Homeschool Math Blog

  This is a wonderful story by a girl about her experiences with math... have your kids read it! Note how she learns when the teacher allows her to correct her mistakes in a test. I definitely advocate that. In fact, I give my kids HALF of the points they COULD have gotten at first, if they get a test question correct when they revise it.    Tests should be LEARNING tools, and help children learn, just like everything else we do in teaching them, and NOT "scary judgment devices".   https://blackwomenrockmath.com/blog/f/never-give-up

Several people have asked over the years about ROUNDING when estimating the result of a math problem. I finally wrote something to put online so I can refer people to that when they ask...  https://www.mathmammoth.com/lessons/rules_estimation   It seems to be a confusing topic! But really, in a nutshell, there are no exact rules. When estimating...   Consider your mental math skills. Round as little as possible, based on what YOU can calculate in your head. And, consider also how the rounding up or down will affect the final result . Sometimes it is better to round one number up and the other down, even though the technical rounding rules would dictate otherwise.