Homeschool Math Blog

Here are the winning entries for the photo contest I ran recently. I asked each participant to provide a photo showing a child/student(s) doing math work from a Math Mammoth book or materials. Click to see a larger version. Enjoy! 1. I felt this picture was just so cute and also the composition is great. "Isabelle is proudly showing her mom her correctly formed 3's. She wrote them backwards at first. She is working out of her big sister's 1st grade workbook from Math Mammoth's Light Blue Series." The second place was a tie — I just couldn't decide. 2. A. First, school work upside down - quite creative! "Here is a pic of my son doing his Light Blue 4 work. I have the download version and printed and bound it in parts because he likes to move around a lot while he works." 2. B. From Amy (no description). I feel this also is a creative shot and shows students with a very happy disposition. 3. "My daughter loves to ...

World Math Day 2010 is coming up on March 3rd. You might remember it from last year. It is a free event and lots of fun for the kids. Registrations close March 2nd. Once you register, you can go practice at the website. In it, students complete against other students from around the globe in REAL time, with simple mental math questions (such as 7 + 8 or 24 ÷ 4 or 9 × 9). It involves more than 2 million students from over 200 countries. Brand NEW format. Be part of setting a world record! Designed for all ages and ability levels. Simple to register and participate. All you need is Internet access. Great prizes And it’s absolutely free!! Remember to hurry because the registration closes March 2nd, 2010. www.worldmathday.com

The American Math Challenge is an online math challenge or "competition" where students aged 9-14 from across America can compete in a safe, multiplayer game environment. This is from the same folks as the World Math Day, if you happen to remember that. Students will have the task of answering as many correct questions as they can in 60 second mental arithmetic challenges LIVE, against other students. Or, they can also solve questions based on the national curriculum at their own pace. Why would you take part? It's about having fun with math. In fact, there's a good chance your students/children will love it. It's absolutely free. Nothing to lose if you participate. In fact, during the practice week you can find out if your kids like it or not. If your children or students really get into it, they can vastly improve their mental arithmetic and basic facts. Week 1: Nov. 2-8 is Practice week Week 2: Nov. 9-16 is the actual American Math Challenge Register at www....

Noetic Learning is holding a math contest for elementary students that homeschoolers can take part in. Here are some details about this contest: Registration deadline: October 18,2009 (coming up soon!) Contest Date: October 26-30 2009 Who: any students (grades 2 - 5) Location: your home Fee: $8 per student per contest My daughter is taking part. We will see how it goes. The purpose of a math contest is definitely NOT to discourage a child or to put additional burden on him. I'm basically checking to see if this contest can be a means of inspiration and motivation for my daughter. www.noetic-learning.com/mathcontest/homeschool.jsp

In the World Math Day , children from across the globe unite in their quest to set a world record in answering mental arithmetic questions . This event involves more than a million students from 160 countries. Why should your or my children participate? Well, they might love being part of setting a world record! And it's just simple math questions! Also good to know: * The event is designed for all ages and ability levels. * There are prizes. * And it's FREE! How will it work? Simply register your kids online. The actual event will take place in real-time. Kids will answer simple arithmetic questions and play live with other students around the globe. In 2008 more than one million children from 160 countries combined to correctly answer 182,455,169 questions. This year, they try to break this record. World Math Day takes place on 4 March, 2009. Please register here: www.WorldMathDay.com . The Human Calculator Scott Flansburg , the Guiness Record Holder for "Fastest Human C...

I was asked to pass on the word on this free TEAM-BASED math contest... geared towards middle/high school students. Teachers, take note! Dave Marain from MathNotations has authored a Math Contest, which will take place on Tuesday February 3rd. Students in Grades 7-12 may participate. Schools can register one team of up to 6 students to try the contest which will be different from most math competitions: Team-based - students will have up to 90 minutes to complete 6 questions (although many teams could finish in 45 minutes) Calculator permitted Some multi-part questions and some open-ended questions requiring explanation a la MathNotations investigations Emphasis on Algebra II although some questions are accessible to Middle Schoolers Registration, delivery of questions and submission of official team answers/solutions all done via email All students receive a Certificate of Participation and top-scoring schools/students will receive a Certificate of Merit Here's the link to the inf...

It's time to publish the winners for category 1 of Math Mammoth Thanksgiving contest. I got a lot of very nice testimonials, and in fact I'm still going through them. Some of the stories of how people have used Math Mammoth were actually quite touching. In one case, it seems Math Mammoth saved the entire homeschool (see the first winning entry below)! In others, my books have made a big difference. So without further ta-doo let's announce some winners! 1st Prize : $50 credit to get Math Mammoth books There are two winners. 1. Coleen Posey Excerpt from her entry: "I do not exaggerate when I tell you that we were on the verge of giving up on homeschooling and putting our kiddo in school because math was ruining our entire day. That was not what I wanted to do, so back into "research mode" I went. Enter Math Mammoth. I don't even remember how I stumbled onto the website, but I soon realized it looked like exactly what we needed. What attracted me the most ...

I have had a fantastic turnout to my Thanksgiving contest - nearly 110 entries! Thanks to all that participated! I have spent a lot of time reading the responses, and there are some among them that are just jewels - people's testimonials of how Math Mammoth has helped the children or even saved the entire homeschool. In fact, while reading through, I decided to cast aside my earlier rules about the number of winners, and so there will be MORE winners than what I announced originally. This post is about the results for the category 2: Give your excuses for not using Math Mammoth yet -- because these were simply easier to judge. Category 1 winners will be published soon after this. I hope you will enjoy reading through the entries. TOOT TO DOO DOO! 1st Prize : $50 credit to get Math Mammoth books There are two winners. 1. Robin G. Excerpt from her entry: ... Finances have been very tight for us -- at times nonexistent! My husband suddenly became ill at the beginning of this year an...

I got word about this nice math event. In World Math Day Challenge (held on March 5), students from across the globe will be uniting online to play each other in real time mental arithmetic games. These are tailored to the students' levels so students of various ages can participate. They are expecting more than 1 million students from over 100 countries! It is one of the world's largest participation events. World Math Day is free of charge for both schools and students. All you need is Internet access. And, there are even prizes! More information may be found at www.WorldMathDay.com . This is a nice opportunity to do something fun with math, and at the same time connect with other kids, even across the globe, without leaving your home. You can register already; the event is on March 5.

Could a nice math contest spark up some interest and motivation in your student(s)? I really like the idea of math contests and problems of the week. When my kids get a little older, I'll probably use some problem of the week contest from the Internet. Typically with problem of the week contests you simply do the problems at home and send the solution over the Internet. You, as the teacher, can be in control of time and additional resources used. The contest problems are more challenging than standard textbook problems. They "stretch their brain", perhaps even strech mom's brain! But that's all for good. We must not let our students live under the impression that all word problems are solved by the method just studied in the lesson. I've written about the need for challenging and open-ended problems before. You might want to check those posts out as well. Some contests publish the names of those who solved it right and some simply publish the right solution...