Posts in Other Activities
The Three Best Math Questions to Ask Your Kids
The Three Best Math Questions to Ask Your Kids

For many of you, today is Day 2 of the Coronavirus Homeschool Experiment. And my guess is that it's starting to get real.

You scoured the internet for great ideas all weekend, and then somehow you used them all on Monday and now it's Tuesday morning and your kids are finishing breakfast and the reality is sinking in...how the $*^&# do teachers do this every day?

Well, I have good news! You don't have to have a lesson plan in order to help your kids think about math. In fact, there are a few easy questions that you can use to guide your kids' conversations into fertile mathematical territory in almost any situation.

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Free Games, Other ActivitiesKent HainesComment
Halloween Candy Inventory
Halloween Candy Inventory

Did you sort your Halloween candy as a kid? Did you count how many pieces you got, splitting them into groups based on type or color or size? Did you alternate between eating good candy and bad, making sure you had some good ones left over at the end?

Because if you did, you used a ton of mathematical skills. And your kids can develop those same skills with a little activity I call Halloween Candy Inventory.

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Free Games, Other ActivitiesKent HainesComment
Mirror Drawing
Mirror Drawing

I'm particularly proud of this week's activity: My son invented it himself!

A couple of years back, my son found some chalk at a birthday party. He took a piece of chalk in each hand and started drawing on the driveway in symmetrical lines and curves; he almost looked like a conductor of a symphony, swinging his hands back and forth in time with each other. 

The math teacher in me immediately saw an opportunity to build an activity out of this artistic idea: Mirror drawing!

Now, of course, my son isn't the first kid to happen upon this idea. But that's just a testament to its power as a fun way to get kids thinking about symmetry. 

Since that time, I've come up with several variations on mirror drawing and tried them with different age groups. No matter the age, kids seem to love mirror drawing. Frankly, I think it's pretty fun myself! Below are some of my favorite activities to do with mirror drawing.

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Free Games, Other ActivitiesKent HainesComment
LEGO Blindfold Build Challenge
LEGO Blindfold Build Challenge

I spent my entire childhood playing with LEGO sets. I hardly ever built the designs on the boxes. Instead, my friend Turner and I would try to invent our own space ships, robots, and bat caves, using whatever bricks we had handy.

My son, on the other hand, prefers to build exactly what is on the box and then set it on the shelf for months at a time. So when I cajole and encourage him to make something from his own imagination, I don't often get far.

Fortunately, my friend Joel Bezaire shared a perfect way to turn LEGO building into a game. It's called the LEGO Blindfold Build Challenge.

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Free Games, Other ActivitiesKent Haines Comment
Is This Game Too Tough For My Child?
Is This Game Too Tough For My Child?

A few weeks back, I did a celebratory Q&A for my first 1000 subscribers. I had such a fun time writing my answers that I kept an eye out for other questions about games, math, and parenting.

Well, last weekend I was talking with another parent about birthday presents when they hit me with a question I just had to answer in the newsletter. So here we go!

Alison asks:

I've noticed that you always seem to recommend games to kids who are on the younger side: the box recommends players 8 and older, but you'll recommend it for 5 or 6 year olds. Why is that? Won't the kids get frustrated by a game that's too hard for them?

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Other Activities, Board Games, Free GamesKent HainesComment
Press Here - A Book You Can Play!
Press Here - A Book You Can Play!

Have your kids ever tried to "play" a book the way that they play a game?

My son has this little game with an alphabet book where he will deliberately tell me the wrong letter to make a funny word. So on the "H is for Horse" page, I ask him which letter he sees, and he'll respond "Z," which forces me to say "Z is for Zorse," at which point he falls out of the bed laughing every. Single. Time.

On other nights, my two older kids work together to recite the entirety of The Book with No Pictures by heart. Which is tough to do when you're too young to read and the book, as it advertises, has no pictures! (By the way, this book was written by Ryan from The Office, and it is hilarious. Check it out.)

And of course I've shared in the past about how my kids turned How Many?, the greatest math book of all time, into a guessing game.

These little games make bedtime into a special part of the day for me. I can get as worn down as any parent, repeating the same book word-for-word over and over. But when my kids find a little game in the middle of a book, they bring a spark of novelty that livens up the whole room.

So I'd love to share the most playable book I've ever read: Press Here.

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Books, Other ActivitiesKent HainesComment
One Dollar Words
One Dollar Words

I truly believe that one reason I was a strong math student is that, when my mind wandered, it wandered in a mathematical direction. I noticed patterns, I developed strategies and shortcuts, and I generally became fluent at basic calculations, all without drilling my times tables. 

My hope is that when you introduce your kids to little math games like One Dollar Words, their minds will start to wander mathematically as well.

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Free Games, Other ActivitiesKent HainesComment
How Many?
How Many?

It's no secret that I love the work of Christopher Danielson. His website, Talking Math With Your Kids, was the inspiration for this newsletter, and I've already shared one of his books, Which One Doesn't Belong?, in a previous edition.

Christopher is out with a new book, How Many?, that I honestly believe should be in any child's book collection. If you invite my kid to your kid's birthday party, you already know what present they're getting.

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Other Activities, BooksKent HainesComment
Table Talk Math
Table Talk Math

I started this newsletter because I believe that games are the easiest, most consistently entertaining way to introduce math ideas to your kids. Despite this, I know that games are far from the only way to get your kids talking about and exploring math. As a parent, I have many other tools in my toolkit for provoking an interesting conversation. Many of those tools I cribbed directly from Table Talk Math.

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Other ActivitiesKent HainesComment
Dragonbox Numbers
Dragonbox Numbers

I have a skeptical outlook on the value of screen time. It's probably not hurting my kids too much, but it's probably not helping either. And the math apps I've found have mostly been underwhelming. Mostly, these apps focus on repetitive practice of math facts, which doesn't exactly sound like a rich mathematical experience. 

But Dragonbox Numbers is a different sort of math app. I was skeptical at first, but the game won me over with its well-designed activities that get kids thinking about the relationships between numbers, rather than simply drilling math facts.

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Other Activities, Digital GamesKent HainesComment
Bedtime Math
Bedtime Math

I love games. I mean, I started a weekly newsletter just so I had a place where I could talk about games with someone other than my poor wife.

But even I can't pull together the energy every day to get down a board game, dump out all the pieces, and play with my kids. Some days, I just don't have it in me.

I still want my kids to have some sort of mathematical experience each day, though. Usually, I find a way to ask a couple of math questions during dinner or bath time.

But what about parents who are a little math-phobic, or just unsure of what questions to ask? For those parents, I have a great recommendation: Bedtime Math.

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Other Activities, BooksKent HainesComment