Homeschool Math Blog

Never give up! A story by 8-year old Savannah

2021-02-15T17:49:00.001-04:00

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

Rounding rules for estimating

2021-02-13T17:48:00.004-04:00

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.

Vertical addition online game

2020-07-13T15:47:00.003-04:00

Codelover has finished another game for Math Mammoth practice!

This one is for vertical or column addition. (Subtraction is coming soon.)

Simple practice overall, but we spiced it up with colors, and Mathy my mascot is giving children feedback about their progress. 😁 And in the end there's a surprise animation.

For grades 2-4.

Mathematical dot-to-dot

2020-05-01T14:23:00.003-04:00

Interesting! This is a mathematical dot-to-dot that's different from the routine...you can have your middle or high school students review integer operation, the order of operations, percentages, exponents, and other topics with these dot-to-dots.😊

https://mathshko.com/2020/01/04/number-dot-to-dot/

Workbook for kids - savings and finances

2020-04-17T18:52:00.006-04:00

It's financial literacy month (April), so here's a free nice workbook: A Kid's Guide to Saving: An Interactive Workbook

With 14 pages, the guide includes:

A calculator that illustrates the magic of compound interest for a child’s understanding
Budgeting worksheets to calculate how much to save and set savings goals
A quiz to test their learning with a certificate of completion at the end

Math card game for addition facts - online version

2020-04-09T10:47:00.000-04:00

New! CodeLover made the "7 Up" card game for Math Mammoth practice... for addition facts where the sum is 10, 11, 12, 13, or 14. Check it out at

https://www.mathmammoth.com/practice/seven-up

Seven Up - game for addition facts (sums of 10)

2020-03-27T10:13:00.003-04:00

This week, CodeLover (my son) and I played this simple card game Seven Up... see https://mailchi.mp/911f9ade2135/seven-up

You simply deal seven cards face up, and if any two of them make 10, or is 10, you remove those. (You need to remove the face cards from the deck before playing.) Then you simply deal more cards to the empty places and keep on going.

If you can't remove any of the cards, deal 7 new cards on top of your existing cards. This simple game is quite fun and practices sums with 10.

One question to ask is, do you always win? Can you always remove all the cards and have none left in the end of the game?

Another question you can ask your child is, can this be played so the sum of the cards you remove is 11? or some other number? 😃

Have fun!

Where do I start with Math Mammoth?

2019-09-14T09:02:00.002-04:00

Where do I start with Math Mammoth? is a question I often hear (or read 😃 ).

Most of the time, the best starting place is this page:

https://www.mathmammoth.com/complete/placement_tests.php

Looking over the tests will give you an idea of what is covered in each grade level of Math Mammoth. A natural next step is to administer a placement test or several (instructions for this process is explained on the page), but it's not always necessary to administer a test. Sometimes the teacher/parent can see just by looking at the tests, where the child would place.

Often, the test reveals gaps, and you can use the TOPICAL books of the BLUE series to fill them in:

https://www.mathmammoth.com/blue-series.php

Or, you can use other materials you might have, or Khan Academy, etc. Sometimes it works out to use one of these review books to help a child get more solidified before starting a particular level in MM:

https://www.mathmammoth.com/skills_review_workbooks/

https://www.mathmammoth.com/review_workbooks/

So, that is the typical process. 😄

Math Mammoth video review

2019-07-05T10:51:00.001-04:00

Here's a new Math Mammoth video review posted on Youtube. (It does cover some other elementary math programs also.)

Practice mental additions & subtractions at MathMammoth.com!

2019-03-11T10:07:00.001-04:00

Now you can practice more types of mental math at the Math Mammoth online practice section. 😄

We've added various types of exercises for adding & subtracting two-digit numbers mentally, mostly matching what is taught in Math Mammoth curriculum, in grades 1-2.

For example, children can practice adding a two-digit number and a single-digit number WITH or WITHOUT regrouping... e.g. 45 + 3 is without regrouping, but 45 + 8 is with regrouping.

Or they can practice adding/subtracting multiples of ten (56 - 30 or 34 + 60).

See more examples in the image above!

Here's the link for the online practice page (and it's AD-FREE, plus not made with Flash): Two-digit addition & subtraction practice – mental math.

Online practice for fact families (addition & subtraction)

2019-02-27T10:20:00.002-04:00

New in the Math Mammoth online practice section!

Fact families (addition & subtraction)

Fact families is one of the main approaches I've used for addition & subtraction facts in the Math Mammoth curriculum. For example, in the online practice program, you could choose to practice fact families with 6. This means you will get addition & subtraction problems like what you see in the picture below -- and also including missing number problems.

Check it out!

Folding and cutting (paper) for geometric shapes

2019-02-13T09:27:00.000-04:00

Here's an enjoyable math video for students and parents/teachers alike. It's about folding and cutting... but it still IS very much about math -- because the lady models the basics of mathematical thinking in a wonderful way as she goes on cutting shapes... 😊

BIG news: online math practice at MathMammoth.com

2019-02-09T14:21:00.002-04:00

This is a big announcement!

I have the pleasure to announce a NEW section on Math Mammoth website that focuses on ONLINE PRACTICE for various math concepts!

I am sure that many of you will get lots of use out of this new section.

The scripts there have been made by my son; let's just call him Codelover 😃.

He's still pretty young, but he loves coding and web development, and has been learning a lot about those topics right and left for a while now (mostly using courses from Udemy).

I do have a favor to ask though. He made this section in such a manner that it SHOULD work offline (it's something called "progressive web app"; I don't personally understand these concepts nearly as well as he does so I won't even try to explain it). It seems that sometimes it's necessary to RELOAD the page a few times to make it work offline.

He would appreciate it if you can test whether it indeed works offline also, or not, and then leave feedback on the site. Please list your browser (including the version) and your device.

https://www.mathmammoth.com/practice/

Currently we have online practice available for

- multiplication tables
- basic division facts
- division with remainders (mental math)
- find factors for a given number.

More coming, as he is able. ☺️

Reviewing 1st grade addition & subtraction facts

2018-11-07T13:27:00.003-04:00

A customer asked me about reviewing addition/subtraction facts from 1st grade. The child is currently in 2nd grade but those facts continue to be a weak point, despite flash cards, daily drills on paper, and online drills in the past.

Here's my answer...

Check out these videos, which show you how the addition facts are taught in MM grade 1.

Subtraction facts don't need memorized separately. If you know that 5 + 4 = 9, from that you also know that 9 - 4 = 5 and 9 - 5 = 4. So, subtraction facts become "missing number" addition problems.

For example, 7 - 3 = ?

Think: which addition fact is this one: 3 + ___ = 7?

You can most likely make worksheets for her based on those videos.

Additionally, we offer FREE ONLINE practice for addition facts here, and using the fact families approach here.

And if you'd like actual books, check out these:

www.mathmammoth.com/addition_1.php

www.mathmammoth.com/subtraction_1.php

Hope this helps!

Math Mammoth Blue series books - printed versions

2018-10-07T16:36:00.001-04:00

A bit of news...

The printed versions for the Math Mammoth Blue series books are now available in FULL COLOR. 😃 They're available through Lulu.com, as before, and printed on-demand.

To find these, first locate the books you're interested in the list of Blue series books at MathMammoth.com.

Then, for each book, you will find a link to Lulu listed under the cover image of that book.

Check out also https://www.lulu.com/ home page for coupon codes; they run promotions often!

Find the factors puzzles for practicing the multiplication tables

2018-08-29T06:10:00.001-04:00

Here are neat puzzles to review factors in multiplication, the multiplication tables -- and consequently, the basic division facts -- all in the same "package"!

Or, just use them as cool logic puzzles. ☺

They're called Find the Factors puzzles.

This page explains how to solve them.

On this page you'll find a vast amount of them, as Excel spreadsheets:

Like the author says, "The more multiplication facts you know, the easier these puzzles become. Working on these puzzles can help you learn the multiplication table better."

Math Mammoth Grade 5 Skills Review Workbook

2018-08-18T14:32:00.003-04:00

Grade 5 Skills Review Workbook is finally ready and available (as a PDF)!

This book has been designed to complement the lessons in Math Mammoth Grade 5 complete curriculum, providing spiral review of the concepts in the Grade 5 curriculum.

The book is divided into chapters, which correspond to the chapters in Math Mammoth Grade 5 curriculum. It is meant to be used during the school year, alongside the main curriculum. Spiral reviewing means that after a particular concept or skill has been studied in the main curriculum, it is then reviewed repeatedly over time in several different worksheets of this book.

Math Mammoth August sale is live!

2018-08-12T17:38:00.000-04:00

You can now get 25% off of all of Math Mammoth and Make It Real Learning products sold at Math Mammoth website!

Use coupon code J9W2-YHDY-R2S2.

The offer is valid till August 26, 2018.

Start browsing here:

https://www.mathmammoth.com/books.php

Simple addition & subtraction facts practice for 2nd grade - from my customer

2018-07-30T12:21:00.001-04:00

One of my customers just sent this in. Her son made this neat interactive program to practice addition & subtraction facts as they're presented in Math Mammoth grade 2. This means the single-digit addition facts where the sum is more than 10, and the corresponding subtraction facts (e.g. 7 + 8, 6 + 9, 13 - 5, 16 - 7 etc).

Check it out!

Carnival time!

2018-07-02T10:31:00.002-04:00

Math Teachers at Play blog carnival 118 is online at Math Mama Writes. Check it out!

What is Math Teachers at Play carnival? It's a "smorgasbord" of ideas related to teaching math. This time you will find topics such as

- forgetting what they have learned
- thoughts on the card game War
- counting with dice
- origami workshop
- Venn diagram puzzle
- and more!

Enjoy!

Free math apps - virtual manipulatives

2018-06-18T12:29:00.000-04:00

Check out this nice collection of free math apps that work as virtual manipulatives/illustrative tools for most of your elementary math.

You'll find fractions, number lines (including for fractions & negative numbers), geoboard, money pieces, place value apps, number frames/number rack (for number sense/mental math), and pattern shapes. ☺

Summer math resources

2018-06-06T12:25:00.001-04:00

It's summer (here at the Northern hemisphere), and I've put together for you a LIST of wonderful SUMMER MATH resources:

Summer math — 7 wonderful ideas and resource lists

Check it out! There are games, online games, math practice websites, puzzle/problem ideas, contests, and so on!

If you like the article, let your friends know about it too!

All the best,
Maria

Math Mammoth giveaway

2018-06-05T08:32:00.000-04:00

Here's your chance to win Math Mammoth Light Blue Series curriculum!

There will be FIVE winners. One will get the grand prize, a bundle of all seven grades, and FOUR winners will get ONE grade level (winner's choice).

EVERYONE who enters will get ONE free ebook!

The giveaway runs till midnight of Thursday, June 7. All prizes are digital downloads.

Refer your friends (USING THE WIDGET) for extra entries!

Thoughts on testing

2018-05-31T22:17:00.000-04:00

Sometimes people have asked me about using TESTS with Math Mammoth curriculum -- whether to use them or not.

Well, basically it's up to you. I have provided chapter tests as a tool for those who want to use them, but I don't feel they are compulsory or "required" as such. It all comes down to whether you can use the tests to increase student learning.

So often, tests are administered and grade given, and that's it; the test is forgotten. But there's some real "gold" -- some real value -- you can dig out from tests, and that "gold" is in the mistakes your student makes. The test can point out or manifest the student's weaknesses.

So what? you might wonder. Well, once you AND the STUDENT know about those weaknesses, you can work together to help the student MASTER the material. If there was a mistake in test item #5, then let's practice that topic some more!

One "trick" to help you with this goal is to let students either RETAKE the test or to get partial credit for correcting their mistakes in the test. You can set it up in various ways, but the idea is to motivate them and to help them learn: they can work at it, and then get a better grade for that test. I've used this idea with my children for many years (they can always try to correct their mistakes in a test for partial credit). It also reduces test anxiety!

Here's an article along the same lines - and I was glad to read it ☺:
Retaking assessments - many math teachers are late to the party

Placement into Math Mammoth - so important

2018-05-27T15:17:00.003-04:00

I know it's time when many families are choosing curriculum for the next school year, and I also know how important it is for people to use PLACEMENT TESTS prior to starting Math Mammoth.

So here it is, finally (I do wish I had gotten this video done a bit sooner!) ... some basic principles about how to use Math Mammoth placement tests, in video format. (And, these tests also work as generic math assessment tests -- you can use them even if you don't use Math Mammoth.)

Brief summary:

- Choose a test you THINK your student will pass.

- 80% is a passing score; students scoring 50-79% probably just need to study the areas where they have gaps

- Based on the results, you may need to administer the next lower or higher level test also... or in some cases, even three tests... to get a good grasp of what your student knows and doesn't know.

- If a student does well overall, except in one particular area (such as geometry), consider administering parts of the lower level tests in that area.

- Consider not testing students who suffer from math anxiety.

The tests are available here.