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Probability Issue: Hints and Answers
Remember the Math Adventurer’s Rule: Figure it out for yourself! Whenever I give a problem in an Alexandria Jones story, I will try to post the answer soon afterward. But don’t peek! If I tell you the...
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Babymath: Story Problem Challenge III
Photo by Raphael Goetter via Flickr Alex and Leon enjoyed their baby sister, but they were amazed at how much work taking care of a baby could be. One particularly colicky night, everyone in the family...
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Quotable: What to Do When You’re Stuck
When a kid is feeling bad about being stuck with a problem, or just very anxious, I sometimes ask him to make as many mistakes as he can, and as outrageous as he can. Laughter happens (which is...
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The (Mathematical) Trouble with Pizza
Photo by George Parrilla via flickr. Kitten complained that some math programs keep repeating the same kind of problems over and over, with bigger numbers: “They don’t get any harder, they just get...
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More Than One Way to Solve It
by Eirik Newth via flickr In a lazy, I-don’t-want-to-do-school mood, Princess Kitten was ready to stop after three math problems. We had gotten two of them correct, but the last one was counting the...
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How to Translate Word Problems
Hooray! The MathCounts Mini videos are back. September’s edition is all about translating word problems into algebra: Download activity sheets and answers. Do your students like making videos? This...
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More Than One Way to Solve It, Again
photo by Annie Pilon via flickr We continue with our counting lessons — and once again, Kitten proves that she doesn’t think the same way I do. In fact, her solution is so elegant that I think she...
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Tell Me a (Math) Story
[Photo by Wellspring Community School. This article is an excerpt from my upcoming "Let's Play Math!" book series.] My favorite playful math lessons rely on adult/child conversation — a proven method...
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10 Questions to Ask About a Math Problem
[Photo by CourtneyCarmody via flickr.] It’s important to teach our children to ask questions, about math and about life. As I wrote in my series about homeschooling with math anxiety, “School...
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Reblog: The Case of the Mysterious Story Problem
[Feature photo above by Carla216 via flickr (CC BY 2.0).] Seven years ago, I blogged a revision of the first article I ever wrote about homeschooling math. I can’t even remember when the original...
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Reblog: Putting Bill Gates in Proportion
[Feature photo above by Baluart.net.] Seven years ago, one of my math club students was preparing for a speech contest. His mother emailed me to check some figures, which led to a couple of blog posts...
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Reblog: Solving Complex Story Problems
[Dragon photo above by monkeywingand treasure chest by Tom Praison via flickr.] Over the years, some of my favorite blog posts have been the Word Problems from Literature, where I make up a story...
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Professor Povey’s Perplexing Problems
Check out this new puzzle book for upper-level high school students & adults: Thomas Povey is a Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, where he researches jet-engine and...
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Visualizing Word Problems with Bar Model Diagrams
A friend emailed me, frustrated with her child’s math lesson on bar diagrams: “Why do they have to make it so complicated? Why can’t we just solve the blasted problem?” I told her bar models themselves...
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New Book: Word Problems from Literature
The posts on my Let’s Play Math blog are, for the most part, first-draft material. Of course, I’ve proofread each post — many times! because I’m a perfectionist that way, and yet I still miss typos —...
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