Homeschool Math Blog

I had the chance to look into two math facts practice programs, titled CapJaxMathFax and UberSmart Math Facts . Both programs drill math facts and keep track of your progress. My testing "girl" liked them both just fine. Her focus definitely was on getting the percentages on the progress chart to go up (in both programs)! CapJaxMathFax Here's a screen of CapJaxMathFax showing a math problem to solve. It alternates the dot and cross symbols for multiplication. It also alternates showing the problems vertically or horizontally. The vertical line is my cursor blinking in the empty space. If you answer correctly and in less than 3 seconds, it shows you the word "SUPER". Then you get the next fact by pressing "ENTER." Personally I would have liked a little clearer workspace, but all these colors, buttons, text, etc. on the screen seemingly didn't bother my daughter. Here is where you select what operation you want to practice, how l...

Need help with teaching percent-related topics? Or need help studying them? Check out these new lessons of mine -- with videos! Click on the links to read the lessons. You can watch the videos here or on the lesson pages. 1. Percent - the concept and how to change fractions to percents. 2. Percentage of a number using mental math     For example, how to find 70% of 5,000 or similar problems. 3. Percentage of a number using decimals     The same as above, but this time we use a calculator & decimals,     not mental math. 4. "What percentage..." / "How many percent...?"   How to solve word problems that ask for the percentage.

About this thing where people say, "I hate math", or "I'm not good at math", or "I never understood math", or similar things. It's well-known that in the U.S. at least, people seem to be able to say such things with ease -- it is totally acceptable socially -- but no one readily admits similar things about their reading abilities! I just read two interesting posts by Bon from Math is Not a Four-Letter Word that deal with this topic... They can HELP you or others you know overcome this line of thinking. How to Get People to Stop Saying "I Hate Math" How to Quit Saying "I Hate Math" You might also be interested in an old blogpost of mine: Developing a Positive Attitude (towards math) .

Did you know tree branches and leaves in a plant rotate around the trunk in a pattern based on Fibonacci numbers ? That maximises the amount of sunlight that the leaves get, because it minimizes how much the upper level branches or leaves shade the lower ones. Well, a 13-year old student has now built a "tree model" with solar panels and proven that it collects MORE sunlight than a flat array of solar panels! The article has lots of photos to show his experiments.

PRUFROCK PRESS INC. is graciously donating THREE copies of their Math Dictionary for Kids: (Grades 4-9) to be given away to my blog readers! (Only U.S. and Canada addresses, please.) This dictionary has been recently updated and is now in full color! Go check how it looks like inside At Amazon: If you want to take part in the giveaway, leave a comment here, AND email me so I'll have your email address to contact you if you win. I will run this until  August 21 OR until I get 100 entries, whichever happens first. And it's only for U.S. and Canada addresses. COMMENTS ARE CLOSED NOW... I GOT MORE THAN 100 in record time. The WINNERS are RJC, Sheri R, and mommygirl @ HCA. THANKS EVERYONE! AND, not only that, but Denise also has a math book giveaway at her blog... hers are for TWO books: Keith Devlin’s new e-book, Leonardo and Steve: The Young Genius Who Beat Apple to Market by 800 Years, and his latest print book, The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci’s Arithmetic Revolu...

Homeschool Buyers Co-op group buy is live at www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/math-mammoth You can get Math Mammoth bundles for up to 50% off! (The discount level depends on the number of purchasers.) This is the best deal on the planet! Currclick will have an August sale on lots of stuff starting TOMORROW AUGUST 3, including Math Mammoth books (but not bundles... they don't have a way to automatically include bundles in their sales). Math Mammoth 25% OFF! The sale runs till August 24. http://www.currclick.com/index.php?filters=0_0&manufacturers_id=108 Concurrently I'll run the same sale at Kagi--25% off of all my books, including the CDs and bundles. Use coupon code AUGUSTSALE at Kagi checkout. Starts NOW (August 2) and runs till August 24. Go to www.mathmammoth.com first, then find the links to Kagi's order pages. Or use these direct links: Light Blue series (complete curriculum) Blue series Golden and Green Series Make It Real Learning workbooks . ...