Homeschool Math Blog

This is what my son did on one of his Math Mammoth pages when studying FRACTIONS in 1st grade math ... Look closely at the instruction for question 1d... color both halves, but different colors! It was so cute. :) This worksheet page is found in my book Introduction to Fractions and also in Math Mammoth Grade 1 Complete Curriculum .

Image credit Charlie Smith Some pointers/explanations in case you find these cryptic: A happy face to the power of -1 is the inverse of happy face. Happy face squared or cubed are pretty easy. "sup" in mathematics is the supremum of a set. Then we have a partial derivative of Happy Face. Next, sine of Happy Face = Happy Face sign by the road. In the second column, Re( :) ) is the real part of Happy Face, which is Happy Face without the eyes (without i's). Im of Happy Face is the imaginary part of Happy Face = the eyes (the i's). [Note, i is the imaginary unit used with imaginary numbers.] Triangle followed by X is the mathematical operation curl (of a vector). Next, the upside-down triangle is the gradient of Happy Face or "grad" of Happy Face. Lastly, Log or logarithm of Happy Face

My girls have been enjoying DigiWhiz for a few weeks now, and have been having fun with it. It is a free online program -- useful as a supplement -- that practices just a few areas: multiplication facts,  division facts,  integer arithmetic,  solving simple equations, and  dealing with like terms.  Maybe they are planning to expand in the future; I don't know. Kids earn points as they play, and they can use the points to buy various things in the DigiWhiz store. That always makes it more fun and motivating for children, as I'm sure you have noticed if you have used any of these types of online programs. Below are some screenshots. Like I said, it's free, so won't cost you any to try and see if it works for your children/students or not.

I was thinking of chocolate this morning... you know, I don't remember knowing anyone who DIDN'T like chocolate! I am one of the crowd, and LOVE it. It feel its taste is nothing short of awesome. It's superb , exquisite , fantastic ... can't find words for it. (I'm pretty sure you agree!) I've also often thought about this little fact: the main product they make of the cacao tree, cocoa solids, is extremely BITTER ! If they didn't add sugar or some other sweetener, you wouldn't eat chocolate - it would be SO bitter! You probably know that cocoa powder, too, is very yucky and bitter by itself. That is, unless they've used the "Dutch process" to remove the bitterness, but then they ALSO end up removing the special components and antioxidants that make chocolate healthy. That's not what I'm looking for though. This reminds me of the principle I've seen illustrated in "lemonade" - if life gives you lemons,...

Miss MathDork has this really fun measuring activity - but it's not only fun, it ALSO teaches CONCEPTS, which is SO important in math. Just like my hubby said last night... if you only focus on memorizing the formulas of math, you might get by for a little while, but eventually you come to a stopping point and it all falls apart. It's kind of like having lots of " head knowledge ", which won't work. You have to get  " heart knowledge " - a true understanding of math and its principles and WHY it works. That's the only true way. So anyway, I feel Miss MathDork is on the right track and really achieves that with her activity.  She also has a poster for you to download. Go take a look!

Möbius strip is a fun object to play with. The video below by Vi Hart has a little story to go with the idea: Wind and Mr. Ug. My girls were wondering how come Wind can come home and there's already a message ready left by Mr. Ug? When did Vi write that when doing the video? And why does Wind never meet Mr. Ug? See if you can solve the mystery... While they were watching, I made my girls some Möbius strips and let them draw a line or a "fence" around them. I cut one apart in the middle to show what happens when an "earthquake" hits... Like I said, simple and fun. I found the video via this blog post that uses a similar idea, but with Moebius ants (easier to draw!).

I just learned about Vi Hart's "doodling in math class" videos (hat tip goes to Fawn Nguyen ). Vi calls herself mathemusician - and definitely, she's a talented and smart gal! I'm sure you'll enjoy her videos (as long as you can follow her super fast speeaking). Here are some that I enjoyed: Doodling in Math: Spirals, Fibonacci, and Being a Plant [1 of 3] Here's a link to learn more about Fibonacci numbers in nature , so you can read about it at a slow pace : ) Binary Hand Dance was pretty cool too! Her series of "mathematical doodling" videos have become somewhat of a viral success. Here's one more: Doodling in Math Class: Infinity Elephants

This is a cool 'n' short math video (HT Denise ) from a math blog Love 4 Math . My kids laughed... good fun! Good job!

I stumbled upon this comic that you might enjoy... factoring the time (from xkcd.com ).

As most of you are taking a break from math or school work, here's a little (addictive) math game to play online or as printed version: Kenken. In it, you have to place the numbers in the grid kind of like in Sudoku so that no number appears twice in the same row or column, BUT there's an additional twist: it gives you "cages", and the numbers within a particular cage have to work to a given answer with a given math operation (either addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division). KenKen practices logical thinking and is, I think, more fun than Sudoku. It's easier to understand if you go see and try it yourself. The smaller sizes, such as 4x4 game, are great for kids, and the larger ones are good for us adults or older students. Kenken.com has nice Kenken puzzles online plus instructions, but only one for each size. MathDoku.com has an unlimited number of Kenken puzzles to play online in three sizes and several difficulty levels.

I recently received Math Jokes 4 Mathy Folks from the author, Patrick Vennebush. This is a very comprehensive collection of math-related jokes that all "mathy" people will definitely enjoy, and math teachers could use this book to enliven their lessons. I have seen several of the jokes on the Internet, but never such a large collection. The jokes are categories into chapters such as One-Liners, ("A hungry clock goes back four seconds.") Graphic Jokes, (For example, "Cube Roots" picture you see on the cover of the book.) Three Dudes, (An engineer, a mathematician, and a chemist are...) Conversion Chart, (10 9 antics = 1 gigantic, or 454 graham crackers = 1 pound cake) Professions, ("The secretary of defense informed the president, 'Yesterday, three Brazilian soldiers were killed. 'Oh, no!' the president exclaimed. ... 'How many is a brazillion, anyway?' ") And so on. In each section, the jokes that require the le...

This review has been moved here .

When I was a kid, my mom sometimes bought my brother and me activity books to fill up our summer time. Well, if you're into activity books, here's a Sticker Math Fun by Usborne that I can recommend for summer math learning and practice (grades K-2) (or for later in the school year as well, for that matter) . It has different mathematically-sound activities for addition, subtraction, beginning multiplication, fractions and clock, mostly on about 1st grade level but some for kindergarten and some for 2nd. It is filled with quite variable and creative activities, and not just dull simple adding and subtracting. The activities include missing addends or subtrahends, number patterns, finding numbers that add up to a certain number, and so on. It is in full color with kid-friendly imagery. We bought this book several months ago, and I can say my kindergartner-1st grader has really enjoyed the book! And the third grader has wanted to do several pages as well. The normal price is ...

Have you ever wanted to fold a pyramid or some of the other interesting polyhedron out of paper? At least, take a look at the pictures! www.korthalsaltes.com provides hundreds of free printable paper models for various solids, including platonic solids, pyramids, and lots of polyhedra. Some are available as colored versions also. Folding and gluing one or two is a great summer math project also, and will keep kids busy for a while.

Just wanted to highlight two April-related posts from Denise: April Math Calendar - something fun! You can download your own copy for printing. And: April Fool's Day: Fun with Math Fallacies

You know the old saying, "Use it or lose it." It definitely applies to our brain, as well, and not just our muscles (it's been proven). Using the brain can even help prevent dementia in seniors! So, if you feel that your brain isn't getting the exercise it needs amidst all the routine housework, kids schoolwork, holiday preparations, and just life, bookmark the following link list. Then, every day go to one of the sites on the list, and do one puzzle, riddle, or whatever it might be. There are plenty of sites on the list to keep you busy for a while. It says "50 games" but some of the links go to sites full of games: 50 Fun, Free Web Games to Make Your Brain Smarter, Faster, Sharper For example, promise yourself to have some brain gym time just before or after you finish reading your favorite blogs or news sites or check email in the morning. It should work!

Origami is the ancient art of paper folding. Yesterday I was asked by my daughter to make a paper boat (after reading a Curious George book where he made them). Well, that was easy for me because I learned that when I was a child. Then she asked me to make a paper bird that she saw in the Adventures of Penrose book. I've never even attempted to make one before. The book had "instructions" but those images just looked quite cryptic. So I turned to the Internet. I found several sites that had picture instructions, but they all made me just puzzled; there would always be one step that I couldn't see how they did it. Then, I found this site: www.origami.org.uk . They had ANIMATED instructions on how to fold a flapping bird! Finally I was able to make one! Just thought I'd pass this one, in case some of you are interested in the paper folding stuff. It can be pretty fun for the kids.

I couldn't resist playing this fun game and you and your kids might not resist it either. Basically you first buy some inventory to make coffee, adjust your coffee recipe (more or less milk, more or less sugar, etc.), define a price, and go selling. These funny animated folks pass by your coffee stand and voice their opinions, whether it's needing more milk or is too pricey or good quality for the price, etc. At the end of each day you'll see a graph of your earnings and of your reputation. Then you go shopping for more inventory and adjusting your recipe and price. The play continues for 14 days. And the weather changes, too. Hoodamath.com/games/coffeeshop.php My daughter wanted to keep the coffee price way too low, like $1.65 or $2.00 and in no time was almost running out of money... : ) My hubby played it for hours. The game practices decision making and analyzing several variables - critical thinking in other words.

This was such a fun video to watch! This guy makes an icosahedron from plastic plates, and then from plastic cups - and one more from just plastic and duct tape. It can serve as a fun summer math project for kids who love explorations, cutting, gluing, building, and that sort of stuff! He is hilarious! See the video: Video from Makezine.com Read the instructions for the icosahedrons Find out what is an icosahedron

Just a fun little song (parody of "I will survive") for all of us who've taken calculus.