way to build and reinforce math concepts, but even so, I am pleasantly surprised when I see it actually happening in action. I saw it happening again last week...not quite a year after I first introduced Yahtzee! to my younger son. We brought Yahtzee! with us on... Continue Reading →
I loved playing the game Rack-O as a kid. And, darn it, my kids are going to love it, too. The concept of Rack-O, a classic Milton-Bradley game, is simple; get a set of 10 cards in ascending order before your opponent does. Strategy and patience are necessary, though, as you decide whether to draw... Continue Reading →
Remember that scene in the movie Austin Powers where Dr. Evil plans to hold Earth ransom for "one million dollars!" The rest of the bad guys in the room are unimpressed. Isn't one millions dollars a little low? So Dr. Evil ups it to one hundred billion dollars! You can tell, though, that he's not... Continue Reading →
mathy moments 