Remote Learning:

Math at Home Resources

Dear Brooklyn Friends Families,

We miss seeing you at school and chatting as you drop by the Math Cave to hand in math challenges! We hope you are all staying healthy and enjoying moments with your family.

We know that there are a lot of things to think about during these unprecedented times-- so we wanted to try to ease the math burden a bit with a few tips and also some of our favorite resources.

Most important to us, math is fun. Some of the most important math thinking and learning happens through play. If at any time trying to finish a math assignment with your child is feeling stressful, stop for a while, play a game, or give your child some free time to doodle or build with legos. Important math breakthroughs will happen-- and also hopefully some relaxation and fun.

Second, math teaching happens through asking questions and listening. Don't feel like you need to teach your child new content and procedures. Ask your child what they notice, ask them what they are thinking and then just really listen to their ideas. Often they'll have really interesting, surprising ideas. Listening to them talk aloud not only gives them practice in mathematical communication, but it also gives them the chance to revisit their own thinking and catch any errors they made.

We know that there are many, many resources for math at home right now. It can be hard to sift through all of them-- so on this page, we are putting just a few of our most highly recommended resources. Also, feel free to reach out with any questions!

Yours mathematically and in friendship,

Jonathan and Kate

jedmonds@brooklynfriends.org

kminear@brooklynfriends.org

An Amazing Math Newsletter for Families

Kent Haines is a math teacher who has a terrific website called Games for Young Minds; you can also sign up to receive weekly emails with suggestions of math games and other fun activities. He gives suggestions that are filled with rich math but also very doable with a wide range of ages.

If you are going to read one quick article about math, we suggest his entry about the three best math questions to ask your kids:

  • "What do you think?"
  • "How do you know?"
  • "What is your strategy?"

Another favorite entry of ours is his Math Art Challenge suggestions, based on the Twitter #mathartchallenge begun by Annie Perkins.

3 Great Pieces of Advice for Math Conversations at Home

Dan Finkel and Katherine Cook run the wonderful website Math for Love , and are the designers of the excellent games Prime Climb and Tiny Polka Dots. They have written this article Math Conversation at Home especially for adults at home supporting their children as they learn math remotely from the classroom. They encourage us all to remember to:

    • Start from where things make sense
    • Be curious
    • Keep it light and nonjudgemental

Read the full article to read more about each of these pieces of advice and the possibilities for joy and learning in them.


YouCubed At Home (Stanford University)

The YouCubed at Home site, led by Professor of Math Education Dr. Jo Boaler, is another terrific resource for a wide variety of interesting math experiences and games for a range of ages. Also check out the site for learning more parent resources, such as this article by Dr. Boaler about parents as math teachers and growth mindset in math education.


Our Top Math App Recommendations

  • Dreambox: Our favorite math app, it helps build conceptual understanding with thoughtful visuals. They are currently offering a free 90 day trial.
  • Math Learning Center: These free apps are virtual math manipulatives. They can be used to help solve problems and are also great for open "sandbox" exploration, especially the Pattern Shapes and Geoboard apps.
  • DragonBox: Also not free, but Dragon Box apps excel at building up number and algebraic understanding through engaging puzzle atmospheres.

Math Activities Without Screens...

We want to emphasize again how much math learning happens through play-- both imaginative play and board and card games. Here is an incomplete list of all the things your child may already be doing (or can be prompted to try out) that involve math:

  • Pretend and Dramatic Play:
    • Playing store or stoop sale: write pricetags, pretend pay with real coins or Monopoly money
    • Playing school: count out stuffed animal "students" and materials, take attendance, lead math lessons!
    • Playing restaurant: write a menu, take orders, deliver "food", write up a bill and pay
  • Cooking or baking: follow a recipe, double or halve it, or practice measuring water or rice with measuring utensils.
  • Legos or other construction kits, such as K'Nex, Zoobs, domino trains, or marble mazes
  • Block Building
  • Jigsaw Puzzles
  • Playdough
  • Logic Puzzles, such as sudoku, KenKen, Hidato, and suguru: Check out this collection of free puzzles at Krazy Dad.
  • Sorting and categorizing: Sort a collection of mixed objects (buttons, international coins, old keys, seeds, etc.) by different attributes, or play attribute train.
  • Code-writing: Learn a secret code and write a message to a friend.
  • Treasure Map drawing: Hide something in your home and then draw a map for someone else to find it.
  • Games: