I have been thinking about patterns for a long time, occasionally making progress in understanding how children learn to identify and think about patterns. Overall, it is slow going. There isn’t nearly as much of a research base on learning patterns as there is for...
The following is an extended excerpt of a cover letter for Is It a Vehicle?, a book I have play-tested many hundreds of times in a wide range of situations over the last five-plus years and not yet found a publishing home for. I hope you enjoy the writing, and I...
To celebrate ten years of Math On-A-Stick, we built Minnesota's Largest Pattern Block Mosaic yesterday at the Minnesota State Fair. Careful study of this next image reveals 24 jaggedy "rows" of 7 large hexagons, totaling 168 regular hexagons (with a few more than that...
Note: An earlier version of this post was part of the Talking Math with Your Kids newsletter. The provider I used for that newsletter ceased operating a while back, but I saved all of the content and will republish some of that writing here on the blog from time to...
I wrote about two competing theories recently. Each is an answer the question Why do you never see a square on the rectangle page of a shapes book for young children? That question stands in for lots of other specific questions, such as Why do counting books tend to...
Why do you never see a square on the rectangle page of a shapes book for children? This is the sort of book I'm talking about. I asked this question of a colleague this summer. It turns out that my colleague and I have different answers to this question. I'll share...
I received this note recently: I teach 1st and I'm also in ... M.Ed program for K-6. I'd be interested in having you come to our class. Let me know if that's still possible this year. Can I make time to talk math with young children? Of course I can! Pretty soon, we...
![Selfie. From left to right: Me, the 16 year-old, and [locally famous Radio Gal] on a sunny summer evening.](https://talkingmathwithkids.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/probability-radio-gal-1024x768.jpg)
I am currently writing the teacher guide for my next book, How Did You Count? (See a couple of teaser photos at the end of this post!) A section of a chapter of that teacher guide has the heading Seek to Understand and to Be Understood. Those who know my teaching will...